RE: Shadowrun (was: Now that Helen and Atilla have moved back to our area...)
11-13-2019, 07:56 PM (This post was last modified: 11-13-2019, 08:39 PM by Bob Schroeck.)
11-13-2019, 07:56 PM (This post was last modified: 11-13-2019, 08:39 PM by Bob Schroeck.)
I neglected to mention in advance that our next Shadowrun game was on Saturday 9 November. It was another abbreviated session, as Helen was recovering from a severe cold or mild flu (we're not sure which), and Tiffany had to work. This latter wasn't too much of a problem, as Yoruichi is still bedridden and recovering from the injuries sustained during the fight with the Takogumi, but Helen's endurance was low, so she only wanted to GM for the afternoon, and not all the way into the night like we normally do.
The session started with Helen giving us a full list of the loot we took off the Yaks we ganked and off the oni. There is some review and speculation, and then the actual action begins. (I can provide the entire list if anyone's interested... the big takeaway, though, is that it was all magical, some of it profoundly so.)
So... the date is July 28, 2055, the morning after Lukas' surprise party. Ylva's recovering from her bioware implantation and is hanging out on the base's roof while Gunther and Roksa install some automated heavy machine gun emplacements provided by Saeder-Krupp. Rather than sleep in, Lukas has to go "back to school" -- i.e. the base. Shortly after he gets there we have visitors -- two of the instructors Saeder-Krupp will be providing us. They are Shama Abegwe, a forty-something African Anansi shaman who will be our Magical Theory teacher, and Farenthal, a female elf and Mantis style physical adept, who will be our primary physical/combat trainer.
They sit us all down and after laying out how half the day will be genuine academics and the other half the "good stuff", they quiz us for what else we we want to learn. Lukas asks for a Sorcery course, and Abegwe offers Enchanting as well. Ylva asks for Conjuring training, so we caster types will get training in all aspects of active magic. Farenthal will provide armed and unarmed combat training, as well as Armed Combat Build/Repair for Lukas (this is long-term planning for his enchanting)... And we just keep going for a while, laying out a long list of skills that we want to acquire.
Helen then explains how this will work: each class will focus on one skill, and will be one hour a day for five days a week; every two months (40-45 hours) of training will give us one skill level rating. Since we have to split the day with academic topics, that means each of us can only be training in four game-useful skills at any one time. So while we have a long wish list, we're not getting everything at once, or even at the end of two months.
Anyway, after working out what the first couple months of "special" courses are going to be, Bikavèr convinces Farenthal to be backup when he finally goes down to interrogate the oni. Ylva is also coming along because she can cast Analyze Truth on herself and check that the oni isn't outright lying, and Gunther insists on being a bodyguard as well. So the four of them troop down to the holding cell that we've been keeping the unconscious oni in for a few days now. They administer the antidote to the knock-out drug while Ylva casts Analyze Truth, and wait for the oni to revive.
Initially the oni is not cooperative, insisting that Yuroichi owes them not only loyalty but a debt of resources spent on her, and the completion of an assignment that includes the retrieval of an unspecified item. Since our goal is to free Yuroichi from any further entanglements with the Takogumi, Bikavèr attempts to negotiate with him. One of the tacks he takes is the reputation damage the Takogumi and the oni personally will take if it's revealed that a band of children wiped out his team. This is the first thing that seems to anger the oni; "Children could not do this!" he snarls, to which Bikavèr's only answer is mocking laughter, followed by "I am eight years old!" which shuts the oni up for a bit.
They banter back and forth a bit, and finally Bikavèr makes an offer: if the oni is honorable, we will pay off Yoruichi's debts, including completing the job she left undone and retrieving the still unspecified item she was supposed to get. The oni asks for a day to meditate on the offer, which he means literally -- he settles into seiza and immediately begins meditating. Ylva confirms that at no point did he attempt to deceive us, but that didn't necessarily mean we haven't been cleverly misled somewhere.
Later, after Farenthal and Abegwe leave, Lukas spots some new news items on his phone. The first is a couple reports on a new spree-style killing, down in Mainz Weisband near Frankfurt. There are also a few follow-up stories on the last massacre (the one at the warehouse in Heitten that we couldn't get to). According to the latter stories, Saeder-Krupp's mage corps were called in for something coyly unspecified by the reporters. After discussing this with Bikavèr and Ylva, the decision is made not to look into this ourselves (mainly because the new incident is in an entirely different metroplex a good distance away). Instead, we ask Bikavèr to call Magda and have her hire a local group for us to do some legwork and get information. (There is some humor bandied about in the idea that we're now big enough to be subcontracting out stuff we don't have the time to do ourselves.)
During all this, of course, Yoruichi continues to be restricted to bed as she heals.
The next day, July 29, the oni comes out of his meditative trance and agrees to our terms. He gives us his name for the first time -- Shiro Akagawa -- and tells us that her assignment was the assassination of three targets in here in the Rhine-Ruhr metroplex and the retrieval of an item (still unspecified) held by them. She has taken down two of her targets, and the third still has the item. Bikavèr agrees that we will complete her task with the reassurance that this will completely and permanently end her obligation to the Takogumi, and as part of the deal we will return the magic items we took off Akagawa when we captured him. Interestingly, Akagawa then gifts Bikavèr with one of the items, a heavy chain which apparently gives a Willpower bonus when worn. He then tells us that once he is released and safe, he will forward to us the full details on Yoruichi's mission, including the specifics on the third target and the item to be retrieved. We agree to this, and Bikavèr knocks him out again. Valentine and Bikavèr take him an hour away and revive him in a good, safe neighborhood, and send him on his way.
During all this, Lukas has been following up on his long-standing promise to make a Forest Spirit Focus for Ylva. Rather than do his own design work, he buys a formula for a Rank 3 Focus from Oskar, along with a few thousand nuyen worth of alchemical radicals. He then hunts for just the right piece of deadfall in a nearby wooded area, brings it back to the base, and spends some time using his woodworking skill to craft a pendant. His first attempt is also the first botch in the entire campaign, destroying the blank he was working on, and he has to start again with another piece of the wood he found. This goes better -- not by much, his skill is only 2, but at least it's not a botch, and the result is a virgin, handmade telesma suitable for enchanting. With all the alchemical radicals involved along with the base lodge and all his other resources, the enchanting is fast and easy, and is done by noon on Saturday July 31 -- just in time for the pool party at Joachim's. Ylva pays the necessary Karma (which again thanks to the radicals is a mere 1 point), and binds it to herself.
And that was the session.
The session started with Helen giving us a full list of the loot we took off the Yaks we ganked and off the oni. There is some review and speculation, and then the actual action begins. (I can provide the entire list if anyone's interested... the big takeaway, though, is that it was all magical, some of it profoundly so.)
So... the date is July 28, 2055, the morning after Lukas' surprise party. Ylva's recovering from her bioware implantation and is hanging out on the base's roof while Gunther and Roksa install some automated heavy machine gun emplacements provided by Saeder-Krupp. Rather than sleep in, Lukas has to go "back to school" -- i.e. the base. Shortly after he gets there we have visitors -- two of the instructors Saeder-Krupp will be providing us. They are Shama Abegwe, a forty-something African Anansi shaman who will be our Magical Theory teacher, and Farenthal, a female elf and Mantis style physical adept, who will be our primary physical/combat trainer.
They sit us all down and after laying out how half the day will be genuine academics and the other half the "good stuff", they quiz us for what else we we want to learn. Lukas asks for a Sorcery course, and Abegwe offers Enchanting as well. Ylva asks for Conjuring training, so we caster types will get training in all aspects of active magic. Farenthal will provide armed and unarmed combat training, as well as Armed Combat Build/Repair for Lukas (this is long-term planning for his enchanting)... And we just keep going for a while, laying out a long list of skills that we want to acquire.
Helen then explains how this will work: each class will focus on one skill, and will be one hour a day for five days a week; every two months (40-45 hours) of training will give us one skill level rating. Since we have to split the day with academic topics, that means each of us can only be training in four game-useful skills at any one time. So while we have a long wish list, we're not getting everything at once, or even at the end of two months.
Anyway, after working out what the first couple months of "special" courses are going to be, Bikavèr convinces Farenthal to be backup when he finally goes down to interrogate the oni. Ylva is also coming along because she can cast Analyze Truth on herself and check that the oni isn't outright lying, and Gunther insists on being a bodyguard as well. So the four of them troop down to the holding cell that we've been keeping the unconscious oni in for a few days now. They administer the antidote to the knock-out drug while Ylva casts Analyze Truth, and wait for the oni to revive.
Initially the oni is not cooperative, insisting that Yuroichi owes them not only loyalty but a debt of resources spent on her, and the completion of an assignment that includes the retrieval of an unspecified item. Since our goal is to free Yuroichi from any further entanglements with the Takogumi, Bikavèr attempts to negotiate with him. One of the tacks he takes is the reputation damage the Takogumi and the oni personally will take if it's revealed that a band of children wiped out his team. This is the first thing that seems to anger the oni; "Children could not do this!" he snarls, to which Bikavèr's only answer is mocking laughter, followed by "I am eight years old!" which shuts the oni up for a bit.
They banter back and forth a bit, and finally Bikavèr makes an offer: if the oni is honorable, we will pay off Yoruichi's debts, including completing the job she left undone and retrieving the still unspecified item she was supposed to get. The oni asks for a day to meditate on the offer, which he means literally -- he settles into seiza and immediately begins meditating. Ylva confirms that at no point did he attempt to deceive us, but that didn't necessarily mean we haven't been cleverly misled somewhere.
Later, after Farenthal and Abegwe leave, Lukas spots some new news items on his phone. The first is a couple reports on a new spree-style killing, down in Mainz Weisband near Frankfurt. There are also a few follow-up stories on the last massacre (the one at the warehouse in Heitten that we couldn't get to). According to the latter stories, Saeder-Krupp's mage corps were called in for something coyly unspecified by the reporters. After discussing this with Bikavèr and Ylva, the decision is made not to look into this ourselves (mainly because the new incident is in an entirely different metroplex a good distance away). Instead, we ask Bikavèr to call Magda and have her hire a local group for us to do some legwork and get information. (There is some humor bandied about in the idea that we're now big enough to be subcontracting out stuff we don't have the time to do ourselves.)
During all this, of course, Yoruichi continues to be restricted to bed as she heals.
The next day, July 29, the oni comes out of his meditative trance and agrees to our terms. He gives us his name for the first time -- Shiro Akagawa -- and tells us that her assignment was the assassination of three targets in here in the Rhine-Ruhr metroplex and the retrieval of an item (still unspecified) held by them. She has taken down two of her targets, and the third still has the item. Bikavèr agrees that we will complete her task with the reassurance that this will completely and permanently end her obligation to the Takogumi, and as part of the deal we will return the magic items we took off Akagawa when we captured him. Interestingly, Akagawa then gifts Bikavèr with one of the items, a heavy chain which apparently gives a Willpower bonus when worn. He then tells us that once he is released and safe, he will forward to us the full details on Yoruichi's mission, including the specifics on the third target and the item to be retrieved. We agree to this, and Bikavèr knocks him out again. Valentine and Bikavèr take him an hour away and revive him in a good, safe neighborhood, and send him on his way.
During all this, Lukas has been following up on his long-standing promise to make a Forest Spirit Focus for Ylva. Rather than do his own design work, he buys a formula for a Rank 3 Focus from Oskar, along with a few thousand nuyen worth of alchemical radicals. He then hunts for just the right piece of deadfall in a nearby wooded area, brings it back to the base, and spends some time using his woodworking skill to craft a pendant. His first attempt is also the first botch in the entire campaign, destroying the blank he was working on, and he has to start again with another piece of the wood he found. This goes better -- not by much, his skill is only 2, but at least it's not a botch, and the result is a virgin, handmade telesma suitable for enchanting. With all the alchemical radicals involved along with the base lodge and all his other resources, the enchanting is fast and easy, and is done by noon on Saturday July 31 -- just in time for the pool party at Joachim's. Ylva pays the necessary Karma (which again thanks to the radicals is a mere 1 point), and binds it to herself.
And that was the session.
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....