There’s something which needs to be pointed out here. Up
until now these sessions? They’ve all been elaborately planned to keep us on
track. If there’s one thing our GM is superhumanly good at it’s preventing the
story going completely off the rails or getting out from under his control.
Con the police into raiding a man’s house? He can keep the
game going.
Completely botch a recon mission to the point where
machineguns are chewing up the ground around the party and two members are
forced to take a suicidal dive towards the ground hundreds of meters below?
He’ll find a way to keep things on track.
Use an accent related joke to turn an important enemy NPC
into a pirate and promptly take advantage of his sudden change in background? The
story somehow keeps progressing as planned.
This isn’t to say he’s railroading, far from it, just that
he’s very good at adaptability and keeping up with us when things start to go
wrong. This session? This is what happens when the party is let off the chain
and he doesn’t have a plan to cover the next three hours. The sorts of things
which usually only happen when I’m trying to run a game.
Well we began this one right where the last one ended off.
Having secured a favour from the cloning facility by blowing up their rival
they needed to now get a genetic sample for their use. They just had the slight
problem of needing to get it within the next eleven hours or so in order to
have the cloned body ready in time for their operation. Speeding away in the
jeep the two set off at high speed towards… somewhere. Yeah we opened this up
with them speeding along at 120 mph when they had no real objective to go to
yet.
Feeling they’d need everyone involved and that being able to
be turned invisible would be of help, Killbo phoned Leona to try and rope her
into the operation. This being Killbo he didn’t so much try to explain things
as say “Witch? We need to get sperm, are
you in?” You can probably imagine her reaction. As Killbo explained that
they actually did need her and no this was not a joke, Amoral got to work on
what he did best: Stuff with computers.
Searching for sperm-banks and cross-referencing them with
those present in Japan, Amoral started to narrow down the facilities to a few
where the scientist’s genetics might be held in. All we’d managed to previously
know was that twenty-two years ago he’d donated sperm during his student days.
This actually proved to be an easy task as, upon contacting the company under
false pretences and a fake name, he found that there were seven samples which
matched the criteria of the scientist.
After exhausting several other options and with Killbo
proving to be of no help, Amoral opted to hack through the matrix and into
their database. This was the one day the dice decided to hate him however and
while successfully hacking inside, he set off multiple alarms alerting the
system to his presence. Which proceeded to run a trace program frantically
searching for whoever was trying to rip out files with the precision and
subtlety of a meat-tenderiser.
Thankfully for us the dice hated the computer even more than
they did Amoral and it glitched badly, starting to instead track the commercial
airline which few right over our heads at that exact moment. The plane was
apparently one Wilson was on-board, trying to smuggle himself out of the
country after having escaped he police. I’m not sure if the GM was joking or
not.
With the little more time we’d been bought, Amoral made an
edit check to completely erase himself from the access before the system
overcame its chase criteria to further throw it off and try to hide his
presence. The system registered this as a form of corruption it had detected
and started to reboot. For those not in the know, few worse things can happen
to a technomancer than a system rebooting while they’re in it. With this
taking place, Amoral copied the Seattle section of their database and
metaphorically mashed his thumb on the “log out” option. Just about managing to
drop with only normal bio-feedback for his actions.
Killbo, still brazenly breaking the speed limit and driving
like a madman while this hacking took place, glanced back in time to see two
things. Amoral uploading the data for where the sperm bank likely was into his
GPS, and Leona driving behind them. This is notable as Leona was driving a
scooter after the vehicle easily doing around a hundred.
Leona signalled them to stop. Killbo failed to notice this.
Leona repeatedly flashed her lights jerking her thumb over
to one side of the road. Killbo saw her and waved back.
Leona yelled, with the same volume and intensity as a
megaphone “Stop the fucking car you
maniac!” Killbo leaned over and opened the passenger door for her to,
apparently, drive into the vehicle.
After being yelled at more that she couldn’t park her
scooter in the car, and some very lucky rolls, Killbo pulled a 180 degree skid
turn into a parking space coming into an instant stop outside a pub.
After Leona boarded the vehicle we got to work in discussing
our plan of attack and learned just where we were going to have to infiltrate: A
guarded Renraku extra-territorial facility which served as a storage complex
for various medical equipment and supplies. In other words to get just one
small part of our plan done we were effectively going to be stealthily
infiltrating the stronghold of a major corporate power. Ain’t life just grand?
After coming up with a vague plan of attack (I.E. don’t get
seen and try to get caught, seen or make any loud noises) we headed for the
facility leaving Leona’s scooter behind. Which was apparently not a scooter at
all but some possessed demon-thing with an eye where the headlight should have
been. Twenty minutes later we’d abandoned the jeep a few streets from the
facility and sidled up to the exterior fence.
Ignoring the various signs of “Pass this line, it’s Renraku
time” we managed to figure out that the first place we needed to head to was
about ten feet from us. We also learned from Leona that there was another ward
in place to prevent her crossing. Fun fact – the reason she can’t cross through
them is that, unlike most magic users she can’t shift out to go undetected and
not set them off because she was a shapeshifter. She could however make Killbo
and Amoral invisible.
Walking up to the fence, the amazing invisible Killbo proceeded
to silently chainsaw through it (hey it’d worked once that night hadn’t it?)
and create a hole big enough to crouch through. The two were directly in front
of their first target: the facility’s office. A one room shed which was used to
keep records of their stock, have meetings with potential clients and record
some of the security footage from its exterior cameras. Using his laser eye he
cut a square hole through the back window and just about managed to catch the
pane of glass as it feel out.
It was about this time, a good thirty seconds into sneaking
inside, that everything went to hell.
A patrolling guard rounded the corner and, despite
incredible odds stacked against him, actually managed to spot the pane of glass
floating in the air. Having a few seconds to decide upon his action before the
guard properly reacted, Killbo opted to make up for his relative competence in
his last infiltration mission with bloodshed. Dramatically leaping down from
the window, holding the glass in his robot hand as a sword he brought it round
and sliced the guard’s head off Connor Macleod style. Apparently the laser gave
it one hell of an edge. The called shot to his neck combined with some high
rolls meant that the glass went right through him and the guard’s cranium hit
the tarmac, bouncing away. While managing to avoid the cameras, barely
considering our initial plan to drag the corpse right past the camera and
outside the fence, the duo hide it in the office. Kicking the guard’s head in
the open hole, Amoral dragged the corpse inside (after a few failed rolls) and dumped
him out of sight.
Realising that a missing person might be reason for concern,
Amoral then summoned a data sprite and hacked the guard’s comlink. Having
recorded the guard’s few words prior to Killbo going medieval on him, he made
the sprite edit the programmed replies and “everything’s okay” calls in varying
tones to help keep up appearances. Making use of his long neglected explosive
foam as a glue Killbo plastered the edges of the frame with the stuff and then pushed
it back into the hole. He then shoved a remote detonator into the foam because,
well he’s the explosives dwarf what else did you expect him to do.
Finding the computer terminal they needed, Amoral set to
work on hacking into it while Killbo borrowed a torch to start rooting through
the place for the ward’s focus. Well oddly enough a light suddenly appearing in
an unused pitch black room at night was enough to get someone’s attention.
Seconds later a guard was rattling keys in the lock trying to get inside.
With no furniture available, Amoral hid behind the door to
stay out of sight. Quickly ripping off the focus, Killbo took the far less
sensible root and rolled under the desk. Directly atop the bleeding beheaded corpse
which Amoral had hidden there. Oddly enough it wasn’t Killbo who ended up worse
with this situation, while he was having blood seep into his clothing the guard
leapt in the door action movie style and slammed it into Amoral’s face. Somehow
missing that the door slamming was slightly softened the guard looked about,
pinned the focus back onto the wall and walked back out shrugging his
shoulders. A few seconds later Leona made her presence known, having come
through as she’d sensed the wards coming down.
Spending a few seconds regrouping and deciding upon their
actions, and learning from Amoral’s few seconds of hacking that what they
needed was in Warhouse 7, they tried to get things back on track. This went a
bit wrong when Leona disappeared under the table and sewed the corpse back
together. Then resurrected him as a zombie via watcher, sending the very
bloody, staggering mess of what was left of Bob the guard to continue his patrol
route with the sprite covering the voice. Unable to stop this happening, the
group rushed out the door and headed for the warehouse while invisible to try
and get everything done before the other guards discovered the walking corpse.
Things then took another turn for the worse when, upon
reading the exterior of the warehouse Amoral glitched badly while trying to
detect any interior alarms within the warehouse started to see nothing but
alarm systems and bears within. Learning this supposedly reliable recon info,
Killbo started to kneel in front of the door and pick the lock, ready to take
cover from any bear-defences within. He critically glitched. Apparently being
so loud in his efforts it could be hears from meters around, a guard promptly
came running over and inspected the lock, seeing the thin metal spikes sticking
out of it. Guessing people could be breaking in, he called other guards over
and alerted them to this problem. He then smelt blood, very fresh and very much
human, nearby and heavy breathing.
Backing off very quietly before the guards right next to
them realised the intruders were within punching distance, Leona went on her
own initiative and ordered Bob the zombie guard to open fire on his nearby
compatriots. At exactly the time the sprite casually announced “everything’s just fine” in his voice. Knowing
that any efforts at trying to be subtle were long gone, Killbo broke out the
flashbangs and lobbed them at the nearby guards, taking most of them out of the
fight. At exactly the time they went off we overheard this exchange from the
other side of the base:
“Oh my god! Bob’s head
has been stitched on!"
“UUURGH!”
“He’s a zombie!”
Actually I take it back, this is when everything really went to shit.
Leaping atop the unconscious guards, Leona stabbed them to
death and brought them back as more zombies. Sending the army of the walking
dead over to keep the guards busy, Amoral similarly dropped all pretences of
being stealthy and hacked into the guard’s com. system. As they desperately
tried to contact everyone else for help, AKA proper soldiers, they were
deafened by the theme to Gao Gai Gar.
With the guards’ coordination gone and a flesh devouring horrors upon them, the
shadowrunners shot out the lock and sprinted inside.
Grabbing the nearest tray Killbo started searching for the
sample they were looking for. Eventually finding it, surprisingly quickly, he joined
in with the raging guard-zombie melee. Crouching some distance from the warehouse he began providing covering fire with his grenade
launcher he attempted to make their meat shield last a little longer.
Not to be outdone Leona
decided to leave no trace of them being there via a Firelight Bomb. A powerful fiery,
explosive spell with sixteen dice worth of overall damage it could inflict. The
GM added edge and by the time she was finished Leona had ended up with nineteen
successes, and a total of thirty four damage. To give some context, this was
slightly more firepower than a heavy mortar round in Shadowrun.
Having not enough magic to keep everyone hidden, Killbo
became visible as they ran like every dragon on the planet was after them out
of the facility. Also sending her snake familiar off to do more damage, and
destroy any camera footage of us being there, Leona then destroyed the office
shed we had initially stuck into because it was in the way of our escape route.
By about this time the guards had overcome the armed zombies
and had started to come after us, firing as they came. Shooting a laser pistol
over his shoulder, Amoral was eventually hit by SMG fire in return and took
enough physical damage to down him. Doubling back to help him, Leona
transformed into a lion and began legging it to the exit with him on her back.
Seeing that conventional bullets had done little to dissuade the guards, Killbo
broke out his grenade launcher arm again and began firing several times at the
nearest mob. Hitting one guard in the face with a high explosive
grenade and badly wounding several behind him the dwarf brought them a few
seconds breathing room. Then adding a few more because, well, they’d already
effectively invaded a colony of a major power and set it on fire, they might as
well have gone all the way.
Managing to reach their car without any Renraku attack helicopters
chasing after them, somehow, Killbo hit down on the accelerator and sped away
from the scene of the crime as fast as he possibly could. Likely drinking
heavily after realising just who they’ve managed to single handily piss off in
the absolute worst way possible short of personally attacking the corporation’s
board members.
Eventually pulling into a back alley, listening to the sirens
fill the cold night, they began using Leona’s suddenly returned familiar to
root out the sample they needed and patch up wounds. After about twenty minutes
of this and finding what they needed, Leona and Amoral turned up outside the
cloning facility we had brokered our deal with and finished our exchange. Both Leona
and the head of the facility stopping to remark in surprise at the sudden
explosive fire which had put one of their major rival’s briefly out of business.
So by the end of this a large chunk of Seattle was either on
fire or in ruins. The sort of extensive ruination you get when Godzilla and his
buddies Death, War, Famine and Pestilence decide to go for late night drinking
in downtown Tokyo. With cloned meat and body parts raining from the sky, hundreds
of people now out of work, Renraku having been on the receiving end of an
attack performed with the speed and ruthless efficiency usually only found with
the Spetsnaz, everyone headed for home and lay low for a couple of days. Some
additional points of notoriety added to their character sheers and their local
town having suffered a good 54,000,000 nuyen of property damage we inflicted in
one night.
And as one final note the new SIN I.D.s arrived, with a minor joke turning Killbo's one into "Doctor John Smith of Holistic Medicine",
And as one final note the new SIN I.D.s arrived, with a minor joke turning Killbo's one into "Doctor John Smith of Holistic Medicine",
And somehow, just somehow, this managed to be one of the less destructive sessions we’ve played
in a long time.
----
Shadowrun and all related characters and media are owned by FASA Corporation, Fantasy Productions and Catalyst Games Labs.
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