See That Mountain? You Can Climb It
| See That Mountain? You Can Climb It | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Horned Bear | Ares Macrotechnology | ||||||||
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Rafflesia First Response Pockets |
Knight Errant Firewatch | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| None | all but one member of a Firewatch recon team | ||||||||
Summary
A team of runners must extract an Ares wagemage while said wagemage is climbing Mt. Rainier. Frostbite and bullets are both equally obstructive.
Background
Decades before the run, Seattlite human mage and magical researcher Vincent Delacruz of Ares Macrotechnology was the subject of a failed extraction attempt by Aztechnology subsidiary Mystics and Magicks. After the smoke cleared Ares decided to move Delacruz... somewhere. Some location that Mystics and Magicks didn't have eyes on. But in the past year Delacruz was diagnosed with arthritis. His sensitive system rejected any treatment via augmentation. An avid mountain climber in his youth, Delacruz had never gotten around to climbing Mt. Rainier, and wanted to do so while he was still able to.
The Meet
The runners, who all happened to be in Tacoma at the time, were called up by their fixers and told about a time-sensitive extraction job in a hostile climate. They all accepted, and were directed to a certain parking garage's third floor in southern Tacoma.
The J outlined the situation: Delacruz had reappeared on the slopes of Mt. Rainier after being off the map for decades. Then she pitched the job: extract the wagemage before he pulled another vanishing act. This meant extracting him on the mountain. Mrs. Johnson believed that the mage had some kind of security detail but didn't have details on exactly what security forces were present.
Feeling optimistic, the runner team negotiated a 400 nuyen bonus if they could get the job done in four days or less--the mountain could potentially take six days to summit and return, so to get the bonus they planned to catch up to Delacruz on his way up.
The Plan
With a tight schedule and limited tools for legwork, the runners wasted as little time as possible. Some cold-weather and outdoors/camping gear was procured, and Pockets called up a one-time acquaintance Brush Wolf to barter for a route across the Puyallup border. Past that, they decided to get onto the mountain, catch up to the mage, and wing it from there.
The Run
One of the runners' vehicles with off-road capabilities was used to get to the mountain. Getting across the Puyallup-SSC border using a professional coyote's route was simple enough. The real obstacles began to appear when the runners approached the park surrounding the mountain. The park was closed to visitors, with bollards over the entrances and recon drones watching the air. The team stashed their vehicle and proceeded on foot, attempting to use the tree cover and darkness to their advantage. This went poorly, as they were spotted and engaged by a rigger's patrol drones and jumped-in sniper-equipped Dalmatian. The runners shot the drone down (incapacitating the rigger through dumpshock) and were able to flee the scene before foot patrols intercepted them, but were pursued through the woods surrounding the mountain for hours until finally shaking the police off their trail.
The runner team reoriented itself and began to climb, aiming for the base camp their research indicated that their target (and all convention climbers) would have passed through.
A note about frostbite: during their climb every runner suffered from the temperature. All if them experienced brief periods of frostbite at some point or another during their ascent, and the team had to stop regularly to warm up and treat their extremities. This frostbite played a minor role in the upcoming events, existing mostly as a thorn in the side of the team, so it won't be mentioned further.
The base camp was reached on good pace without any issues. The runners' quarry was not there, having advanced further up Mt. Rainier by the time the runners arrived, but tracks were evident; the runners were closing in on Delacruz and his entourage. The runner team pushed themselves further instead of resting, enduring frostbite and hazardous terrain to eventually catch up to their quarry a handful of hours later. Conferring with each other, the team agreed to attack before someone had a chance to notice them.
Surprise and (small unit) tactics gave the runners an initial edge against what turned out to be a squad of Firewatch troopers, and after a gunfight that left every runner injured but alive Delacruz was knocked out and the Firewatch squad members were all either dead or unconscious. First Response radioed his PMC for an extraction, trading a chip for a rigger to get them off the mountain safely.
One final hurdle remained before the runners could escape Mt. Rainier with their prize. While camped out in what used to be Delacruz's tent, the team was approached by a mountain spirit which manifested outside the camp. It hailed the runners, so they opted to listen to it instead of immediately attacking. The spirit said that Delacruz was guilty of crimes against the spirit world (Delacruz had panicked and summoned a fire spirit into the snowy battlefield during the shootout, which was rendered largely useless by its allergic reaction to the melting snow, plus he was a hermetic with a low opinion of spirits) and that it was there to punish the wagemage before he could return to safety. The runners, not wanting to turn over their quarry who they had suffered so much to catch, prevaricated and bullshitted. They claimed that they were dragging the mage off to some sort of horrible fate that was even worse than whatever the spirits of the mountain had in store for him. The mountain spirit bought their story and departed, allowing the runners to evac and exchange their prisoner with the J at a secure drop point.
Aftermath
- One Firewatch trooper, a mundane troll with a shotgun, survived but was knocked out by the runners. He would eventually be recovered by Ares but will need extensive medical treatment for gunshot wounds, frostbite, and exposure.
- Delacruz is now a reluctant employee of Mystics & Magicks.
- The wagemage is somewhere secure, so the spirits have not uncovered the runners' deception yet.
Rewards
Deadly run, 17 RVP w/ 1.25 time multiplier for 10hrs
- 2 CDP (0 RVP)
- 20k nuyen (10 RVP)
- 400 nuyen from negotiating (0 RVP)
- Either 8k nuyen or 16 nuyen worth of magical lodge supplies or normal reagents or some combination of the two (4 RVP)
- 5 karma (5 RVP)
- 4 more CDP (2 RVP)
- Either 2k nuyen from pawning off looted gear or 4k nuyen in looted Ares-brand exotic weapons and coldsuits/armored coldsuits/polar survival suits
- May take Outdoorsman at chargen price
For First Response and Rafflesia:
- May take Sharpshooter (WOTS) at chargen price
For Pockets:
- May take Brush Wolf as a contact with the normal IKAG discount
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Rafflesia
"I was pleased with the competency of the team, but it was quite the endeavor nonetheless. I suppose we made it through in the end, and now I know how to survive in the cold."
First Response - "Simple extraction job, however slightly unfitting coworkers as they lacked any survival skills or magical tools to circumvent the cold - however that is to be expected from random people turned shadowrunners, even if they are in the Haven."