Wasp Your Way Into My Heart
| Wasp Your Way Into My Heart | |||||||||
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Compelled Deception Adeptus | Insect Spirits | ||||||||
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Wychking Ice Bannerette La Rapide |
Invae Compelled Deception | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| F10 Wasp Hive | |||||||||
| Initiation run for Wychking | |||||||||
Summary
Wychking friggin' hates bugs and wants to keep exterminating them. This is totally not a surprise for anyone involved.
Background
Wychking's been officially in drug recovery from going overboard with an Aisa addiction that threatened to kill her with multi-organ failure. After she was discharged from Interpol, she was advised to look for something productive to keep her busy and in shape, leading her to eventually start a private investigator firm in Seattle. Her experiences with Invae didn't stay in the past as her searches led her first to roach nests, then wasp spirits. Eventually, her steady extermination of hives became enough of a problem for the greater Invae on Earth to take notice and they staged a trap for her during [Poking the Hornet's Nest]. The ambush succeeded and her mind was probed for information regarding Interpol. While she broke out of the hive and destroyed every last host inside of it, she had to inform Interpol immediately about the security breach and insisted they change all of their passcodes and codewords.
The Meet
The run begins with an ominous Interpol commlink message implying Wychking is in danger. She takes the warning to heart and notices a meeting place being arranged. She also makes a post on the ShadowHaven app for potential backup, but naturally it's scarce on details. Upon arriving to Taru's PI office in Everett, she advises they drive to the parking lot building in Tacoma where the meeting was pinged to happen, only informing the team that she used to work for Interpol and there might be something related to them in this case. Some of the team is suspicious but all follow suit. They find Oppenheimer, one of Taru's former squadmates looking extremely paranoid in a corner, insisting people remain quiet. He warns Taru of Anthrax, another Interpol team member from her past having gone off the deep end and becoming corrupted by Invae. Taru insists on testing him with insecticide, but believes his word for the time being and summons a spirit to look after him while he fetches some of his material from his current hideout. Taru returns to her lodge to hunker down and wait for him.
The Plan
Unfortunately while preparing for any bad times, the spirit that Taru summoned to go after Oppenheimer vanishes for unknown reasons and Taru goes into critical condition for beseeching the aid of a Granddaughter of the North, one of the greater Guardian spirits she knows of. Pain Girl manages to keep her stable and helps her sleep some of the damage off overnight while Bannerette and Ice do some more legwork and prepare surveillance. Once she wakes, Taru binds and ascends the Granddaughter into a Great Form, giving it strict orders to annihilate any Invae that enters the lodge.
The Run
The lodge is attacked with a full cordon and tear gas. The team's ordered to surrender immediately, but while Bannerette, La Rapide and Ice are staying in cover or exfiltrating, Wychking leaves with her hands raised and demands to know why they're attacking her office. Once she's in mage cuffs, she demands that her colleagues not be detained. Due to her reputation and history, her request is obliged and she alone is taken to a secure facility for interrogation. During this several day period of being locked between a cell and a blank room, she explains the circumstances to Interpol's agents and meets the true Anthrax and Oppenheimer who are both surprised by the whole situation. Wychking's brought up to speed regarding her replacement, Compelled Deception, a magician who specialized in turning friend against foe via magical means. Living constantly in the shadow of Taru's legacy had driven her obsessively mad and contact with her was lost some time ago. Wychking offers her help in tracking her down if she's the one responsible for this double-cross due to knowing Seattle as terrain a little better. Interpol agrees and hands her a dossier which she later hands over to Ice for research.
Ice pulls through with exceptional psych evaluation and information gathering; while Wychking's spirits look for CD, they find an office space that may potentially be a hive. The Granddaughter of the North is asked to aid, but it agrees only under the condition that it's given free reign to exterminate the pests. Taru agrees to this gladly and the team prepares to enter the area with Interpol forming a wider cordon. Ice infiltrates under the guise of forming an alliance with Compelled Deception, having some degree of sympathy for her plight since she herself went through a similar situation. Surprisingly, this manages to strike a sore spot in CD's psyche as the now-Invae Shaman breaks down and caves into Ice's suggestions, fearing she's made a horrible mistake. The wasp hosts nearby react badly to this, causing the side entrances to be burst open the second CD opens them. The wasp spirits are caught off guard by the strike force of undead corpses brought to life by Wychking (and provided by [Woedica Kryptman] for a chip), a great Guardian, Bannerette's precise sniper fire and La Rapide's forward whip slashing skills. Wychking herself charges through the main entrance and liquidates nine of the powerful hosts. Not to be outdone this time, Compelled Deception casts the Insecticide at an even greater Force, unfortunately putting her at a very high risk of death. She's stabilized while the rest of the Invae are cleaned up.
Aftermath
Wasps are infuriated by this greatly developed hive's total eradication. Not a single survivor is left and they swear bloody revenge once more on Wychking. Taru escorts CD to critical care and assures that she'd have been proud to have someone by her side who does the right thing like CD did. This seems to give the future prisoner some peace of mind as she offers her ring, an insect power focus to Taru for safekeeping. Taru accepts it and also shows its design to Interpol. The astral researchers in Interpol get to witness the process of the previous focus of an insect trapped in amber devouring the ring's power to strengthen itself. She also continues sharing monthly reports detailing all the ways that the focus attempts to tempt her. Whispers in her mind and more - she rejects it all, but documents it diligently for field agents to study. Perhaps this careful study in Invae indoctrination methods will help them to not fall victim to these sweet lies.
Rewards
- 18k nuyen - 9 RVP
- 21 karma - 21 RVP
- 2 CDP
- +10 Interpol Rep
- Ice can buy off Records On File for -1 RVP and/or Wanted By GOD for -10 RVP
- Ice can buy Trustworthy for -15 RVP and/or First Impression for -11 RVP
- (Ice for buying off these qualities or buying new ones, take from karma first, then nuyen when karma is empty).
- Wychking can upgrade her Power Focus to F6 and get 1000 nuyen for -5 RVP
- Wychking can take Spirit Champion for -14 KARMA
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
[Wychking]: I feel bad for CD. She was exploited by the Invae in a rather predictable way, but I do not feel surprised that they'd resort to something like that. This artifact around my neck pulsates with power. Every spell I cast, I force it to bend to my will, but pushing it out of my mind does take a degree of effort. I suspect that so long as my magical power exceeds that of what lies in this focus, I should be fine. Should I ever grow hooked to the power it provides, I'm concerned about how it may pervert my thoughts, distort my values. For now, I will keep it safe from all others and use the enemy's power against them. There were many bodies leftover from the hive raid. They'll make fine future soldiers for my raids. Let the bastards look their former kindred in their dead, hollow eyes in their final moments.
Ice
Felt useless during a lot of the time about this run but this CD girl...Damned i still can put my fingers on the feeling but she is like me...Someone was better than her and she fall into the shadow to try and get over this "nemesis". Let's hope she'll do better after her jail time.