Wyrine, Cruiser, Pony, and Kablisk were shielded by an outcropping of the building they were camping outside of on the southwest corner of 8th and Glencoe in the Free Trade Zone of Denver. For added protection, Pony had cast Concealment to ensure any casual glances in their direction would be met with nothing but a concrete wall.
The plan was relatively simple. Use one of the transport vans in the Clovis Exotics Aegis gated parking lot as a distraction, ramming it through the entrance, while the van they planned to actually take would just roll out of the premises unnoticed in the chaos. That would require some tampering with the cameras, two vans under Cruiser's control, and some illusion magic. It was time to put their skills to work. Wyrine took to pinpointing the vans while Kablisk tracked down the location of the camera icons on the Matrix. Wyrine sifted through the light packets of data zipping all around his T-Rex persona and after a dozen seconds honed in on the largest of the armored vans, parked on the right-most side of the row of vehicles. It would ensure the most damage when crashing through the gate. He sunk three prehistoric teeth deep into the icon in quick succession and took command of the van's controls, passing ownership over to Cruiser's Rigger deck. Kablisk parted the digital seas of ones and zeros to peer through the Matrix and lock on to the camera housed in the northwest corner of the parking lot. It took him a few attempts because he was less versed in the technical aspects of Hack on the Fly, but eventually his avatar succeeded in having the required number of marks disguised as hair picks merge with the icon and he assumed control of the device. Manipulating the code resulted in an hour of looped footage where the two guards in the parking lot maintained a continuous circuit. Cruiser readied the van so that it could quickly accelerate straight through the fencing and race at a steady clip towards the nearest body of water, the Denver City Park. Kat and Marx awoke with a start. It was a restful sleep, but they had work to do. Kat was still trying to figure out how to get back at Horizon for the scheme she had exposed, which subsequently resulted in her dismissal from the University of Denver. They were set up on the fourth floor of an affluent apartment building in Washington Park, north of campus. She had a message waiting for her from a longtime associate, Zahira al Najjar. Zahira was an associate professor at the university and was Kat's only real connection to her old profession anymore. Zahira's message told of someone named 'Squid' who might be able to direct her to someone that possessed more information about Horizon and could help them with their vendetta. Kat dialed Squid's number and was met on commlink video with a bespectacled elf - half-moon glasses, pale, scholarly-looking, and enshrouded in long, black dreadlocks. She inquired about his Horizon knowledge and he suggested someone who was working on an action involved with the university. Mona was her name and there was a possibility one of magical individuals under her management had a connection with Horizon. Squid provided Kat with a drop box address where she could leave an anonymous and encrypted message. She wrote a message to Mona relaying Squid's explanation. She decided to get ready to go out and started to stroll with Marx towards the University of Denver. The second van proved a little more difficult for Wyrine. It seemed as though the system was being more resistant with his Hack on the Fly attempts this time. It took a few additional tries for him to twist the code in such a way that it would accept his T-Rex claws without a fight and recognize him as a legitimate user of the van's online presence. Again, he handed off control to Cruiser and the necessary preparations were made to get the van ready for acceleration. There was one more camera in the parking lot to deal with and Kablisk realized he should be making more use of his Sprites. He asked his Machine Sprite to wreak havoc on the icon and within seconds it had inflicted Gremlins on the camera. The sprite forced it to glitch and repeat a three-second loop, rendering it inoperable. Within seconds of setting foot outside, Marx had already grown tired of walking. After a string of expletives, he hailed a cab, not before confirming that Kat would foot the bill. The two climbed in and Marx immediately began interrogating the cab driver, a troll sporting a Gatsby golf cap. "Do you own your own cab?" Marx persistently inquired. The troll was hesitant to respond, but eventually said 'no.' Marx spoke of the revolution and rising up to take what was rightfully theirs. The one-minute cab ride to campus had suddenly become a whole lot more than the driver had bargained for. Before they disembarked, a message came into Kat's commlink from Mona. It gave a phone number for a man named Bob, confirming this would be the contact that had the closest connection to getting something about Horizon for Kat. Kat immediately dialed the number and after a dozen rings, a video feed came in with a closeup of one lens of a pair of glasses resting on the wrinkled, weathered face of Bob. His usual aloofness came through when he started answering Kat's questions about Horizon. "I know a guy... Horsie or Stallion... Big Stallion? Something like that. His team is doing some work on campus and if anyone has a connection to Horizon, it would be them. I'll send his contact details." With that, the connection was severed. Within minutes, Kat received a rambling message that captured Bob's typical spacey behavior. Marx expressed his displeasure that they were being routed through so many people - who could be trusted? Kat ignored his concerns and called the number for Horsie/Big Stallion. It rang a few times and Pony picked up. Pony was just as surprised to find a random woman in her thirties on the other end of the call, so he asked her to identify herself. Kat introduced herself and asked for information about Horizon. Pony was surprised to be getting so many questions from someone who had no connection to him, but had dropped Bob's name, for some reason. He thought back and tried to remember any relevant information that might pertain to Horizon to help this Kat woman. It hit him when he recalled a story that Kablisk had told him about being an experiment of theirs, escaping the facility, and living on the street to avoid being recaptured. Figuring this was the connection that had caused Bob to give out his personal number, he held on to the information but asked Kat if she'd like to meet. Marx abruptly cut in and started making demands of Pony. He trusted very few people, especially those whose information had been passed from contact to contact. Eventually he relented, realizing his was in no position to be badgering Pony about proof of authenticity. Kat threw them a bone that she thought would be mutually beneficial for both parties. She mentioned her long-time colleague Zahira al Najjar and the assistant professor's relationship with the university. Perhaps it could be useful for whatever the Shadowrun team had planned for UoD? The idea immediately peaked Pony's interest and he suggested arranging a meet. Kat wanted to get moving on the Horizon information as soon as possible, but he made it clear that they were in the middle of some action at the moment. Joining them right now would be out of the question. He provided the address to Sal's Coffin Motel, where they were presently crashing in their down time. Kat confirmed that she and Marx would meet them there. The two got in a new cab shortly after exiting the first one. This time they were greeted with a female dwarf, but Marx refrained from delving into his anti-capitalist diatribe that had put off the previous driver. Activity was increasing at the Clovis Exotics Nexus compound; a metal loading door had creaked open halfway, revealing several pairs of booted feet moving in a circuit to load or unload something. Cruiser's infrared confirmed a number of clusters of employees throughout the building. One security member approached the chain-link fence gated exit and had it open just wide enough for a humanoid form to fit through. It was now or never for the distraction the team had planned. Cruiser revved the engine of the van that was built like a more compact version of a Bulldog and gripped the accelerator with his mind. Initiating the program he had created, it barreled straight for the exit, mere centimeters from the guard as it dove to safety just in the nick of time. The van made a sharp right and took off for the Denver City Park, careful to drive fast enough to entice a pursuit, but slow enough to ensure that it could be followed. The two security guards in the lot ran out to the street and were quickly joined by the three that were working behind the metal loading door. They readied their weapons and peered down 9th avenue at the fugitive vehicle. Pony used this opportunity to cast Concealment on the van Cruiser planned to drive away with. Unseen by electronic and humanoid eyes, the vehicle disappeared in a blanket of invisibility. Cruiser approached the gated exit slowly, half of the fence ripped away by the delinquent vehicle. He had to quickly put it into reverse and move away from the three individuals that were heading at a brisk pace towards another parked van. As they climbed into the vehicle, Cruiser quickly accelerated and headed out the gate, turning left towards Grape Street. The Concealment spell would now pose a problem on public roads, as cars approaching from behind him were unaware of his presence. He would have to be extremely careful not to put himself in a position where he would have to worry about being rear-ended. While Wyrine was finishing up his work in the Matrix, fear overwhelmed him as he became conscious of the fact that he had spent just a little too long with his illegal exploits online. The crushing weight of an approaching demiGOD program enveloped his avatar. What appeared in front of him was a perplexing array of bladed angles - hard to comprehend in the mind of a regular Matrix user, but perfectly at home in the digital architecture that surrounded them. Before Wyrine had a chance to react, it raked long, serrated talons across his T-Rex persona and small pixels erupted in their wake. The bio-feedback responded instantaneously in Wyrine's head as it felt like a hammer of pain blossomed in his head. He hesitated a moment, wondering if he could challenge this new adversary, but quickly acquiesced and jacked out. The Black IC had link-locked Wyrine, sending stay-alive signals to the Matrix and causing waves of pain as he forcefully exited from hot-sim. He doubled over in agony as the combination of the damage from the IC attack and the abrupt departure from the Matrix was nearly enough to render him unconscious. Pony noticed Wyrine's state as he opened his eyes and laid his hand on Wyrine's shoulder, casting Heal. It took away the vast majority of the pain and he slumped down for a moment of respite. Two Clovis Exotics security guards remained on the street. One of them had spotted magic being worked in the vicinity of the Shadowrun team and proceeded to investigate. Their Detect Magic spell identified what Pony had put in place to shroud the team while they worked on the vans and the cameras. The two drew their HK assault rifles and proceeded down the street with caution. Pony called up his Air Spirit and had it manifest right in their vicinity, immediately casting Fear on the guards. The spell was powerful enough to break one of them, sending the Clovis Exotics member running straight back to the compound with their rifle left discarded on the pavement and a look of horror painted on their face. The other one steeled themselves and continued southwest towards the Shadowrunners. Marx and Kat arrived at the southeast corner of Colorado and Alameda. Looking across the street, they saw Burns park, where a number of homeless individuals had erected a makeshift camp under a copse of trees that were showing their age. "To the revolution!" Marx declared as they exited without leaving a tip and the cab driver held her fist up nonchalantly in solidarity as she drove off. They examined the exterior of Sal's Coffin Motel. It was a run-of-the-mill location, with little distinctive flair. Average looking business people exited the building, heading to whatever meetings they had planned for the day. Marx was incredibly suspicious of the upcoming engagement and suggested that the two of them make themselves scarce in order to assess the situation before getting involved with the Shadowrunners they had been in contact with. Kat cast Invisibility on herself and a veil drifted over her, blending with the surroundings. She stepped out of the path where most of the motel patrons were treading. Marx took a position behind some shrubbery and laid in wait. The four Shadowrunners made their way around the corner of the building, a battered Wyrine and a focused Kablisk carrying an unconscious Cruiser to the alleyway near a dumpster. Pony followed from the rear to guard their advance and prepare for the remaining Clovis Exotics personnel. Cruiser had done well to maintain a distance between other vehicles on the road and was fortunate to not have anything approaching from behind to risk a collision. But turning left onto 11th Avenue put him in a precarious position behind a stopped delivery truck. Oncoming traffic prevented him from driving around and all he could do was wait for the cars to pass in the hopes that nothing would threaten his rear while he sat idle. The gridlock cleared and he quickly accelerated to reach the team at 9th and Hale Parkway, being careful to avoid any close calls with vehicles traveling in the same direction. The team set themselves up to jump the security guard. Wyrine readied his Predator, Kablisk his shock gloves. Pony would have the spirit use an ability and if it didn't work, the others would be ready to pounce. The Air Spirit followed close by the Clovis Exotics member, ready to inform Pony as soon as they drew near to the corner where the building met the alleyway. At the moment the guard was ready to round the bend, he commanded the spirit to execute the plan and engulfed the sentry. Caught unawares, they could do little to fight back as the oxygen was quickly sucked out of the space where they struggled and great pressure was exerted by the spirit to choke them into unconsciousness in a matter of seconds. The body out cold, they looted it for anything they might find useful and hefted it into the dumpster nearby. They climbed aboard the armored van that Wyrine and Cruiser had jacked, heading back to their base of operations in Sal's Coffin Motel. Pony had informed Trigger and Richard that there would be two visitors to the motel, people they could potentially work with on this heist job. They were to go out and greet them. But when they stepped foot outside, they looked around with confusion. Where were these two individuals? Kat and Marx carefully examined the two people that had exited the building. A serious-looking ork in fatigues and a disheveled and spacey Asian man. Surely these were the two meant to introduce them to Horsie or Big Stallion, whatever his name was. How should they proceed with them?
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After the long conversation about using the Awakened Cerberus to smuggle artifacts out of the facility, they opted for a more manageable strategy by posing as the company tasked with transporting magical items to and from the University of Denver.
Wyrine used his administration status in the UoD Matrix host to adjust the fake profiles he had created earlier, so that they would now reflect employment with the company they planned to impersonate. A response came back to Thresher from Ahmil about the magical artifacts inquiry. Three items matched Pony and Thresher's criteria for medium-value relics: the Wanderer's Shield, the Cube of the Messiah, and the Otherworldly Utensil. They logged whatever information they could find through Wyrine and Kablisk's search in order to fully prepare for the transit of those items, along with Clarity of Grace and the scroll related to the Celestial Atal. Kablisk and Wyrine continued to dig through the University of Denver host for more information on the artifact repository. A schematic they pulled up of the electronic box design showed another important component: a portable device which provided a randomized code to signal the container to unlock. The team had a conversation about how best to deal with this device. Craft their own? Spoof the code somehow? Steal a device to use themselves? Wyrine found the source code to be secured behind protection even he couldn't breach with his administrative privileges. That presented a significant problem for spoofing the code. A personnel search turned up three names that were registered for possession of the device. The name that stuck out the most as easily accessible was Maria Sobrino, Professor of Artificing. She, presumably, was a less powerful magic user who engaged primarily in research and could somehow be compromised through the facilities she frequented. An Influence spell could get her to leave the device unattended while the Shadowrunners scooped it up and returned it later, no one the wiser. The team thought on this while they tackled two other issues: observing the routines of the delivery service company they would be impersonating, Clovis Exotics Aegis, and forming a plan to print out the ID cards for the fictitious profiles that Wyrine had implanted in the database earlier. The five made a plan to infiltrate the campus administration building and access Student Services, where the UoD host told Wyrine they would find the equipment necessary to manufacture the ID cards. Pony and Kablisk approached the building. Kablisk positioned himself near a restroom down the hall from Student Services. Pony entered the office and assessed the situation. It was somewhat busy, the hum of activity surrounded him. A line of students snaked around the open area to reach a counter where a number of employees were assisting university students with a variety of needs. Pony was attempting to pinpoint one employee that matched an approximate build for Kablisk, when one of the staff members took notice of his loitering. "Is there something I can help you with?" The older woman asked politely. "I'm just waiting for my friend," Pony replied quickly. The answer seemed to raise a red flag for the woman. "We don't usually have people waiting for their friends in the Student Services office." She looked at Pony curiously. At that moment, Pony spotted someone who would do well for his Physical Mask spell on Kablisk. He quickly tossed an Influence spell at the clerk and he shot up out of his desk with a strained look on his face; he urgently needed to use the restroom. Weaving around other employees, he made a beeline for the door to the hallway. Pony used the commotion to slip out the door with him, uttering a brief excuse to the woman that was interrogating him. Pony trailed behind the clerk and cast a Confusion spell as soon as he reached the stall. That would keep him busy while the air shimmered and Kablisk received the Physical Mask spell from Pony. Kablisk headed into the Student Services office and went directly for the card-generating equipment. Working as quickly and accurately as he could, he churned out the three cards in under a minute. Just as he was finishing up the last one, the same woman that approached Pony earlier began to grow suspicious of Kablisk's behavior. His magical masquerade as the clerk was causing her to take notice and there were telltale signs she was seeing through the facade. Kablisk had to think quickly and followed through with the first thing that popped in his mind: another emergency trip to the bathroom. He forced himself to pass gas and quickly excused himself from the awkward situation to rush back to the bathroom, where Pony was waiting and keeping an eye on the employee. Broaching the threshold of the restroom, Pony immediately dropped the Physical Mask spell and the two quickly collected themselves. They stepped out, one by one, to be confronted with the woman who had been harassing them earlier. She had an accusatory tone to her question. "Have you seen a tall, elvish gentleman in the restroom?" She looked at Pony and Kablisk expectantly. "Yeah, yeah. He ran into a stall, looked pretty serious." Pony shrugged nonchalantly and walked around the woman. Kablisk quickly followed behind and the two left the building, three ID cards now in their possession. The team returned to Sal's Coffin Motel to recuperate and prepare for the morning stakeout where they would observe all the details of Clovis Exotics Aegis's interaction with the Iliff School of Magic staff. The Shadowrunners took up positions in park areas surrounding the school campus, while Kablisk situated himself across the street on Iliff Avenue, where he could get a good look at the security checkpoint at the campus gate. The delivery arrived minutes before its scheduled 10 am time and the team observed attentively from their locations. Kablisk watched the driver lean out from the armored van with the company's logo emblazoned on the side. The security guard conducted herself as if she had some familiarity with that particular individual and let the delivery employee pass with casual pleasantries. The van passed through the gate and proceeded to the first right that opened into a parking lot in front of the Iliff School of Magic. This is the moment where Pony would learn the protocol for passing through the mana barrier protecting the entirety of the School of Magic campus. Using his Astral perception, Pony watched the van slow down to a crawl and one member seated behind the driver leaned into the barrier. The person was able to summon enough magical energy to protect themselves and the artifact they were transporting because it was a smooth transition. Pony didn't witness any kind of struggle in the van where resisting the barrier was unsuccessful, so it had to be assumed that a fairly powerful magic user was in charge of handling the magical artifact as it passed through the mana barrier. At this point, Cruiser had his Shiawase Kanmushi walking underneath cars through the parking lot to converge with the van by the time it reached the loading dock ahead. Three people stepped out of the vehicle, making contact with two Awakened dressed in lab coats. Several sets of ears listened intently to the conversation. The five engaged in chit-chat, catching up on recent personal news, and mentioning names that they appeared acquainted with. One Clovis Exotics representative handed off a box that matched the schematic the team had been examining online the day before. Cruiser quickly ensured that his Kanmushi was securely attached to the bottom of the armored van, just before the vehicle departed. The idea was to hack and steal one of the vans for their own scheduled early pickup the next day. The van passed through a large sliding chain-link fence on Glencoe and 9th, near Denver General Hospital. The [bug bot] didn't have a great view, obscured underneath the chassis. It was a holding area for the other armored vehicles, where several pairs of combat-booted feet patrolled the area. The crew disembarked and walked over to the nearest building. Cruiser got in touch with Esther and Pony connected with Bob to ask about a possible resource for acquiring uniforms that matched the ones Clovis Exotics Aegis wore. Esther returned the call with a service that was cheaper, but required a drive through several territory checkpoints to reach the location. The Shadowrunners opted for the more expensive solution; a Russian dwarf named Mikhail promised door-to-door service within a few hours. The uniforms matching Wyrine, Pony, and Thresher's exact specifications would be delivered to Sal's Coffin Motel, where Trigger was waiting. The team changed their aesthetics to better fit a college campus atmosphere. Pony and Thresher still opted to stick with their homeless regalia, figuring they could use it somehow in their infiltration efforts.
Wyrine and Kablisk did some Matrix searching to get basic info on the university, like a campus map. They decided their best chance at an internal access point would be located in the Ritchie School for Engineering and Computer Science, so they began walking from the Cherry Creek Shopping Center. They spent the twenty minute walk regaling Pony and Thresher with their previous exploits: their time with Rutha, the kidnapping of Taff Chakaodza that started the group down this path, and the rescuing of Maxine. The two were impressed with everything Cruiser, Kablisk, Wyrine, Richard, and Trigger had been through. The team had certainly made a name for themselves and had already lived a full life as Shadowrunners. Upon arriving on the border of the campus grounds, Pony used a quick summon to call up an air spirit and asked it to patrol the perimeter of the barrier he could clearly see in Astral that was enshrouding the Iliff School of Magical Studies. The mana shimmered in multicolored hues, pulsing in and out. The view inside the space was hazy, but some movement could be made out. The spirit was to assess the inside and sort out what kind of Awakened beings it could identify. Thresher took his own initiative to walk through the pedestrian entrance gate at East Iliff Avenue and South University Boulevard in order to look for a loading dock area within the complex of buildings in the Magical Studies campus. He found what he was looking for in the southernmost building and began handing out pamphlets that he had previously lifted from the Cherry Creek Shopping Center to aid in his cover. Thresher examined the comings and goings of any delivery-type trucks in the vicinity and saw a laundry service and catering vehicle parked in separate lots taking care of their daily duties. Thresher rejoined the team as they made their way to the Computer Science building. They noticed that everyone entering the building was swiping a card on an electronic reader that beeped with each pass. Waiting for several minutes, there was no sign of anyone trying to scam the security by passing with someone else or without a card. They recognized that they would need to get their hands on some student IDs. Thresher hatched a plan to use his pickpocketing prowess with a variety of techniques to distract and misdirect passersby while lifting their cards unnoticed. Again, he used the cover of handing out pamphlets and 'accidentally' knocked over his first victim with his massive troll girth. Thresher easily pulled the flustered student's ID off of him while gathering the bags that were knocked over in the confusion. Apologizing and letting the student go on his way, he was one card closer to completing his mission. The second card was nabbed with the help of Richard's Influence spell. Thresher spotted a student, sitting in the park, immersed in their work. With a quick flick of his hand, Richard implanted the idea that the student needed to urgently be somewhere else, forgetting all about the bag. The student ran off, frantic, while Pony sauntered up to the bag and pretended it was his own. He scored a bag of chips to give to Thresher, some plastic data printouts he could use later if he needed a disguise, and the ID. Pony thought he would work his smooth-talking magic on a third mark by distracting a particularly burnt-out looking student shuffling away from the Computer Science building. He captured him with an arm around his shoulder and some soothing words to gain his attention. The student nodded and listened along to Pony's proselytizing. Thresher swooped in to lift the card, but unfortunately wasn't discreet enough. The student's eyes widen and he walked away from the two of them at a brisk pace, sobering up after the revelation. Thresher made an attempt to pickpocket a distracted looking woman who was yelling into her commlink. She was having a heated argument with whoever was on the other end, but it didn't stop her from noticing his fumble at trying to grab her ID. She turned to Thresher in rage, but Richard fired off another Influence spell and the infuriated woman started using breathing techniques and counting down from ten to calm herself. While she concentrated on bringing her anxiety level down, Thresher made his move and walked off with the third and final ID card. Now Wyrine, Kablisk, and Pony were equipped to head inside without drawing attention to themselves. They realized after that final snatch that one of the cards was for a female student and the photo on the ID would be a dead giveaway if anyone looked at it. They hoped it wouldn't come to that and headed inside the building. The three entered a grand lobby with two sweeping staircases. Like many of the buildings on the University of Denver's campus, the Ritchie School was a converted mansion, remodeled to fit the needs of the department. They saw rows of projects spread out on tables in the lobby. Holograms and interactive displays illustrated computing concepts in varying states of completion. The team glanced over the displays and looked around for a building map. They located it and found that the public computer lab was on the third floor in the West Wing. They took the nearest set of stairs and headed up. Thresher and Cruiser took observation positions on opposing ends of the park, ready to respond at the first sign of trouble. Thresher munched contentedly on his newly-acquired bag of chips. Wyrine, Kablisk, and Pony casually walked through the door and examined the situation. There was a study group discussing a presentation they were working on. A number of students studying solo or accessing VR Matrix were spread throughout the room. The three picked a place to sit farthest away from everyone else. Wyrine kept his cyberdeck hidden in his bag, but pulled out the cords to plug in his Cyberjack and the local access point. Kablisk used his fake Cyberjack to imitate Wyrine, in case there were any nosy students looking their way. They both slumped over and entered the University of Denver host. Pony kept an eye on the two, pulling out the plastic data sheets that came into his possession. He looked over them as if they meant something, playing the part of diligent student. They began their Matrix journey already inside the host, a regal castle modeled after something straight out of a fantasy trideo. They looked around and saw the tapestries, the wooden furniture. They began probing around to find out what they had access to and what kind of user status they could gain inside. At the mention of the host's Spider, Wyrine had an idea and made his first successes. He discovered that if he could track down the 'Spymaster,' he could acquire admin-level status and have his run of the majority of the information found here. There was a lot of outside chatter about what kind of ruse would be best to distract UoD staff while the team infiltrated the Magical Department on campus - an explosion, posing as cleaning staff, using some kind of portable storage to smuggle out artifacts were some of the suggestions. With a series of keystrokes and some poking around to locate the Grand Hall, Wyrine faced a massive oak table that stretched to the horizon. Each seat was filled with a different and unique face. Wyrine needed to recognize which one was the Spymaster. Another round of manipulating code revealed the Spymaster's identity and Wyrine raced to meet the construct. Faces whizzed by at lightning speed until he arrived at the one he was looking for. Wyrine could feel the net closing in, like someone was hunting him. He'd been far too fortunate with how well he'd breached the defenses and someone had picked up on his scent. He quickly ran a few programs to mimic the Spymaster, ultimately copying the form as a kind of doppelganger, complete with the same user status. As the warning klaxons quickly kicked in with Wyrine's final achievement, they shut off just as suddenly. The admin status erased Wyrine's presence as a mere 'student,' and replaced it with the current prestige. Those stalking him were forced to retrace their steps and look elsewhere for the time being. Wyrine passed on some of his more powerful station to Kablisk, so that he could share in the information-gathering activities. Then they got to work with a list of different avenues they wanted to look into. Some prodding and poking turned up an inventory list of all the cataloged artifacts found in the Iliff School of Magic, along with a sign in list of visitors to the department. Kablisk pored over the inventory to find the item the team had desperately been searching for. There it was. Listed as 'Celestial Atal, Scroll of.' What could that mean? Once he confirmed all the necessary information, he turned the inventory over to Thresher, who asked Kablisk to add some other artifact data to make the list less obviously related to UoD, and then passed it on to his Occult Specialist, Ahmil. Thresher confirmed that the Clarity of Grace, the item Squid provided details on in a commlink message, was part of the list. It was a piece of parchment with magical runes embedded in it, sealed in a pane of glass. He asked Ahmil for pricing and buyer interest of the mid-grade objects, hoping that there would be a few more items he could lift for profit when they entered the Iliff School, ones that wouldn't be so hot to bring a lot of unnecessary attention to the group. The idea at that point was to pose as an organization that would remove artifacts for research purposes or something similar. Wyrine found that the position of authority most frequently found in the sign in list was 'Overseer.' He got to work on shaping the data to craft new identities for the runners who planned to enter the building and remove the artifacts. Pony's air spirit returned with a report on the Awakened beings it had witnessed on the grounds of the Iliff School. It spotted several paranormal critters: a Cerberus, Razor Cat, and Naga. Several dozen magical humanoids inhabited the space as well. Kablisk did a quick check to get some information on the creatures. They appeared to double as guard animals, in addition to their research purposes. The Shadowrunners continued to hash out their plan. Turn off the magical defenses? A database search yielded the Principle of Autumn, a pair of jewelry pieces buried somewhere below campus, underneath the Magical Department. Extracting the artifacts became the next challenge. A massive electronic repository kept all magical items cataloged in separate sealed containers, each with its own security. Each individual item was equipped with its own tracking and if removed from its storage, it would set off some kind of alarm. The group continued to talk about their options and weighed the pros and cons of aggressive and stealthy methods of infiltration. The five Shadowrunners returned to the train carriage with their 'package.' The scene was very much the same as they had left it, sans a monstrous creature of a troll who was no longer lying dead in the aisle. The stain remained in the already heavily downtrodden carpet, but the corpse was gone.
No one was interested in asking any questions about what had transpired, so the team took their seats - Richard next to the suit bag and Kablisk, Trigger, Wyrine, and Cruiser across the aisle. Several minutes passed and the door wheeled shut with a rusty metallic locking sound. The train lurched forward and they were on their way to make the delivery. Thresher woke up in his latest squat. It was an office building that had been left derelict for quite some time. It was near some of the less frequented docks in Tacoma and that was enough for him. He followed the smell of the ocean and saw some dock workers going about their morning business moving cargo and readying shipments. Thresher stretched his thick troll muscles and took his time drinking in the view. He was low on Nuyen and placed a call to his Oddities Broker, Amil, to see if there was any work. Amil told him that there were some rumblings in the magic underground about something big going down and if Thresher was interested, Amil could try and get him in. Thresher wasn't picky and immediately agreed. Amil told him that he would call back with some details shortly. Pony awoke in his favorite storage locker. The manager of the facility had originally been charmed to let him stay there, but Pony gradually eased off the spell to make it look as if he had been there the entire time with no issues. He did his best to make himself mildly presentable with his limited selection of torn and dirty clothing. Pony greeted the manager, Odell Block, as he walked off the premises. Odell tipped his bowler hat, dressed in his signature kind of retro-future British dandy style. Being a squatter much like Thresher, he too was in desperate need of money. He turned to his Talismonger contact, Bob, to see if there was any Shadowrunning work available. After thirty seconds of ringing, the commlink picked up with a great clatter in the background. Bob answered with his stereotypical aloofness. Pony explained his circumstances and Bob thought a minute. He haphazardly explained about a gathering of magic-users that was meant to happen tonight at the edge of the city, Carnation-Seattle Ranch. There would be a caravan heading to Denver to engage in a large operation. Pony was to speak to someone named Squid. With that information, Pony began his arduous journey on public transit across half of the city from Everett to the eastern edge of Redmond. Amil returned his call to Thresher and explained much the same information that Pony had just received from Bob. Thresher thanked his contact for the lead and gathered his significant weapon collection of bladed instruments before mounting his motorcycle to travel across the length of Seattle for the ranch. After a couple of hours of traffic while cruising across the Metroplex, Thresher confronted an entirely different kind of scenery once he passed the threshold of the mountain range surrounding Ames Lake. There were lush fields and green pastures for a variety of farms dotting the landscape. He spotted the ranch on the northern outskirts of the city of Carnation with a welcoming sign. It was a large plot of land with a number of small buildings dotting the property. They looked like something out of Old West trids, constructed entirely out of wood materials. Thresher was unsure what to do at this point, so he parked his bike near the sign, lit a cigarette and sat down, crossing his legs. After some time had passed, a large tour bus was spotted from a distance and approached the ranch. Thresher watched it pass the sign and park in front of one of the buildings. It sat idle and through the windows he could see an assortment of different magical folk inside, all with unique styles of appearance. Dusting himself off, Thresher walked to the bus and inquired of the driver about Squid. The dwarven lady at the wheel chuckled and told him he'd have to find Squid inside. Thresher nodded and set off for the nearest wood cabin. He entered the cabin and peered around in the dim light. There was only a single lantern illuminating the living room and a handful of enclosed candles spread around elsewhere. The interior was predictable, based on the exterior's aesthetics. There were antlers, antique rifles, and furniture of all kinds made completely out of wood. Thresher began combing the four rooms, calling Squid's name. There was no reply. Pony had made it to the city of Carnation by bus. After countless route changes and bus changes, he was only a fifteen minute walk north from the city to the ranch property. He made it to the outskirts just in time to see a tour bus pulling in to the driveway to park in front of one of the ranch houses. Pony got the same response as Thresher from the bus driver and he too headed inside. He found a Native American Nations troll perusing the domicile, already intimidating by his massive stature, but excessively so because of his rugged look. After a brief conversation, they came to find they had locating Squid in common. Pony used his Assensing ability to locate an individual in a room beneath them. There were no visible entrances or stairs, so he Astrally projected to get the attention of the glowing figure. The entity gestured at the far right corner of the northeast room. Returning to his body, Pony followed the directions of the person and began combing through the study. It was a room filled with furniture like bookcases, a desk, and a long table, but short on content beyond that. Only a small number of physical books were laid sporadically around the shelves. Thresher followed and joined Pony in the search, but he was perplexed at what had just transpired. He had just witnessed Pony unexpectedly falling unconscious for a number of seconds and then snap out of it to stand up as if nothing had happened. A careful examination of the corner where two bookcases met revealed a small black metallic pressure switch that one could step on. Pony put his foot down and Thresher jumped back, narrowly avoiding one of the bookcases swinging out to uncover a set of granite steps leading down. The two cautiously descended and found a dungeon-like space that was dimly lit like the upstairs, but with magical paraphernalia spread all over the room. There were bubbling beakers, containers with multicolored liquids, and powdered materials of all types. A tall, thin humanoid with jet black dreadlocks was bent over a table with its back facing Thresher and Pony. "Squid?" A male elf faced them and peered through narrow rectangular lenses, answering with a posh accent. Pony and Thresher asked about the situation with the tour bus and Denver. Squid gave as many details as he could, but emphasized that he was only an intermediary. He explained that there was a gathering of magical folk that were being tasked with separate missions, all leading to the greater good of a grand plot to stop some terrible magic from awakening. Pony and Thresher would receive their individual directions in Denver. The compensation would be made through any fenced goods they acquired at the University of Denver, where their targets were. Thresher worried about his motorcycle parked out front and Squid assured him it would be well taken care of if one artifact could be pilfered from the university; details to be provided en route. Thresher agreed and set off with Pony to the coach bus. They engaged the motley crew in small talk as they made themselves comfortable, spreading out magical equipment and materials while the bus headed for Denver. With a canned announcement over train speakers that went previously unnoticed, Wyrine, Trigger, Kablisk, Cruiser, and Richard had reached their destination - the UCAS territory of Denver. The team readied their equipment and Trigger slung the suit bag over his shoulder, first checking that the specimen had been properly watered. The group followed behind the woman in the faux fur coat, with the bruised metahuman children and the person in the cloak and wide brimmed hat taking up the rear. They marched one by one through the train yard to a dilapidated concrete bunker that could be seen in the distance from the carriage. Ten individuals reached an orange-tinged, riveted iron door. The incognito woman rapped a Morse code out on the door and a series of creaky locks were released. A silhouetted figure bid them all to enter. They crept into the darkness, one by one. The coach bus pulled into UCAS Denver territory, the scenery drastically changing from a spread of flora and fauna in NAN to the Seattle-esque lighted neons and greys of concrete in the miniature Metroplex. They stopped in front of the Ares Macrotechnologies complex, skyscrapers towering over them and a giant spartan statue staring them down. The assembly of magic-users all got off the bus, separately, after gathering all of their odds and ends. Thresher exited last, mainly because he didn't want to inconvenience others with the bulk of his troll stature. Passengers headed in various directions and a few hung around the disembarkation point. Both Thresher and Pony were unsure of what to do. Pony decided to call Bob, since he was the one who had originally provided the work. Bob answered in his usual confused fashion. He spent a good amount of time rummaging through all manner of materials before he came to the conclusion that he would need to message Pony once he found what he was looking for. Thresher recalled that Squid had said he would be provided with more information upon reaching the destination, so all he could do was light a cigarette and wait. After a few minutes, a business chic woman with slicked back hair approached the small group of Awakened. She provided data chips to Thresher and a couple of other individuals, explaining that all of the details they would need were contained there. Abhoring technology, Thresher took a breath and examined the data chip through his commlink goggles. He found the contact information and a brief dossier for a Shadowrunner named Trigger, as well as the rendezvous location of Sal's Coffin Motel. Pony received a message rife with grammatical errors, but it contained the contact information for one 'Ricky Ricardo,' a shaman who also shared Bob as a Talismonger contact, along with the same rendezvous point that Thresher had received. The two decided to grab a taxi together and begin their commute to the edge of the Free Trade Zone. Pony appealed to the maternal affectations of the elderly taxi driver, talking to her about grandchildren and him being down on his luck. It scored the pair of them a small discount on the fare. The illumination in the tunnel was quite minimal. It looked as if at one time there was a string of well-placed lights glowing through the entire length of the shaft, but neglect had left all but a handful still functioning and spread at uneven intervals. Everyone began the descent as the tunnel gradually angled downwards. It was noticeable that as they descended further, more trash was accumulating on the sides of the tunnel and fewer lights were providing illumination. Eventually the channel leveled off and now the ten people were navigating around piles of refuse, those with Low Light vision being far more successful than the others. The woman in the faux fur stopped in her tracks. Wyrine and Trigger noticed it, too. There was a humanoid digging through some of the garbage about ten meters away. The woman exploded into action and rushed the creature, attacking it as she had the troll in the train carriage. There was a quick flash of steel and by the time the dust had settled, the woman had easily stabbed it a dozen times in the span of a few seconds. She flicked her blades and threw black liquid off of them. Whatever she had assaulted certainly wasn't human or metahuman. The woman continued forward. One by one, the Shadowrunners passed the corpse. Its skin color made it clear that it hadn't been exposed to the light of day in quite some time. The black liquid oozing out of the stab wounds was very clearly 'blood,' but not the kind any of them were accustomed to. Wyrine came to the realization that they were looking at a ghoul - they could expect more as they congregated in large packs. Not more than a minute's walk further down the tunnel and everyone stopped together. They had all sighted that which they had feared - a mass of ghouls some dozen or more strong. The ghouls were picking through the trash; the scent of the travelers hadn't reached them yet. Seizing the advantage of a lack of air current, Cruiser gestured to the platinum blonde haired woman to step aside, as Trigger, Kablisk, Wyrine, and he all drew firearms and let loose a salvo. It was enough to fell several of them, but the element of surprise was no longer theirs. The remaining ghouls wheeled to face the group and began approaching them, not at a full-out run, but at a hurried pace. Kablisk was having trouble connecting shots as his lack of Low Light vision was making aiming difficult, even when firing into a pack of Awakened creatures. Wyrine, Trigger, and Cruiser had more success. Wyrine injured one with a burst from his Ingram Smartgun. Trigger put several down with a spray of gunfire from his HK, and Cruiser's Rotodrone took one down with its own weapon. Richard loosed a Manaball and caught several more of them in a destructive blast of magical energy. The cloaked figure guarding the rear drew a Monofilament sword that flashed with an electric blue. The remaining ghouls were close enough that the platinum blonde haired woman could dance with her blades and began cutting up the nearest fiends. En route to Sal's Coffin Motel, Thresher and Pony thought it would be pertinent to get in touch with the contacts that they were provided. They were both met with curt replies, explaining that they were otherwise preoccupied at the moment. They would either come to the vicinity of the Denver International Airport to help or continue on to the predetermined meetup location. Given that the airport was nearly double the distance they had already traveled from the shadow of Ares Macrotechnologies where they had been dropped off by the tour bus, they opted to maintain their course. Cruiser's drone sensors had caught movement behind the group. Several ghouls were now crawling out of a sewer grate that had been passed earlier, overlooked. The Shadowrunners spun on their heels and opened fire on the two monsters wriggling through the bars. They were in prone positions and dispatched easily with the combined help of multiple firearms. The group of ten shook off the adrenaline of the skirmish and proceeded to the entrance of the tunnel, where a wire mesh fence covered the length and breadth of the opening. There was a humanoid-size shape cut out of one corner of the barrier and each person passed through, carefully trying not to snag clothing and hair on the exposed fringe. The passengers of the train went their separate ways at this point, having become far removed from the prying eyes of security near the airport. The incognito woman in the faux fur coat headed south, with the two metachildren trailing her. The brimmed, masked, and cloaked individual went west. The team needed to decide on the best course of action to deliver the specimen and make their way to the rendezvous. Richard and Trigger returned their previously unanswered comm calls, telling Thresher and Pony that they would be on the way shortly, as soon as they acquired a conveyance. Thresher and Pony had time to kill, so after having liberated some Stuffer Shack delicacies from a fate in the dumpster, they made their way to the roof of a three floor apartment complex across from Burns Park where they could survey the area around the coffin motel. Wyrine spotted a transport van parked not far from their current location. He easily located it on the Matrix and cut through the basic electronic countermeasures with ease. Vehicles like this did not stand up well to professional Deckers. Wyrine handed over the user permissions to Cruiser so he could drive the team to the delivery point while having access to the full suite of Rigger controls. The bookstore was next door to The Trash and Treasures Antique Store, a quaint shop that sold a wide variety of exactly what the name insinuated. Wyrine walked in with Kablisk and they found a frizzy haired, bespectacled woman poring through a stack of paper books in the back of a narrow aisle. She was pleased to find the specimen brought to them in excellent condition and surprised to find that it was not, in fact, Patrice making the delivery. Tanja threw in an extra 1K Nuyen for their trouble - the team agreed that they would leave this detail out when talking to Israel the Coyote about his transport payment. The Shadowrunners had smooth passage west on Highway 70, but came to a minor obstacle when they saw the entrance to the Free Trade Zone. There were two officials outside a terminal examining the larger vehicles, like vans and big rig trucks. Cruiser realized he too would need to join the queue and have the requisitioned van examined or risk raising suspicion at the border. They pulled off the highway and immediately discussed their options. They came to a consensus on using Richard's Influence spell first and foremost; if things went south from there, they would take more aggressive measures. Minutes passed and they reached the front of the line. The officers on either side of the van gave them a steely gaze and Richard summoned the energies needed to implant the idea in each of their heads that only the bare minimum examination of this party was necessary. He worked the magicks with aplomb and successfully penetrated their willpower resistance. Both of the officials gave the van a once over and nodded to each other, waving Cruiser on - no questions or identification were necessary because there was nothing suspicious about five individuals in a transport van with several in outfits that screamed 'Shadowrunner.' The team continued on and made it to their destination with no other incidents. They parked the van in a paid parking lot not too far from the coffin motel. Whoever discovered the carjacked vehicle would have to pay to get it back. As the five walked towards the motel, Thresher and Pony spotted them from the apartment rooftop across from the park. Thresher gave Trigger a call to confirm they were the party being waited on. The seven of them gathered in front of the motel to converse about their next actions. Thresher and Pony were filled in more on some details of the scrolls the team were after at the University of Denver. They came to the conclusion that reconnaissance was crucial before determining how best to infiltrate the university. Thresher and Pony joined a small squatter camp in the park to pass the night and get some rest. The others entered Sal's Coffin Motel to rent spaces for the night. They would purchase some more appropriate outfits in the morning in order to better blend in with the student body on campus. "It must be nice to be rich," Thresher mused as he laid out on the hard ground and closed his eyes. The five Shadowrunners made their way to the top of the building through either Richard's Levitation spell or their own climbing gear, scaling from a nearby roof in the industrial park.
They hashed out their plan while crouched in the dimly lit surroundings. It was a rather run-down set of buildings that the Humanis Policlub had claimed as their own for criminal dealings. Cruiser's bug drone spotted Maxine, bruised and bloody, on her knees, head slumped. There were three members of the racist organization standing guard while someone decided what to do with her. The idea was for many things to happen all at once: Trigger, Kablisk, and Wyrine would come crashing through the windows just as Cruiser's Rotodrone strafed from above and Richard would throw some spells at Maxine's captors to confuse the situation. Those with thermographic enhancements caught one of the Policlub members approaching Maxine and the team sprang into action. It all went down like clockwork, with Trigger and his Cavalier putting down one of the gangsters immediately, as he swung through the smashed window and let loose a bullet in one fluid motion. Next in was Kablisk and he tossed a flashbang grenade towards the center of the room. The explosive went wide of its mark and detonated right in the face of another aggressor, rendering the person unconscious from the shock of the burst. Wyrine followed behind shortly thereafter and put a round from his Ares Predator into another goon. There was an exchange of gunfire as pistols and rifles reported from both sides and the dust settled; all three foes were dispatched and Wyrine and Kablisk were left with some mild wounds. Kablisk carried Maxine in his arms and was levitated down to the ground floor by Richard. The others climbed down with their gear and grappling hooks. As Kablisk walked away from the violence in the building, he noticed a dark substance caking the hair around Maxine's ears. Wyrine gave it further examination and found that the Humanis Policlub had cut off the pointed tips of her Elvish ears and the blood had congealed in her messy hair. This discovery infuriated Cruiser, who already had a soft spot for Maxine and felt a sense of duty in protecting her, given that she had extended her hospitality to the team for the use of Punk Monkey's meeting space in their Shadowruns. Confirming that the entire team had extracted itself from the building, Cruiser let out a scream of rage and loosed a high explosive grenade into the room. Five additional Humanis Policlub members were approaching the door, coming from the first floor when they initially heard the ruckus. The combustion was powerful enough to vaporize the three prone bodies in the room and send body parts in all directions from the five members steeling themselves at the barricaded door. As the flames and smoke bellowed out of the windows, Richard levitated down from the roof in a mock-Jesus gesture. The six made it to Cruiser's GMC Bulldog and took off, speeding back to Punk Monkeys. Cruiser offered his own apartment for Maxine to recover from her injuries, but she insisted that she would be fine laying low in her office. Maxine expressed profuse gratitude to the team for rescuing her. She winced in pain as the bruises and swelling covering her face subsided a bit after Richard gently laid hands on her and provided a healing spell. She promised the team full use of the upstairs meeting room and a much more robust security presence from here on out. Confirming the Shadowrunners' suspicions, the local chapter of Humanis Policlub wanted to make use of Punk Monkeys to traffic drugs and engage in other illegal activities, but Maxine had refused. When they discovered her metahumanity, that only enraged them further to the point where they reveled in mutilating her ears. A number of club employees were waiting outside the building, anxiously awaiting the return of their charismatic boss. Together, they received her from the van and carefully led her into her office for some medical attention. Cruiser explained that the team would be out of Seattle for a little while, to complete a job. She nodded and promised to update them when they returned. With Maxine saved from a brutal fate, the group got in touch with Israel and Jeanette to secure the details for their transport to Denver and the courier work they would do en route. They were to receive a package from Bastion, who was expected to be at an art gallery in Cheyenne, Sioux Nation Territory. That package would then be delivered to a place in Denver, which would be detailed upon receipt of the cargo. The pickup was at a seldom-used rail yard near The Italiano in Renton. The team found a parking garage to keep Cruiser's Bulldog for the duration of the trip. They cautiously approached the innocuous line of six container cars and as they neared one of the middle cars, a hidden door popped out with a metallic sound and slid aside to reveal an entrance. The six Shadowrunners examined their surroundings to ensure no one was lying in wait to stage an ambush. Everything looked five by five and they proceeded to enter the train car. They were presented with an unexpected sight, given the industrial exterior. It looked as if one of the old rusty containers had been plunked down on top of a old-time passenger rail car. There were already a handful of occupants that comprised a motley crew. There was a cloaked, featureless masked, and wide brimmed hat wearing traveler on the left side. A platinum blonde-haired woman with a full-body white faux fur coat that reached the bridge of her nose kept to herself on the right side of the train. Lastly, a pair of troll youths that looked as if they had just escaped serious physical abuse carved out their own space in the middle of the aisle in the farthest part of the carriage. The team spread out between two booths, nearest the door, and maintained vigilance in observing their milieu. Most of the group opted for some shut eye, in order to recuperate and prepare for the ordeal in Cheyenne. Trigger stayed awake to ensure nothing violent befell the Shadowrunners. The train stopped a couple more times on its way to Cheyenne. First, a pair of pink mohawked dwarves embarked and found themselves a booth, disturbing no one. Then, a troll, one that was reminiscent of the river trolls of antiquity, stomped its way into the carriage. A rank smelled filled the cabin and the stink was practically a visible haze enshrouding the creature. The troll decided to park itself right next to the cloaked platinum blonde-haired woman. She didn't make eye contact with the troll and continued to gaze forward. The container door slid shut with the sound of a metallic lock engaging. Trigger immediately sensed trouble brewing and decided to head it off at the pass. He got up, making his way to the lavatory at the other end of the passenger car. The booth where the faux-fur outfitted woman and noxious troll were seated was square in the middle of the carriage. Trigger approached and made contact with the troll. "Is there a problem?" The ork inquired. The troll sneered at Trigger. Trigger tried again. "What's your problem?" The troll's response was another sneer and a giant globule of putrid phlegm ejected from its mouth, dripping down the seat opposite the creature. Trigger replied with a casual hmph and walked on. He monitored the pair as he entered the restroom. The rotten garbage smell was pungent enough to wake all but Richard. Now the Shadowrunners locked on to the source of the nasty stink and were met with a disgusting figure. Trigger's thermographic vision caught the woman arranging something within her outfit. She was readying a pair of items and it only took one guess as to what those would be. No more than ten seconds had passed and the troll leaned in to the woman's personal space to make a comment inaudible to the other passengers. A pair of lengthy blades flashed out of the fur, appearing from seemingly nowhere. In the span of a couple of seconds, she had punctured the creature no less than a dozen times with supernatural speed. The troll immediately died from its wounds, having been brutally stabbed in a variety of major organs and arteries. It collapsed in a heap in the middle of the aisle and quickly began soaking the carpet in a pool of viscous, dark blood. Trigger returned from the lavatory to examine the scene. The runners were shocked beyond belief at what they had just witnessed and their mouths were agape at the brutality that had just transpired. Trigger simply shrugged and took a wide step over the rancid carcass. All of the other passengers were clearly trying excruciatingly hard to avoid all eye contact with each other and the woman after that incident. No one spoke and no one moved for the duration of the trip until Cheyenne. The train pulled into the station at Cheyenne. The runners gathered their equipment and stepped outside, unsure of what this unexplored city would hold for them. They were on a platform, but it was removed from the cluster of other platforms attached to the station. There were passengers standing around, looking at digital timetables and doing any manner of other activities one does while waiting for public transportation. For some reason, no one looked at the team and no one even looked at the platform they were standing on. It was as if it was obscured from the casual observer somehow. The group didn't dwell on it too much and proceeded to walk off the platform into the dark train yard, as they assumed walking through the main station would attract far too much attention. They were told that the art gallery was located on Pershing Boulevard and Evans Avenue. Lacking transportation, they opted to remain as inconspicuous as possible while strolling down the street towards the agreed upon location. The team made it to a few blocks away from the intersection in question when they noticed a dark sedan that wasn't moving with the flow of traffic. It immediately put everyone on alert and they ducked into the nearest alleyway they could find. The car reacted to their sudden change in direction and sped off. The Shadowrunners continued to approach the intersection of Pershing and Evans, this time with extreme caution. They advanced on the art gallery, coming from the east in a more roundabout fashion. They were met with two cars, parked in a 'V' formation in front of the building. They were the same make and model as the one that was previously tailing them. One male leaned out the window of the car and yelled, "Are you Patrice?" Someone in the team immediately replied with 'no' and inquired about who that person was. It was the wrong answer and the cars revved their engines, barreling straight for the five. Three of the runners managed to leap out of the way in time, but Kablisk and Richard were clipped by the rapidly accelerating automobiles and were left on the pavement, writhing in pain. Trigger, Wyrine, and Cruiser took shots at the cars as they began to cross over each other to come around for another pass at the group. It was difficult to hit the drivers, as the tint of the front windshield prevented them from seeing exactly where they were seated in the vehicle. From the passenger window, professionally dressed individuals lacking distinguishing features leaned out and sprayed their SMGs in the direction of the Shadowrunners. It left the attackers in a prone position that Trigger and Wyrine took advantage of. One of the gun wielding interlopers was put down. Kablisk used his Machine Sprite to lock the brakes on the car. As the driver struggled to reset the electronics of the vehicle, Trigger put a bullet through the windshield and ended the life of that adversary. Richard had limped his way to the alley where the others had set up their defense. Trigger made an open dash for Kablisk and scooped him up in one motion, depositing him around the corner adjacent to the art gallery. The second car was driven into a building wall by the Machine Sprite, killing the driver. As the remaining passenger crawled out of the wreckage, Trigger was on top of her. Her dark skin was covered in blood and her braided hair was in shambles. Trigger asked for details on why they were attacked. They didn't fit the description of the people that were supposed to pick up the package and so they were to be neutralized. Trigger thanked her for her time and put a bullet in her head. She crumpled into a heap amidst the debris. Recovering from the fracas, the five entered the brightly lit, white-walled gallery and found an eccentric trollish-looking dwarf with round glasses, smoking a pipe at the reception desk. He was poring over a digital newspaper when he lowered it to examine the newcomers. "Are you Bastion?" Wyrine inquired. "I am, the package is around the corner," He said in a squeaky voice and poked a stubby thumb in that direction. The team wasn't sure what to expect, but what faced them definitely fell outside of the realm of all expectations they had. Zipped halfway up in a suit carrier bag, was an androgynous, emaciated, albino humanoid. It was lucid and blinked at the team. "Is there anything it needs?" They called out to Bastion. "Maybe just some water from time to time. The specimen won't complain. It's tongue has been removed." Bastion smiled a toothy grin. "Take it to the bookstore at this address - ask for Tanja." The Shadowrunners looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and zipped up the suit carrier. Trigger carefully placed it over his shoulder and they headed back to the one car that hadn't been destroyed. They moved with haste, without trying to raise suspicions. The team made it all the way to the last light at the intersection in front of the train station when Cruiser's sensors picked up a police car approaching from the intersecting street on the right side. The car they were in had several bullet holes from the earlier combat. It would be a dead giveaway if the police car were to pass by them and take notice as they waited for the light to change. Wyrine wasted no time targeting the street light, hacking it with precision, and forcing it to change to green for them, surprising the opposing traffic into screeching to a halt. The team let out a collective sigh of relief and parked the car near where they had previously exited the train yard. They returned to the train and found the same occupants from before, minus the corpse of the putrid troll. There was a stain left in the aisle where the body had been left several hours ago. The team returned the following day, rested and well-prepared for the next step in their investigation of the scrolls and the Celestial Atal.
Cruiser had used some of his free time overnight in order to repair his heavily damaged Rotodrone, while also enhancing its armor capabilities to make it more formidable in a firefight. The Shadowrunners retraced their steps through the alleyways of Puyallup, winding their way through trash-strewn heaps and scummy passages. Rain pitter-pattered on the crumbling concrete as they returned to the garbage-lined cave entrance and passed through the mouth. They walked through a more subdued marketplace this time, as it was late morning and most of the clientele wouldn't be present until much later that day. At the end of the bomb shelter hallway, they met Gigi, guarding the blast door with her usual serious face and crossed arms. Cruiser was physically present, sans bug drone and she noticed the change in roster. "Who are you?" Gigi asked gruffly. "I drive," Cruiser responded in kind. The answer seemed to satisfy Gigi because she elbowed the door open, stepped out of the way, and it responded with a rusty creak. The five runners were greeted with the same scene they had encountered the day before. A space lined with thick concrete and steel girders, the small collections of waxy candles dotting the periphery illuminated stack of old texts and a robed figure leaning over an old oak table. After a lengthy uncomfortable silence, Rutha's Irish brogue broke the stillness. "I wondered if you'd return." She postulated nonchalantly. Wyrine explained that they had brought the physical scrolls, as requested, and handed the bag to her. She proceeded to carefully unfurl each of the six texts, smoothing them out on the cold floor. Rutha examined them deliberately and pondered for a moment. "I need to make a call." The five looked at each other in confusion; wasn't Rutha opposed to technology? She turned around and started working with a mortar and pestle, sprinkling a variety of ingredients in that the group was already familiar with. They looked strikingly similar to a number of materials pilfered from the two mages involved in the Taff hostage incident: colored powders, baby's teeth, and dried plants. Rutha worked the elements into a paste and used two fingers to stuff a chunk into her mouth, like chewing tobacco. She let it sit there a moment and then spit the mass onto the concrete floor. Turning around to face the crew, a seizure immediately overtook her and as she convulsed, her eyes rolled into the back of her head. She looked straight forward with only the whites of her eyes. Rutha spoke in what sounded like four different voices. "Who seeks the Atal?" Wyrine was unsure of how to respond. "We do?" "HAVE YOU BEEN CHOSEN?" "No? Yes." "WHAT YOU SEEK IS BURIED IN A GREAT DESERT FOUND IN A CASTLE LOST LONG AGO." With that last response, Rutha began convulsing again and seized up, then lost consciousness, falling face first into the hard basement. A sharp crack echoed through the chamber as her nose split open and blood spilled across the floor. Everyone was at a loss for how to respond. Silence hung over the Shadowrunners as they held their breath to see if Rutha would regain consciousness or if she needed medical attention. Gigi seemed nonplussed and simply stood there, watching Rutha. After thirty seconds passed, Rutha shook herself out of the stupor, blood streaming down her face. She examined each of the Shadowrunners, mouth caked in blood. "Who did you talk to?" Richard recalled what he had seen in the Astral Plane while watching Rutha's episode. A large, green translucent figure with exaggerated features was boosting itself on her shoulders. It was the kind of figure one would imagine in a pirate fairy tale of a Vodou priestess attaining deity status. "Ah, you've just spoken to Marinette. I was hoping for Papa Legba, but you take what blessings you can get. What did she say?" Wyrine recounted the short conversation to Rutha. It was a cryptic message, to say the least. "Interesting. I don't know what that means," she answered nonchalantly. Rutha didn't have much to say about the interaction. They discussed their options and came to a consensus about paying the University of Denver a visit, seeing as a previous Matrix search had confirmed it had one of the largest repositories of information on the scrolls now in the team's possession. The Shadowrunners were concerned about the opposition that they would face in Denver. It was an extremely divided city, split into quarters to represent the interests of the CAS, UCAS, Pueblo Council, and Sioux Nation. Security was expected to be high, given all the politicking going on there. Furthermore, the group was venturing into a rather unfamiliar city awash with magics. Wyrine asked Rutha if she would be traveling with them. She chuckled and shook her head. "You are the chosen ones and my place is here. I cannot leave my territory." Wyrine wondered if there were some contacts in Denver or assistance she could lend. Rutha thought for a moment and began rummaging through a collection of materials housed in a dilapidated bookshelf on the back wall. After several minutes passed, she located the object of her search. She tossed it at Richard. Everyone held their breath, expecting something akin to the spiritual possession that was still fresh in everyone's minds. Richard caught it with ease and turned it over - it was a stone. It was polished, but otherwise ordinary looking. Richard made a strange face as he concentrated, attempting to decipher the way one would use the stone. Alas, he was unsuccessful. "When the time comes, you will know what to do." That explanation seemed sufficient for Rutha, despite it assuaging none of the fears the Shadowrunners held. The five headed out, discussing their next move. There were a number of complications that needed to be considered for the trip to Denver. Money was an issue, as was identification for people like Kablisk. They called upon their coyote 'friend,' Israel. Richard tried his best to be convincing and influence the troll with his charismatic persuasion, but it was all for naught. Richard chose his words poorly and actually succeeded in increasing the price. Israel hadn't forgotten about the previous promise the team had made, ensuring additional business would be sent his way. It had yet to materialize and his gruff voice was slowly growing angry. Richard had no choice but to follow through on the previous promise before any progress could be made on guaranteeing their transport to Denver. Kablisk opted to call his exotic dancer contact, Candy. Wyrine set up a meet with his Matrix contact, Neo. Candy was chewing gum noisily when she answered with her Southern CAS twang. "What can I do for you, sweetie?" Kablisk awkwardly explained the predicament, but did his best to leave out the most incriminating parts. He appeared to have Candy's attention and she promised she would ask around to see if there were any sex workers in need of a quick getaway. Wyrine set up a meet with Neo on Jackpoint, one of the most popular Matrix locations for all manner of Deckers to engage in criminal activities or just talk shop. Arriving at the agreed upon time and place, Wyrine was faced with what looked like the inside of a prison complex with two open floors full of barred cells. In addition, the cells were rotating steadily in a circuit. Scanning the area, Wyrine located Neo's signature and headed towards that particular space, as it rotated around the building. He was about to be face to face with the entrance when an entity resembling an atom attacked. It connected with Wyrine and the feedback managed to cause some damage. His head throbbing, he swung back with a Data Spike and hit the atom full force. The IC was visibly wounded and made another charge at Wyrine. He dodged this time and landed another of his own attacks, finishing off the program. Wyrine stepped through the void and into one of the white-washed interrogation rooms that are always seen on Seattle crime drama trids. He took a seat and waited no more than a few seconds when Neo appeared, his avatar a picture perfect reproduction of the Hollywood character of late 1990s fame. Neo was mostly a data and contraband smuggler, but Wyrine did his best to present the opportunity with Israel as one that could benefit his business opportunities. It was a bit of a tough sell, as Neo made it clear he had all of his own connections already secured. But Wyrine talked up Israel's prowess as a Coyote and his extensive transportation network. It did the trick and convinced Neo to send some business Israel's way. Wyrine logged off and explained to the rest of the crew that he had confirmed his contact would utilize Israel for some of his smuggling enterprises. With the promise to Israel fulfilled, Richard made another negotiation attempt to secure passage to Denver. Concurrently, Trigger was on his commlink with his fixer contact, Jennette Amos. He had confirmed a straightforward pick up and delivery run that would be built in to the passage to Denver. This would give Israel his transportation payment and also supply the Shadowrunners with some spending money, if needed. Richard was far more successful in this conversation and was able to bring the price down slightly below the original asking fee, while also including the pick up and delivery job. With the logistics of ingress taken care of, the group took the rest of the day off and headed to their local haunt in the evening, Punk Monkeys. Trigger was the first to arrive and was shocked to find himself in the midst of a full-on assault. The outfits the aggressors were wearing were obvious - Humanis Policlub members were terrorizing patrons, staff, and the club itself. They were smashing tables, swinging bats, and attacking people. Trigger immediately jumped into the fray and unleashed a series of Krav Maga moves that dispatched two thugs. Kablisk, Cruiser, and Richard rolled in shortly thereafter and also engaged with the hoodlums. They did their best to tangle with the goons, but only Kablisk was successful in landing a solid punch with his Shock Gloves, incapacitating another. One goon swung a bat and connected with Cruiser, knocking him back as he clutched his arm in pain. Wyrine finally arrived and saw the commotion outside; patrons looked visibly distressed and were comforting each other. He entered gun drawn and saw the skirmish. He fired off a round and was able to take down one of the last two assailants. Trigger finished with an Axe Kick flourish and knocked the last Humanis Policlub member out cold. Everyone began frantically searching for Maxine; she hadn't been seen and was nowhere to be found. They searched the building top to bottom, but turned up nothing. It was time to interrogate one of the criminals. The team dragged one of the disarmed ruffians up to their usual meeting space. Richard woke him up by healing him as little as he could manage. Trigger got in the Humanis Policlub member's face, brandishing his combat knife. "Who sent you? Who are you working for?" The man sneered at Trigger and divulged nothing. Trigger applied pressure in the form of his bladed weapon on the man's genitals. "Say goodbye to your balls." The man's eyes widened and he began to talk. He talked about his boss and their orders to rough the place up because Maxine refused to comply with their business proposal. In the midst of the interrogation, Cruiser was frantically calling Maxine via commlink again and again, to no avail. Finally, it connected. There was no sound on the other end of the call, but Wyrine seized the opportunity to trace Maxine's commlink icon to a sparsely populated industrial area in Renton. The Shadowrunners gathered up the Humanis Policlub members and left them, unconscious and covered in incendiary language, in front of an entrance to the Ork Underground, where they would likely be disposed of in a gruesome fashion. The team arrived at the mouth of a cul-de-sac and utilized Cruiser's drones to examine the layout. They found Maxine, bound, bruised, and bleeding on the second floor of a dim and dirty hovel of an industrial building. Maxine was surrounded by a handful of Humanis Policlub thugs and more were guarding the main entrance outside. The inquiries at the hospital had produced few results, but Dr. Jefferies had given Richard the suggestion to check with the retirement home as to where Rutha Batiste's remains were currently.
Richard hopped on Kablisk's scooter and they proceeded to zoom back to Rutha's last known residence before she passed away. Cruiser and Trigger were patiently waiting in the van while Wyrine worked his skill in the Matrix to examine the electronics in Rutha's former house. After examining the ancient desktop computer earlier and finding nothing substantial, Wyrine followed Trigger's suggestion and hacked the refrigerator - it showed a regular cycle of using up and replacing staples like eggs, milk, meat, and vegetables. This caught everyone's attention. Wasn't Rutha supposed to be deceased? Who was living in her house and using her appliances? Wyrine, Trigger, and Cruiser wanted to see just who would return to the house if they waited long enough, so they began their stakeout. As the three waited near Rutha's residence, Karl and Richard pursued their lead back at the retirement home. The scooter pulled up in front of the building and they were met with a few residents getting some fresh air outside from the comfort of their wheelchairs as attendants looked on. Richard gave himself a mental pep talk to rehearse his conversation with whoever he would first encounter inside in order to gain access to information on Rutha. He decided he would pose as a grandchild of the family, just looking to retrace some of his roots, as he didn't have a strong relationship with them. He walked through the double glass sliding doors and examined his surroundings - it was both a convalescent home and a retirement home. The decor reflected that with creme and white permeating all of the surfaces. Everything looked very sterile and the female ork receptionist was dressed in scrubs. As Richard scanned the generic looking lobby, he was confronted with an elderly man seated in his wheelchair, glaring intensely. The attention made Richard nervous and he wanted to divert the man's gaze as quickly as possible without attracting any notice. He muttered a quick Influence spell and briefly gestured in the direction of the elderly man. The man immediately became very involved in the wall next to him, no longer attempting to stare down Richard. With a sigh of relief, Richard returned his thoughts to engaging the receptionist. Again he shot off a quick Influence spell, this time giving her the conviction that Richard was indeed who he pretended to be. Richard began his story, explaining just as he had recited earlier. As Richard was talking, the receptionist interrupted. "It's interesting, I've never seen your side of the family around. All of Rutha's relatives that came to visit were black." Richard chuckled nervously. He was even more grateful for the Influence spell, as his Asian and Caucasian features would be significantly less convincing without the magic taking effect. He didn't want to linger too long as made two requests - to see Rutha's old room and to locate her burial site. The receptionist offered to get an address while he had a look at her former abode. Richard strolled down the hall until he came to Room 107. He entered and saw that it was a two person dormitory style room, with only one bed occupied by an elderly elf who was non-responsive. He used his Assensing powers to peer into the Astral realm for any signs of magic. It had been many years since Rutha's presence could be felt here, so as expected no trace remained. Returning to the reception desk, he was presented with an address for a mausoleum in Puyallup. Richard decided to press his luck further and inquire about the visitors who saw Rutha in her final days and probed for more addresses. It seemed the power of Influence had its limits, as the receptionist was beginning to question the validity of Richard's claims. The ork was becoming more and more suspicious until she finally asked for some identification before agreeing to proceed with anymore conversation on the subject of Rutha. At this Richard realized that he had overstayed his welcome and was not interested in going any farther with this subterfuge. He made an excuse and quickly excused himself from the premises. They now had an address for Rutha's final resting place and pulled into highway traffic to head towards Puyallup. While Karl and Richard were en route to the mausoleum, Trigger, Wyrine, and Cruiser continued their stakeout. Wyrine sat on a bench in the back of the Bulldog, slipping in and out of consciousness as he stared at the ceiling of the van. Cruiser was jacked into the vehicle, but he too was distracted and had difficulty maintaining focus on their task. It was Trigger who spotted the troll child playing on the sidewalk. Trigger's eyes continued to follow as they played with a rubber ball. The stout troll was playing some kind of shadow game and gradually approaching the house that the runners knew to be Rutha Batiste's. The child was in the yard at this point, dribbling the ball with feet that looked almost comically large. Now all three runners had their attention on the troll and waited. After another thirty seconds of playing with the ball, the child kicked it so that it went around the side of the house and into a narrower space where prying eyes most likely wouldn't interrupt. Running after the ball and disappearing from view, the team leaped into action. Cruiser immediately sent a drone towards the back of the house and caught a fleeting glimpse of the child before it ducked into a door on the back side of the house. Wyrine took the front door and Trigger ran to the back. Before barging into, Wyrine pressed his ear to the door and called out in a neutral voice, asking for Rutha. The sudden conversation appeared to startle the troll and a crash could be heard as something fell to the floor. A timid voice replied to Wyrine, asking how he knew Rutha. Wyrine mustered as much conviction as he could to mention Blossom Free as well as the lengthy efforts he and his team had gone through to track down Rutha. He was of the mind that this child was somehow possessed by Batiste, considering her notoriety as a Vodou Priestess. The adolescent troll was convinced by Wyrine's neutral tone of voice. It agreed to let him in after he also offered to help clean up the mess that was created after being startled by Wyrine's interruption. Wyrine was greeted at the door with a somewhat unkempt youth who had made some effort to wipe its face of dirt and grime, but only partially succeeded. Together, they spent ten minutes wiping the floor, throwing egg shells away, and otherwise arranging the kitchen to be more presentable. At this point Wyrine had the impression that he wasn't speaking with Rutha occuping another body, but rather a child that for some reason came to this house weekly to maintain the image that someone was living here. The troll agreed to take Wyrine to meet Rutha and together they walked to the nearest bus stop. The route was bound for Puyallup, a district that was filled with far more middle class and poverty stricken families, far removed from the idyllic neighborhood of Batiste's old haunt. Trigger returned to the van and Cruiser began following in the wake of the bus as it picked up the troll child and Wyrine, trailing the circuitous path all the way to Puyallup. As the public transit bus and the Bulldog meandered through Seattle, Richard and Kablisk reached the mausoleum where Rutha Batiste's cremated remains were expected to be housed. They entered the old brick building and were met with rows and rows of plaques buried in the concrete walls - the classism was very apparent as the more affluent could afford ornate reliefs made of precious metals where those without the means had the most basic inscriptions carved into the walls themselves. It took a good ten minutes of combing through the plaques, some requiring a deal of effort to decipher their calligraphy script, to finally locate Rutha's final resting place. They were near the end of a hall with a family praying at a relative's internment where the hall met a junction. Kablisk and Richard examined the plaque. It wasn't the shabbiest, but it certainly wasn't a high-class metal tablet, either. The dates matched those found in the death certificate. Below, there was a curious inscription. "I burn, I pine, I perish." The two were unclear as to the meaning, but Richard moved ahead with what he had originally planned to do when coming to the mausoleum. He slumped to the floor with his back against the wall and entered a trance. Astrally projecting his body and leaving his physical form, he examined his environment. There were no signs of any recent magic in this dead place, unsurprisingly. As a final effort, Richard merged with the wall and poked his head into the space where he expected to find an urn or some other reliquary of ashes. After this length investigation, he was unperturbed to discover that the space was entirely empty. Richard returned to his body, realizing that he was locked in an awkward embrace with Kablisk because the family down the hall had started to take notice of Richard's compromising position on the floor. The ruse complete and convincing, they separated and Richard relayed his discoveries, passing them along to the rest of the group. As the bus crossed the threshold from Auburn to Puyallup, the scenery changed dramatically. Gone was the blue collar industry and factories; it was replaced with garbage and derelict buildings. The bus had reached its terminus and the troll disembarked, oblivious to its dismal surroundings. It may have been a burnt out husk of a district, but it was still home to the youth. The troll led Wyrine down the street to an alleyway filled with garbage and set between two boarded up tenements. They made it halfway down the passage before the adolescent halted and pointed at the distinctly out-of-place red mailbox surrounded by a half circle barrier of cleanliness. All of the garbage had been pushed to either and Wyrine had an ominous feeling about what lay before him. The strange mailbox required an explanation and the child did its best to explain, telling Wyrine that it had to be at the post at exactly 8PM every two weeks on Tuesday, no mistakes. In this way, it ensured a steady income for the food runs it made to Rutha's old residence for keeping up the facade. Wyrine wanted to make sure he thanked the troll properly for the gracious help that required no strong-arming or intimidation. He found the nearest Stuffer Shack and told the child to get whatever it wanted. Wyrine immediately regretted saying that as the troll started tallying up as many combo meals as its burly arms could carry. In the end, it wasn't a huge charge and it left the troll dashing off in glee as it would be able to feed its entire family for several meals. This entire episode was closely followed by Cruiser, Trigger, Richard, and Kablisk. Cruiser had perched his Nissan Rotodrone on the corner of a rooftop overlooking the mailbox so it could be continually monitored from now on. Trigger had made his way through the abandoned building on the left side of the alleyway, to discover that it wasn't entirely unoccupied. A small group of squatters on the second floor had made it their dwelling. As long as they didn't interrupt Trigger's work, they would go unharmed. Some time passed as Kablisk and Richard made their way down the freeway to the location in Puyallup to meet up with the team. Trigger was continuing his stakeout from the dilapidated apartment and Cruiser was jacked into his drone to maintain eyes in the sky. Richard entered the Bulldog step-van and slumped into a bench in the back. His astral persona glided towards the mailbox and saw it in the astral plane with a distinctive pulsing sphere surrounding it. His Assensing gathered that it was encompassed by some powerful magic, but exactly what effect it would have on someone who stepped through the boundary was unclear to him. Kablisk was on his way to join the others, but as he advanced down the sidewalk towards the alleyway, his long black trench coat had garnered the attention of a couple of street toughs. The two orks, clad in mechanic's jumpsuits, began posturing and approaching him. Kablisk made an attempt to throw out some Sprawl knowledge in the hopes that it would intimidate them enough and make them believe he was a ganger not to be trifled with. He was only partially successful in the endeavor. It was enough to stop the two orks in their tracks, but not enough to get them to back down. Having caught wind of the altercation, Trigger had made his way to the other end of the abandoned building and knocked out the boards of a window where he would poke his head out to yell out in Or'zet. It was enough to throw the two toughs off of their guard and their bravado quickly deflated. They no longer outnumbered Kablisk and were nervous about starting anything with another ork, so they buried their hands in their pockets and glared at Trigger as they skirted the sidewalk and passed him. One final act of defiance was a quick middle finger thrown in his direction and then they took off down the street. Prodding and poking the barrier with his magical senses, Richard was unsuccessful until he was stopped short by glancing a figure approaching from the rooftops. Cruiser confirmed with his drone and came upon a very curious sight: a small humanoid gliding from building to building. It was as if the person were an astronaut walking on the Moon. Pushing off with one foot, it slowly ascended and descended to push off again. At a point two buildings away from where the Shadowrunners were positioned in front of the mailbox, it stopped in its tracks. Richard's astral body was floating at a point halfway between the van and the mailbox. He could see something none of the other runners were able to discern. The true form of the figure was a dark skinned female dwarf. She was examining Richard's form with curiosity; his Assensing told him that she was not aggressive or bore any ill-will. Wyrine had run to within several meters of the mailbox, calling out to the dwarf and asking her purpose. The dwarf commanded Wyrine to stay put and to let her finish her business, then they would talk. He agreed and the woman advanced. When she reached the lip of the rooftop overlooking the pristine mailbox, she stepped over the ledge and did a ninety degree pivot. Now she was walking down the building, as if gravity were no concern to her. She reached the mailbox and stepped so that now she was on top of it. She reached in and then withdrew her had. The dwarf asked what business Wyrine had. Wyrine explained the lengthy search for Rutha Batiste, the scrolls written in Creole, the passages they had uncovered, and the Celestial Atal. She considered all of his information and promised to communicate it to Rutha. She asked that all five members of the team be present exactly where Wyrine was currently standing in the alley. She would have an answer at this exact time tomorrow evening. With that, she darted off in the direction from which she had just come. The group headed back to their respective residences, there was no point in hanging around the Barrens for another twenty four hours. On their way home, Richard used his commlink to contact Blossom Free and gather more information on this mysterious individual. Blossom told him that he had just met Gigi. She was an Adept, that explained her supernatural physical powers. She was an assistant to Rutha, someone who left Batiste's territory to do errands for her. Blossom was surprised to hear that no altercations had taken place when they first met. Gigi was not well-known for having an even temper. The Shadowrunners recuperated at home and returned to Puyallup refreshed. The team stood three abreast in front and one in the back row, with Cruiser's fly drone representing him. The promised hour came and Gigi was nowhere to be seen. Richard checked the astral realm and found her, motioning for him to follow. She sped off and he spent some time carefully tracking her astral signature until he came to the end of a trail where it met a cave fashioned out of garbage. Richard diligently retraced his astral steps and returned to the crew. With some memorization of certainly alleyway landmarks, he was able to bring the other three runners to the same cave he had seen through his astral persona. The cave reeked of rotten refuse and dripped from the top of the entrance. No one was interested in getting drenched in garbage juices, so the runners scrounged for usable pieces of cardboard that would protect them as they passed through the mouth. Together they reached a metal walkway that overlooked an underground black market. The space appeared to be a former bomb shelter and had been commandeered to suit these less-than-legal ventures. Stalls were selling all manner of goods: BTL chips, drugs, weapons. The team passed through, the patrons indifferent to their presence. The smell of oily grilled meats assaulted their noses and they followed the corridor to the end of the hall, where they were greeted by a stern-looking Gigi. Gigi pushed open the thick blast door and the team adjusted to a darkness dotted by clusters of candles spread around the room. A glum looking curly haired brown woman dressed in patched robes spoke in a thick Irish accent. "I wondered when you'd finally come." Wyrine explained what the group had discovered ever since their investigation stemmed from the scrolls they had acquired way back when Taff Chakaodza was held captive by a pair of mages. He told Rutha that she was the best person to solve this mystery. Rutha pondered for a moment and turned to her table to consult her bones. She rolled them carefully on the stained and splintered wood, peering at the results. "I'll need you to return with the physical scrolls, I don't do digital. I'll be waiting." Richard had one final question before they departed. What was with the inscription on her mausoleum plaque? "You'll find out soon enough," she said, leaving them thoroughly perplexed. Wyrine had succeeded in putting a mark on the icon that looked like a Pacific Northwest Native American design of a killer whale. He wanted to do the digital equivalent of pulling out all of the wires and reconnecting them into the wrong sockets.
After some finagling with the code and the trial and error of Hack on the Fly, Wyrine secured two more marks with his signature T-Rex tooth and proceeded to do a combination of Edit File, Control Device, and finally Crash Program. This would effectively accomplish the goal of rearranging all of the master panel's controls and reboot the system with all of the monkey wrenches locked in place. While this was occurring, Trigger kept an eye on the two individuals who appeared to be taking turns using the restroom. They completed their business and stepped into the hallway. One faced towards the entryway to the control room where Trigger and Wyrine were positioned, while the second individual faced the two employees in the office across from the restroom. As Trigger was waiting to see what the next move was for these two people, Kablisk and Richard made their way across the roof and towards the pipeline where they could climb down and wait for Cruiser's van to pick them up. Kablisk climbed over the railing onto the pipe where he waited for Richard to summon the mana energy necessary to initiate a Levitate spell. Richard had little trouble focusing his power on Kablisk and lowered him the four meters from the pipe to the ground without breaking a sweat. Next, he repeated the spell for himself and again adroitly completed the invocation. They stood at the ready to climb into the van when the time came to act. Positioned behind one of the terminals in the control room, Trigger saw one of the two individuals approaching the door in front of him. Quickly, Trigger placed the Nissan Rotodrone directly in the path of the advancing person, so that the drone would confront it as soon as the entrance slid open. The person approached the door, oblivious to what they were faced with as soon as the entrance soundlessly opened. The Rotodrone opened fire and they took a stun round straight to the chest. The drone's sensors relayed everything it saw and now the runners knew they faced two people in full riot protection gear. They must have come from the protest to recuperate. Trigger seized the opportunity of the distraction to charge the person, but they managed to juke out of the way and Trigger sprawled into a corner of the hallway. The Nissan drone only managed to get a couple of shots off before the Raiden assault rifle tore the machine into shrapnel. While the riot gear-clad individual still had their attention on the drone, Trigger squeezed and attempted to put several bullets in their back. Surprisingly unsuccessful, the guard must have used a sixth sense to twist out of the way at the last moment. This was extremely close-quarters combat and the person returned fire at Trigger, but his armor was strong enough to shrug off the bullets. In a final aggressive shot, Trigger screamed and let loose another burst. This one found its mark and put the heavily armored person down. Their armor wasn't enough to stop bullets at this range. The second guard had rounded the corner in the dozen seconds that had passed and Trigger was ready to put several bullets into this individual as well. With less of a violent dance of death this time, the second riot security guard was quickly dispatched, sprawling onto the tiled floor. Wyrine had finished all of his sabotage to the control system for the substation. He noticed that several figures were speeding towards him, their avatars made to look like fox designs in the Pacific Northwest Native American art style. One whipped its tail at Wyrine's T-Rex persona and it took the full force of the attack. Wyrine's physical muscles tensed up, as if he were straining all of his muscles to fight a seizure. Kablisk saw that Wyrine was in serious trouble and sent his Fault Sprite to locate the T-Rex avatar and attack the Killer IC. Several seconds elapsed and the sprite found Wyrine's digital location, immediately launching its Electron Storm. The fox was arrested with forks of lightning, forcing it to divert its attention from Wyrine. The second fox avatar made a swipe at Wyrine, connecting, but less deadly than the previous attack. He was still feeling the serious effects of the first assault and was running out of time to endure this kind of digital abuse while in Hot Sim. Finally, he was able to successfully jack out of the Matrix and fell to the floor, robbed of all energy from the Killer IC combat. The fatigue from exerting himself in cyberspace was overwhelming and now all of his muscles were on fire. He dragged himself out of the control room to follow Trigger, examining the two deceased bodies on the floor. Trigger had done his job as the Street Samurai. The two could see lights and hear machines slowly powering down, leaving nothing but the emergency lights active; the Crash Program forced reboot was taking effect in the main control room. They crept along the hallway and Trigger used his thermographic vision to look into the office where previously there were two employees working at their cubicles. He saw them both cowering under their desks with their hands shielding their heads. They were no threat to the two Shadowrunners. Wyrine found the corridor where the two riot gear-clad individuals had entered the building. They stood outside near the doors to wait for Cruiser, who was peeling around the southeast corner of the building with Kablisk and Richard in tow. The sensors on Cruiser's Bulldog picked up a large armored van approaching the substation. They were presumably coming from the protest and Cruiser wasn't interested in slowing down too much to give the vehicle an attack of opportunity. He slowed the GMC down to about 15kph as Trigger and Wyrine timed their jumps to land inside at precisely the right time. They threw themselves in and Cruiser swerved right to spin the van back in the other direction. The Bulldog peeled out, returning to the back of the building in the hopes that the armored van hadn't spotted them. Just in case, they wanted to be ready to unleash a full-on attack and get off of Athabaskan property as quickly as possible. Kablisk sent his Machine Sprite on a hunt to locate the Matrix icon for the van. Richard closed his eyes and concentrated on a levitation spell to target the vehicle. Trigger readied his Cavalier sniper rifle in the Bulldog's turret. Wyrine was still recovering from the extreme exhaustion of the Matrix altercation. The team had reached the northwest corner of the facility and through thermographic saw that the armored van had stopped where the parking lot met the road back to Bear Lake. It was waiting for the Shadowrunners to make a move. Cruiser mentally jammed on the gas pedal and swung out around the parking lot, using the few cars dotting the lot as cover. Trigger kept his gaze fixated on the turret he spotted on the roof of the van. As soon as a figure appeared, he would launch a high velocity round. Richard threw his spell, but to no avail. He was trying to lift a one-ton armored van and channeling this kind of energy was a new challenge for him. A security guard much like the two Trigger had encountered earlier appeared in the turret. Trigger took a shot, but the turret provided enough cover that the person could duck out of the way easily. Kablisk's Machine Sprite had located the Matrix icon for the van and began bombarding it with its Gremlins ability. The Machine Sprite only managed small successes with the attacks, causing random sensor malfunctions, but it was enough to throw them off guard. The riot personnel in the van's turret returned fire, but Trigger also benefited from his own secure location and managed to avoid the bullet easily. But this time, he quickly responded and the projectile penetrated the armor with ease. The body slumped into the turret, out of view of Trigger's grin of satisfaction. Richard's second attempt at a Levitation spell was successful. He held out his hands and concentrated deeply, weaving the mana energies around him and lifted the armored van eight meters into the air. With a rotating motion of his hand, he gently flipped the vehicle upside down and watched the body in the turret plummet to the ground. Richard lowered the van back to the asphalt, where the roof crushed the corpse and immobilized it. Having disposed of the last of their opposition, the runners sped through Bear Lake, eager to get back to the neon lights and grime of the Seattle Metroplex where their credstick rewards were waiting. The Shadowrunners' endorphins were finally wearing off after the heavy action they had been a part of at the Athabaskan Oil Pipeline when a trio of Barghest came barreling out of the forest on a collision course to T-bone the Bulldog. Cruiser's sensors and quick reflexes gave him the opportunity to swerve just enough to avoid their charge. As an added touch, Richard calmly cast Mass Confusion and left the three metacreatures stalled in their tracks in the middle of the highway, looking around with perplexity. The team made it all the way back to Seattle with no further incidents, doing their best to spend the 48-hour shipping freighter ride recovering from the burnout of their involved mission. Cruiser checked in with Esther Anaba Half-Moon and arranged to have her meet him and the rest of the crew at what had become their local haunt, Punk Monkeys. Esther was in the middle of more of her questionable work - there were always background sounds that made the listener wonder whether she was dealing with patients or victims. She promised to meet the runners around 2am. At Punk Monkeys, Cruiser spent his time chatting up Maxine in his awkward style. He admitted that he was no good with the ladies, but Maxine was engaging him in conversation with a smile on her face. The rest of the group was upstairs in the board room making use of the mini bar. 2am rolled around and Esther walked in wearing an all-black business casual outfit. Cruiser led her up to the meeting room to meet everyone else. Esther cut straight to the chase, she was never interested in small talk. Eyeing each runner individually, she said, "The people I spoke with had many good things to say about your sabotage. It has cost Athabaskan upwards of tens of millions of nuyen by this point and they are still working on recovering from the damage. I will certainly consider your team for future runs as your success here has proven your skill." Esther took each of their credsticks and slotted it into the device she pulled out of her suit jacket. Each person was compensated over the agreed upon price, given the effectiveness of their sabotage. The team returned to their personal abodes to get some well deserved rest. Decisions on what direction to take next would begin in the morning. Wyrine and Cruiser, the insomniacs, struggled to sleep, but Kablisk, Richard, and Trigger had a full night's rest and woke up ready to take on the day. Everyone conversed on their commlinks about what to do next. Some were eager to find out what other missions were available, but eventually agreed that any runs inquired about right now would most likely have to get started immediately. The majority of the crew was interested in getting back to their investigation on the magical artifacts and Rutha Batiste. The Shadowrunners examined the evidence they had gathered so far: Rutha's death certificate and leads on research into Creole incantations being done at MIT, UCLA, and UoD. The universities were long distance and not easy to hack, so the team agreed to look deeper into Rutha Batiste. A few minutes of decking from Wyrine and Kablisk produced some leads: names of nurses and orderlies from daily reports on Rutha's life in a retirement home in Puyallup, an address where her belongings were meant to be sent after her passing, and a hospital location for the doctor who issued the death certificate for Rutha's body. The runners decided to split up. Kablisk and Richard would speak with Hue Jefferies, the doctor whose signature adorned the death certificate. Cruiser, Trigger, and Wyrine would head to the address where her personal effects were expected to reside. The trio arrived at the house, situated in a charming neighborhood that reeked of retirement age residents. The house was quaint, a carbon copy of all the other residences on the street. Parking near the house, Wyrine entered the Matrix to examine the house for any electronics he could exploit. He quickly zeroed in on a home computer that dated itself with the minimal digital architecture. Sifting through the data stored in the files, most of the information was unimpressive and not noteworthy. Until he came across some correspondence between Rutha and her daughter. The daughter might prove to be a lead they could explore later. The other curious finding was a lot of basic information files on vodou - if Rutha was supposed to be some kind of Priestess, what need would she have for introductory texts? Kablisk and Richard pulled up to the hospital in his scooter. Kablisk waited in the parking lot while Richard planned to use his social skills in the company of the doctor Hue Jefferies. Richard gave a rather implausible story about a former student interested in paying respects to Rutha's body and needing to speak with Dr. Jefferies in the hopes that he could provide the address to a cemetery or crematorium. The sheer bizarreness of the story may have been enough to convince the receptionist and nurse at the front desk because with a smile and some button presses, a call was placed to ask Dr. Jefferies to make an appearance at the lobby to speak with Richard. Minutes passed and a suave elf with slicked-back blonde hair and an expensive manicure appeared. He was put off by the shaman in front of him and Richard's explanation only confused him further. Hue Jefferies didn't have much to say; he was either unconvinced by Richard's explanation or legitimately had no answer to give. Jefferies flashed his sparkling smile and suggested that Richard speak with the people at Rutha's retirement home because he takes no part in burial services and simply confirms the death of a patient by notarizing the appropriate documents. The team was back on the road and now had their captive to interrogate. Different members wrestled wit h ideas on how to deal with the ork who had attempted to murder them. Both of his compatriots had been left behind with the burning car pushed deep in the woods to be forgotten.
The group agreed that they needed to confirm no reinforcements would be coming to settle a score for him and if he were to be released, he would make no effort to pursue them. Richard cast a healing spell as delicately as he could manage, so as not to rehabilitate their prisoner too much. He followed up that spell with his Influence, to ensure that his answers would be as truthful as possible. The ork came to and Richard began plying him with questions, aided by his social skill prowess. "What were you being paid for? What will you do if we let you go?" The answers were satisfactory for the runners - the ork was tasked with defense of the substation and tracking down any Shadowrunners entering the territory. He had no interest in the Shadowrun business anymore, considering he had just seen his comrades gunned down with lethal precision. The team came to a consensus on keeping the ork tied up at the wrists and releasing him unconscious and camouflaged in the forest. Kablisk swung at the mercenary with his shock gloves, connected, and rendered him unconscious again. He used his ability to adeptly disguise the ork's presence in the foliage. Kablisk returned to the GMC Bulldog and Cruiser gunned the accelerator. The runners made it the rest of the way to Bear Lake without any further incident. They approached the town and pulled into a small camping area enshrouded by towering maples. Cruiser released his MCT Fly-Spy drone and launched it into the sky overhead to examine the path from Bear Lake to the Athabaskan Oil Pipeline substation. It was a relatively straight shot through the town and towards the compound. The corridor of trees formed by the valley funneled one's gaze directly between the mountains on either side. The team realized that they hadn't eaten in nearly a day, so they chose one of their most innocuous members to pick up some groceries in town - Wyrine. He got out of the step van and walked to a simple market in Bear Lake. Wyrine picked up an assortment of simple meals and snacks and laid them on the counter. The cashier made small talk, asking about his plans while in town. Wyrine was a bit put off by this sudden friendliness; it was a significant departure from the 'I don't know you and you don't know me' attitude of the Seattle Metroplex, but he did his best to engage with the staff. A point of interest for Wyrine in the conversation was the cashier bringing up a protest or possible riot in the vicinity of the oil pipeline, starting sometime early tomorrow. The clerk didn't go into details, but it sounded like a good distraction for when the Shadowrunners planned to hit the Athabaskan Oil Pipeline substation and cripple the machinery inside. Hoping his small talk was enough to satisfy the curiosity of the cashier, he paid for the food and walked back to the van, where he was greeted with a dormant RV on the opposite side of the parking lot. The encounter with the Shadowrunners back on the highway from Kitimat had Wyrine on edge and he was immediately suspicious of the camper. After dropping off the groceries and checking in with the group, Wyrine volunteered to chat with the occupants of the RV. Trigger's thermographic vision counted three individuals in the vehicle. Wyrine knocked on the metal door that would give him access to the cabin portion of the camper. After some shuffling and a period of time passed that seemed inordinately long for such a small space, the door cracked open. Wyrine was met with an outdoors-type individual: weathered skin that had clearly spent the majority of its life in the sun and a heavy, dark beard adorned his face. The man's expression was neutral when Wyrine attempted to make small talk and introduce himself. He didn't really have anything of note to talk about, so the conversation ran dry rather quickly. Wyrine excused himself and upon returning to the vehicle, asked what Trigger had seen through his thermographic vision during the conversation. Trigger declared that he had seen no movement from the other two individuals while Wyrine engaged with the man. It was extremely suspicious and before the runners could come to a decision on how to proceed, Trigger took it upon himself to throw formality to the wind and went to the RV under the pretense of needing to borrow some salt. Again, the door only cracked open wide enough for a sliver of the man's face to poke out, but Trigger, continuing to see no movement from the other two people, kicked the door in. The man flew back, prone on the floor of the cabin. Trigger stepped in to see a woman and boy bound to chairs in the kitchenette area of the RV. By this time, Richard and Wyrine had caught up with Trigger and were met with the hostage scene. Trigger wanted to make absolutely certain that there was no mistaking what he suspected was happening here, so he asked Richard for an Influence spell again. Trigger confirmed that the man with the dark, cracked skin was a serial killer. He had murdered a number of innocents already and he was simply continuing his spree with this woman and her child. He currently had no other living victims. Wyrine led the woman and child out of the cabin and shut the door behind him, so Trigger could get to business. Trigger repeated stabbed the magically dazed man with his [knife], leaving the man in a quickly widening pool of blood. Wyrine did his best to comfort the woman while they walked back to Bear Lake. He made a convincing point to keep the police out of this matter because he and his cohorts would take of everything. It was enough to assuage the woman from fears of retaliation. In the back of her mind, she already had an idea of what end the murderer would meet. Wyrine made one last effort to probe for any connections to the Athabaskan Oil Pipeline, in case that could be exploited, but time was short and the runners were overstaying their welcome in the town. Richard and Trigger examined the inside of the camper for any useful items, but it was all standard camping equipment. They had more than enough trappings from the soldiers of fortune they had disposed of previously. Trigger noted that this serial killer must have been keeping his tools in another location, removed from the jejune environment of the RV. Wyrine returned from parting with the woman and her child. He entered the driver's side of the camper and disengaged the brake, rolling it as deep into the woods as it could go before being stopped by the vegetation. The team realized at this point that no good would come out of remaining this close to a crime scene. Cruiser pulled the GMC Bulldog out of the campground and found a place closer to Bear Lake where they could hunker down to pass the night undisturbed. A number of members awoke to the distant sound of a police siren. The group wasted no time packing up and readying themselves to head to their mission location. Out the rear view window, they glimpsed the police car pulling into the campground where they had parked yesterday and exacted street justice on the kidnapper. They could only assume that someone had discovered the camper and contacted the authorities. After passing through Bear Lake as inconspicuously as possible, the runners examined the path before them. It was a relatively open and elevated line to the substation. The majority of forest in this area had been felled to make way for the pipeline, construction, and a clear line of sight. Only a handful of solitary pine trees dotted the landscape here. The group found that their chances for remaining unseen would be much greater if they followed the tree line that skirted the base of the mountain range that created the valley in Bear Lake. Cruiser cautiously guided his step van along the edge of the forest, keeping his sensors alert for any interlopers. He stopped the vehicle and parked at the cusp of the trees meeting open field, the most direct path to cover where the crew could sidestep the shadow of the pipeline and remain hidden. Everyone besides Cruiser exited the Bulldog and proceeded to sneak to the shadows of the hulking metal structure in front of them. Everyone was successful in sneaking to the pipeline undetected, though some were far more capable and accomplished it with greater finesse. At this point, Wyrine reached out with his Renraku Tsurugi cyberdeck to perceive what electronics were accessible in the vicinity for tampering. He located a camera pointed in their direction and proceeded to use his Hack on the Fly skills to rework the codes necessary for operating it, granting him access to the controls. He edited the files contained in the camera, setting up a 24 hour loop of the previous day and ensured that there were no anomalies in the footage that would raise any red flags. The team approached the substation and recognized that the easiest entry point would probably be on the roof, but the realization had dawned on them that no one had thought to bring some of the more important climbing equipment. Thankfully, Cruiser made use of his Nissan Rotodrone and had it ferry the rappelling gloves to the Shadowrunners. Now that they were properly equipped to climb, they went up one by one, with Trigger first. He assisted the other climbers who lacked the same prowess he had in scaling the pipeline. With everyone having ascended the metal structure successfully, the group cautiously proceeded to the roof to examine any obstacles that were in their way before reaching the door. There were some large vents and smokestacks belching out steam and chemicals, but they found nothing of note until they reached the door that would take them into the building. Wyrine caught the electronic lock and immediately jumped in to hack it from his position. He easily defeated the security measures and gave the lock instructions to only open from the outside, safeguarding against hazards from within the building. Opening the door a crack, Cruiser sent his Shiawase Kanmushi drone in to check the situation inside. The drone concealed itself under the metal grating of the walkway that ran the length of the second floor, winding its way around the various machinery. The drone spotted one of the technicians below, monitoring the output levels of a particular pump. The Kanmushi continued to creep along the underside of the walkway until it reached the other side of the building and located the office area, where Wyrine's hacking had revealed the master control panel to be. It entered the ventilation system to continue monitoring the whole of the office area through thermographic means. Now that the area had been confirmed to be largely devoid of personnel, Trigger and Wyrine advanced into the facility. Richard and Kablisk elected to stay behind, so the Technomancer could begin his hacking sabotage on the machinery. Trigger and Wyrine snuck past the worker below them with ease, being sure to walk with purpose and not make sudden movements. The roar of the equipment in the facility also help to remove the sound factor from the equation. Kablisk was in the Athabaskan host, examining the plethora of icons fashioned after Pacific Northwest Native American imagery representing eagles, fish, and killer whales. He sifted through the data to unearth some useful information about a weak point he could exploit for maximum interference to the instruments. After minutes in Matrix time, really a matter of seconds in the physical world, Kablisk zeroed in on a number of maintenance logs that specified a particular pump that had had frequent issues with voltage overload. After a successful edit to the program managing the threshold for electrically overwhelming the apparatus, he called upon his Machine Sprite and instructed it to use its Gremlins ability to wreak havoc on the pump. It was primed to go off at a moment's notice. Trigger and Wyrine continued to the hallway that led to a series of offices for the pipeline substation. They treaded carefully, weapons at the ready. They made a left to creep down the nondescript corridor and Trigger noticed two employees sitting at desks across from each other. Since they were facing one another, there was little chance of the Shadowrunners being noticed, but the door to their office was open and they didn't want to take any chances. One at a time, being as discreet as possible, they edged to the doorway and then quickly crossed the threshold to get to the end of the hallway, where they were met with the entrance to the control room. During Wyrine's time on the roof waiting for the ok from Cruiser's drone, he spent time tracking down this physical location and also disabled the door's maglock. Wyrine passed through the incapacitated security and plugged into the control console; he was immediately transported to the master controls for the entire facility. While Wyrine was occupied with accessing the terminal, Trigger spotted two larger individuals walking down the hall in their direction. Their arms were positioned in a way that they were clearly carrying something long and large that would undoubtedly be firearms. At the last second they turned right into a small room. The crew arrived at the port in Kitimat via shipping freighter and were transported in their metal shipping container to a nondescript warehouse away from prying eyes where they could disembark without the usual hassle of Customs.
The shipping container was offloaded from the big rig truck and the large metal doors groaned open. The five runners looked at each other, unsure of how to proceed at this point. Were they meant to contact the Coyote, Israel? Did they need to check in with Cruiser's contact, Esther? Kablisk and Wyrine elected to do some investigating on the Matrix because Wyrine was especially worried about the lack of information they possessed on this sabotage mission. Who would they be up against? Who was interested in sabotaging the Athabaskan Oil Pipeline? The team made a plan to get from Kitimat to Bear Lake, taking the most direct route possible, while avoiding main roads for two-thirds of the drive. During that time, Wyrine and Kablisk would do some digital reconnaissance while Richard, Trigger, and Cruiser did their own investigating with the help of their contacts. Kablisk began hunting down the Athabaskan Oil Pipeline's host to gain more intel on the location itself and any other information that might prove useful during the run. Wyrine tailored his search to comb through the mountains of data and picked out any sources that were having a conversation about the substation the team was planning to sabotage. Kablisk was the first to find his mark, coming face to face with a nondescript structure that sported a Native American motif, adorned with feathers and various imagery. He started his Hack on the Fly attempts to poke and prod the defenses for weaknesses where he could slip through undetected. After some time passed, Wyrine was able to track down a message board where a conversation had taken place between members of Nova Gaia, a well-known Eco-terrorist group that mentioned the pipeline station by name. Upon further investigation, the comments revealed a need for someone to procure a Shadowrun group to take of the hit they had planned on the pipeline. Wyrine passed on the information to his fellow runners as a curious side-post caught his eye. Apparently someone else lurking in the conversation had noticed that the entire thread had caught the attention of another party involved with the pipeline and proceeded to post a job opening asking for Shadowrunners to defend the Athabaskan property. Wyrine followed the link and discovered three groups interested in the run. Beyond that, further conversation was hidden behind a code and link that Wyrine would have to trace. He turned back to his fellow runners and asked them to do some social engineering and probe their contacts for any leads on the groups taking up the call to defend Athabaskan territory. Trigger checked with his Fixer, Jennette Amos, and Cruiser with his Street Doc, Esther. Both contacts promised to look into the call for security of the Athabaskan Oil Pipeline. By this point, Kablisk had breached the walls of the Athabaskan host with the aid of his sprites. He realized that the Native American architecture made his persona rather conspicuous, so he opted to morph his digital self into something more befitting of the environment. Of the three groups had available to investigate, Wyrine chose one of the local Shadowrun groups that had responded to the post and used his tracing skills to hone in on terminus of the message, where the code and cypher would presumably be found. A sleek Eurocar Westwind 3000 had begun to attract the attention of Cruiser's sensors, mainly because it had maintained the same protracted distance for close to ten minutes now. Richard used his Clairvoyance spell to look at the occupants in the luxury automobile. Dressed in black suits, white shirts, and black ties, the two Orks and one Native American woman looked like professionals of some kind. The passengers were cradling SMGs and pistols in their laps. The group agreed to test a theory to verify if the car was indeed pursuing them or was just a poorly-timed coincidence. Cruiser sent a mental order to his [van] to accelerate. At first, the Eurocar did not speed up to match the pace, but after a number of seconds it too accelerated, keeping the GMC Bulldog at a larger distance now. Richard's Clairvoyance spell found no change in the demeanor of the three occupants of the car. Some arguing took place between the five runners about the best course of action from here on out, but after it became clear that there was a strong possibility these three people would present a serious obstacle as the pipeline drew closer. Wyrine and Kablisk were still in the Matrix, but continuing to follow the events happening in meatspace. They had not met with much success, as Kablisk was unsure how to proceed in the Athabaskan host and Wyrine had only managed as far as tracking one packet message to its destination before triggering a defense of some kind that manifested as a toy robot circa 1950 USA. Both elected to jack out and aid Trigger, Richard, and Cruiser with the looming skirmish. Trigger mentally flicked on his wired reflexes and used his military training to hone in on one of the front tires of the vehicle. He squeezed the trigger and the high velocity round rocketed out of the muzzle, passing through the bumper. It still had more than enough velocity to strike the tire and shred the rubber, causing the vehicle to veer out of control. It swerved to a stop on the side of the road as Cruiser's van pulled away, down the forested corridor highway. Two of his drones were still trained on the Westwind and the occupants exited the car, opening fire. The roar of bullets echoed and a number of them managed to cause noticeable damage to the Nissan Rotodrones. Cruiser immediately recalled them to the safety of the van, cursing as they sped down the thoroughfare. The team again got into a heated debate about the next course of action - should they leave the Eurocar behind or finish the job? Since the car was only temporarily disabled, the five came to a consensus that the three should be dealt with, so as to not interfere with the upcoming sabotage mission. Several clicks down the road, the Shadowrunners took positions in preparation for the surprise attack. Cruiser pulled the van into a clearing off of the main passage, readying his rotodrones on the edge of the forest, hidden in the canopy. He was thirsting to avenge their wounds. Richard and Trigger took points on the other side of the road, camouflaged by the forest underbrush. Wyrine and Kablisk spread out, hiding outside of the expanse of openness in the clearing while readying their weapons. After a couple of minutes, the Eurocar approached their location. Trigger was the first to spot it, aided by the enhanced magnification of his cybereyes, in addition to the scope mounted on the rifle. Cruiser wanted his revenge and chambered a mini-grenade. An audible thunk resounded and it sailed right into the roof of the car, where it detonated. The Westwind swerved off of the road and into the forest, where it deposited itself smoking and on fire. It became a waiting game to see who would take the first shot. Richard opted to move from cover and drew one of the three out as he was crossing the road. Unfortunately, it was not without hazard because a bullet from a pistol connected and he staggered, frantically trying to get off of the road. The shot was enough for Trigger to acquire a target. Between his thermographic and magnification enhanced vision, he had no trouble putting a bullet through the shoulder of the Native American woman. The round exploded through her suit, out of her back and she lay still. With the help of Cruiser's thermographic imaging on his [drones], he spotted the other two crouched behind tree trunks near the burning wreckage of the vehicle. Kablisk lobbed a tear gas grenade, catching the ork off guard, and forcing him to double over in a fit of coughing. Wyrine took a number of shots with his SMG, pock marking the trees where the two were fortified. One after the other, Cruiser used his MCT Rotodrone to riddle one ork with gel rounds, immobilizing him, while Trigger snuffed out the light of the other ork, scoring a hit that blasted out the side of his neck. The firefight was finished and all that was left was to obfuscate some of the more obvious evidence. The car was moved deeper into the forest to continue its slow-burning roof fire. The five runners patted down the bodies, recovering weapons and commlinks. Wyrine looked through the car, tearing out a console computer, a small cache of computer chips, and the contents of the trunk. The equipment in the trunk gave a clearer indication that it was indeed Shadowrunners that the team had been dealing with. There was all manner of equipment inside: climbing gear, interrogation paraphernalia, and a variety of provisions. The team walked off with the one unconscious member that had not met death at the hands of Trigger's ruthless Cavalier Arms Crockett sniper rifle. Kablisk and Richard jury-rigged restraints with some climbing rope and they set off again towards the Athabaskan Oil Pipeline facility. |
AuthorI'm Dobie, GM of this Shadowrun group. I've been playing Shadowrun since Second Edition, though I had a serious hiatus and have just recently picked up Fifth Edition to get back into the Shadowrun universe. Archives
September 2017
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