Tomb Breaker

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Tomb Breaker
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Apep Consortium Arcano-Archaeologist
Treasure Hunter and Street Samurai
MetatypeHuman
Street Cred0
Notoriety0
Public Awareness0
Titles and Awards0
D.O.B.April 14, 2052
Drive Linkhttps://drive.google.com/open?id=1Id1zlIzt_O5eFzmbahqxvtBULrfqGdI8
Approved?No
PriorityMetatype - E
Attributes - A
Magic/Resonance - E
Skills - B
Resources - B

Character Information

Summary

A daring treasure hunter and mercenary, with surprisingly deep knowledge in several academic fields. Tomb Breaker is the kind of person who would be equally at home drinking in a seedy bar, navigating his way through an uninhabited jungle or giving a lecture at a University.

Goals

  • Make enough money to live out the rest of his life in a luxurious retirement.
  • Recover every ancient artifact he can get his hands on.
  • Visit every continent on Earth.
  • Find out what the Apep Consortium is doing with all those artifacts, anyway.

Personality

Roguish thrill-seeker. While he is interested in history and other academic pursuits, his work entails high personal risk and he accordingly prioritizes his financial enrichment over concerns about cultural heritage and ethical responsibility.

In Play Example

Legwork

Tomb Breaker and several other treasure hunters are hired by the Apep Consortium to excavate a recently discovered ruin, unearthed in Egypt's Valley of Kings. The arcaheologists responsible for the discovery have gone radio-silent, and so the corporation has decided to send in a team of highly capable professionals to find out why and reclaim any valuables inside the ruins. The team takes a flight to Cairo and begin making preparations for the job.

Tomb Breaker makes an Ancient History test to recall information on Egypt and the Valley of Kings. He rolls 13 dice, getting a total of 4 hits. He recalls that the Valley of Kings is an area on the west bank of the Nile river, near the city of Thebes, where a large number of tombs were built for the nobility of Ancient Egypt. It is a hot site in the archaelogical business, with many tombs already found but potentially still many waiting to be discovered. He also recalls that, since the Awakening, most tombs discovered in the Valley of Kings have been magically protected against grave robbers.

The team arranges transport to the Valley. The group's Face glitches his negotiation test to obtain a guide, resulting in a prohibitive cost to find one. In order to avoid the cost, Tomb Breaker decides he'll do the job himself; he rolls Navigation with his pool of 9 base dice, but his team assists him by adding another two dice (reaching the maximum he can add) to his own, for a total of 11. He gets an impressive 4 hits, and the group have no trouble finding their way.

Arriving by jeep, they discover that the archeologists' campsite appears to have been abandoned. While the team's mage scans the area in astral space and the others keep a lookout, Tomb Breaker makes a Perception test to search for clues as to where or why they have gone, rolling his pool of 9 dice and getting 3 hits back. While the sand and wind haven't left any trace of the archaeologists, he's able to find some bloodstains in the bedding and on the grip of a discarded Ares Predator; they were attacked, and were either killed or forced to flee for their lives. The group are unable to find any bodies or further clues, but realise that the only shelter the research team could have fled to is the nearby temple ruins.

Pre-Alarm

The team investigates the ruins of the ancient temple. They make their way inside, finding a number of hieroglyphics and paintings that hint as to the temple's nature. He rolls ancient history again, getting 3 hits on his test, which is enough for him to decode that this temple was originally dedicated to Khepri, the Egyptian beetle goddess of the Sun. After they make their way a little further into the temple, they hear a noise; another member of the group passes the perception test and warns the others to hide. They all take cover behind a large section of rubble, and witness as a shambling figure - which the mage identifies while trembling as an inhabited Beetle spirit. Miraculously, none of them are spotted, and the spirit ambles along the corridor on what seems like a random patrol.

Once the Insect spirit has disappeared, the group have a quick but furious argument. Though their first inclination is to run, they eventually conclude that if they go home empty handed, they will most likely do so without payment and at their own expense. They decide instead to push on. Eventually they come to the entrance of a large chamber, beyond which they can hear distant cries for help; they seem to have found the missing archaeologists. The mage casts Improved Invisibility on Tomb Breaker, and he carefully creeps into the chamber to scout the situation. He rolls his Sneaking pool of 11, getting 4 hits, and with the benefit of the Illusion spell he easily manages to avoid the attentions of two Insect worker spirits that are on guard. Tied up in the corner are four gagged survivors of the archaeological team, while off to the side of the room the Insect shaman that is apparently responsible for the attack is examining the artwork of Khepri on the wall and apparently talking to himself.

Tomb Breaker notices a jeweled scarab artifact, prominently displayed on a dais in the middle of the room. Reasoning that its retrieval would probably mollify their employers, he makes an opposed Palming test against the two spirits on guard to stealthily retrieve it. He beats the opposing rolls and manages to retrieve the artifact, but on his attempt to sneak past them one of the spirits snaps around and leaps in his direction. It seems to have identified him by his aura!

Post-Alarm/Combat

The team rushes in to help engage the enemies, but first Tomb Breaker is on his own. He rolls initiative (11 + 2d6) along with the alerted Insect spirit (8 + 2d6), and gets a higher result (18 vs 13), going first. He rolls his 7 dice Magical Threats knowledge pool as a Free action and, with 3 hits, is able to recall that declassified Ares combat reports have indicated that melee attacks are generally better able to penetrate the extensive armouring that insect spirits have. He quick-draws his Monofilament whip and attacks, rolling 5 hits out of his 14 dice pool on his attack. The Insect spirit rolls only 2 hits of its 8 dice defense pool, and fails to get any hits on its damage resistance test, resulting in a grievous 15 points of physical damage for the spirit. It dies.

The others join battle, and are able to overwhelm the Insect shaman and only other present Insect spirit in short order, killing them both over the next combat turn. Worried there may be more spirits and/or shamans on the way however, the group grabs the survivors and runs for the exit. They manage to escape the temple without being accosted by any other opponents, and hastily contact their employers via commlink, filling them in on the nature of the disturbance. With the testimony of the survivors, the information is quickly passed up the chain, and the Egyptian government launches a military attack on the budding Insect nest.

The team travels back to Cairo by jeep to meet with the Johnson. As far as they are concerned, the job is completed. The Johnson agrees, and promptly pays them the reward.

Background

Growing up as a kid, the one thing Matt Harrison wanted more than anything else was to be a Mage. He spent huge amounts of time watching trid shows and blockbusters starring Awakened heroes, such as Suki Redflower or Karl the Kombat Mage, as well as reading up on magical theory and legends. He was so passionate about it that he had already decided what kind of thaumaturgical degree he would study at University and what kind of job he'd like to get after he graduated.

Once it became clear that he wasn't going to Awaken he was devastated, but refused to let it stop him from doing what he was passionate about. He studied history and archaelogy at Seattle University, and after graduation he landed a job as an Arcano-archaelogist, doing work mainly for MCT subsidiaries like Pentacle Press and Ambrosius Publications, as well as the occasional job for research groups such as the Dunkelzahn Institute for Magical Research (DIMR) and the Atlantean Foundation. Most of all however, he has begun taking steady work for the Apep Consortium; another MCT subsidiary that has brought him on as a member of their Global Acquisitions division.

His last archaelogical job wasn't particularly pleasant. It involved a trip to Egypt in which he broke into a recently excavated temple of the Scarab Goddess, Khepri. The temple had become infested (so to speak) with Insect Shamans and spirits, all of whom had attempted to kill Harrison. The incident has given him no small number of nightmares, and a lingering discomfort with insects.

In the past year, work has been scarce and Tomb Breaker has had to find other ways to pay the bills. Being no stranger to violence, breaking and entering and acquiring precious items, he's recently taken to Shadowrunning. As far as he's concerned, the two trades aren't so different when you get down to it.

Narrative Significant Qualities

Positive

  • Legendary Rep (Apep Consortium): On a job in Egypt, Tomb Breaker managed to recover a jewelled scarab, sacred to the followers of the Egyptian sun goddess Khepri, from a ruined temple that had only recently been unearthed. MCT magicians later analysed the artifact and found it to be an exceptionally potent magical focus. As Khepri was a beetle goddess, the artifact had been coveted by a small hive of Insect shamans and spirits whom had intended to co-opt it as the telesma for a powerful magical focus. It is difficult to say just how much destruction the dark cult could have caused if Tomb Breaker had not foiled their plans and reported their activities to the Egyptian authorities.

Negative

  • Phobia (Common, Mild) - Insects: After narrowly avoiding death at the hands of a collection of Insect spirits and shamans in a ruined temple in Egypt, Tomb Breaker has developed a discomfort with insects of all kinds, which remind him of the terrifying encounter.
  • SINner (Corporate Limited) - MCT: Having worked for numerous MCT subsidiaries in the past, his relationship with the mega was formalised in 2078 when, after the Apep Consortium was taken over by MCT, management brought him on to become a employee of their Global Acquisitions division; most likely to keep him from working for their competitors.

Run History

NameGMMetaplotThreatDate of Run
A mage, a decker, and a samurai walk into a barCountsfromzeroLow17 July 2084

Affiliations

Contacts

Contact Connection Loyalty Archetype Profession Aspects Chips
Jinx 5 1 Fixer(G,N,K,A) Fixer Illegal Dealings, The Rarer The Better, Look Good & Strong, Latest And Greatest, Soar Ever Higher, High Fashion Even
Dr. Gotham 4 1 Generalist Street Doc Psyche'd Up!, Cybertech, An Arm and A Leg, Torso Mods, Medical gear Even


Organizations

Contact Position Connection Faction Rep Archetype Health Location
Apep Consortium Arcano-Archaeologist 3 2 A Rated Corporation Maintaining Worldwide, based in Cairo

Allies

Enemies

In Character Information

Symbols and Signatures

Matrix Search Table

Threshold Result
1 hit Several academic articles criticizing modern trends in the field of archaeology, decrying it as corporate-sponsored treasure hunting.
2 hits An old video game franchise with a similar name and several lackluster film adaptions.
4+ hits An Apep Consortium employee, Matthew Harrison, nicknamed 'the Tomb Breaker' by colleagues; extensive record in arcanoarchaeology.

Shadow Community Table

Threshold Result
1 hit New Shadowrunner on the Seattle scene.
2 hits Arcanoarchaeologist and street samurai. Linked to Jinx.
3 hits Corporate citizen of MCT, works for the Apep Consortium as a treasure hunter.

SINs

Matthew Harrison (Corporate Limited; Mitsuhama Computer Technologies). Legal.

James McGrath (National; UCAS) R4 Fake. Concealed Carry Permit, Military Weapons License, Firearms License, Private Investigator License, Restricted Bioware License, Restricted Cyberware License.

Appearance

Clothing

Tomb Breaker doesn't have especially great taste in clothing. He normally wears a t-shirt and jeans, over which he'll throw a jacket if he feels the need. When he's working, he'll usually throw an armored camouflage jacket of some kind, such as his Wild Hunt suit (in Urban terrain) or his Globetrotter jacket (in Jungle or Tropical terrain).

Matrix Persona

Himself, dressed as a modern wizard. He wears a Vashon Island Ace of Wands suit, and any devices on his person resemble various foci; wands, amulets, etc.

Media Mentions

ShadowGrid Profile Comments