Raising the Banners
| Raising the Banners | ||||||||||
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| Factions Involved | ||||||||||
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ShadowHaven Chilbuk Khan Tashmamat Khan Kutlug Khan Megan Khan | Centurion | Wotan | ||||||||
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Huntress Chameleon Thunder |
Patrol Teams Drone Patrols |
Officer Raven Kidnapped Centurion Security | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||||
| One patrol team was kidnapped, two drone swarms destroyed, two VTOLs sabotaged. | ||||||||||
Summary
Chilbuk Khan, a former mercenary with Pecheneg and Kipchak heritage, arranges to retake the Kipchak Steppe in the center of Turkestan. But first, he needs choice allies and runners work as his ambassadors to fix various problems.
The Meet
Chilbuk meets the team out in the Steppe once they arrive to Turkestan and take a car out to a smaller campsite. In order for Chilbuk to get a reasonable chance of running a rebellion operation, he'll need the support of the various nomadic tribes that haven't yet pledged themselves to corporate overlords. Namely, the Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kipchaks and Uyghurs. The team agrees to try and recruit at least two of them.
The Plan
The first plan is to go and approach the Kazakhs, and failing that, the Kipchaks. From there, the team plans to get as many tribes recruited while evading Centurion's security patrols, though they're likely to get more and more intense as they pick up on the party's actions.
The Run
First visit is to the watering sites in known Kazakh tribe territory. From there, tracking leads them to their last campsite, but no sign of the tribe is found. Not dejected that quickly, the party reorients themselves to head west into Kipchak territory and uses the same tactic to find them. The Kipchak tribe leader seems relatively easy to persuade.
From there, the party heads to the western Uzbek territory, dangerously near to the capital city. There, they find a party of bike-riding Uzbek raiders feuding with a rivalling tribe more accustomed with corporations. The raiders seem roughshod and with criminal connections, but the party agrees to help them resolve this. Chameleon abstains from the wetwork aspects, so it's Huntress and Thunder prioritizing their attack. The first attempt fails due to astral security catching the stealthed sniper, but after a hasty retreat the team tries again and nails Tokhtamysh, the tribe leader with a sneaky shot. A Centurion captain visiting the tribe organizes the tribal warriors into catching Huntress, but their efforts don't lead to much result as she extracts successfully into the open Steppe.
During these travels, the team ambushes and captures a great bounty of vehicles, weapons and captive Centurion security from a corporate patrol. The Uzbek raiders take some of the weapons, but the vehicles they took are handed over to the Kazakhs when they revisit the northern steppe and finally locate the tribe. The Kazakhs seem distrustful at first but a favor done with trading vehicles seems to get them on board. The raider Uzbeks absorb the corporate-aligned tribe into their ranks thanks to no longer having to contest against the opposing leader. With a united Uzbek horde, the suspicious Kipchaks and the survalist Kazakhs, only the Uyghurs are a wild card, having come from the formerly Chinese states.
Another dangerous notice during their travel towards the eastern territory is a near-fatal crash due to the steppe's treacherous terrain. Thunder encounters Wednesday, a suspicious spirit known for appearing near theatres of war. He claims to know Tengri, the sky god in the local pagan faiths and is here to pay respects to him and the imminent conquest that is to come. Thunder lets him go for now and assures the team that there won't be a great many concerns -- instead, the captive Centurion security they seized during their raid of the patrol is given to Wendesday as his agents in the Steppe - something the corporate security grunts agree to seeing as they'd likely be fired on the spot for failing to neutralize hostiles.
The Uyghurs are far more militaristic and goblinized, having escaped corpsec retribution from across the eastern border. Now, they are facing Centurion waiting for them as cross-corporate teamwork to push them back east. Huntress takes on a dangerous solo op to sabotage Centurion flight platforms to blow up several of the security corporation's aircraft in their nearby forward operating base, escaping unnoticed and destroying two gunships. With this, the Uyghurs' assault succeeds in breaking through Centurion lines and in exchange they agree to work alongside Chilbuk's idea of a unified Cuman Horde.
Aftermath
With all five tribes unified, Chilbuk looks at his next step with calculated consideration, awarding the team what little he can (since they didn't go looting that much in the end). Some of the team members leave the run at a considerable deficit monetarily, but view the situation with a positive outlook since Chilbuk may be able to stage a rebellion to retake the Turkestani steppe back from corporate abuse in the rural region. Centurion's unchecked abuse of the locals makes it somewhat easy to unify the various tribes' hatred.
Rewards
- 50 Karma (50 RVP)
- 50 CDP (24 RVP)
- +2 Commonwealth of Turkestan Reputation
- 26 Remaining RVP may be spent on the following:
- Optional: Officer Raven, 3/1 Dubious Individual (3 RVP or 6 CDP) OR may increase her Loyalty up by 1 if the PC already has her as a contact (1 RVP)
- Optional: Kazakh Qi Foci @ Gear Rates up to R6 (Budget is 52,000 Nuyen or 26 RVP max)
- Optional: Indomitable (Physical) at chargen rates for Huntress
- Raven and the Qi Foci don't take from the Karma or CDP; the foci will most likely never be upgraded afterwards and they're tattooed to the skin. If you don't take them as rewards, you don't get the extra RVP. Because the qi foci are tattoos, you can't resell them very well either.
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Thunder
So many exciting things. Recruiting 5 different tribes to fight with the Khan for the independence of Turkistan. We really go to know the country and it's very tough people.
Desert storm (with a lucky escape from the storm with the help of Friendly Old Man, Crossing the other hot desert, and weired spider-rats with terrible diseases -- no wonder kids from here grow up to become togher than nails.
Happy to be home and able to take a 10 minute long cool shower - maybe I'd joined a country club with a swimming pool if it wasn't for the fact that this trip emptied my creds.
It was worth every Nooj though - great experience, great team, and we possibly influenced the future of a whole country for the better.
...I wonder how Officer Raven is doing. ...I'll give her a call and find out.
Chameleon: Jobs like this make up for all the regular work - burglary, kidnapping, grievous bodily harm. We revived the Cuman horde! Sure, we agreed to be compensated purely through looting and pillaging corpsec but it was for a great cause. Learning the dutar wasn't easy. You'd think that having only two strings would simplify things. The desert was...difficult even as a camel. That reminds me, I need to tell Thunder he's better looking as a camel than a troll. As always my team mates pulled me through. Especially Huntress; the name is not a misnomer.