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Through Hell And Back |
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A Knight In DistressRunners: Fingers, Barger, Running Wolf, Uruk-hai, Iceface, Sister Bodycount The Runners were
contacted by a Ms Johnson who offered them £10,000 Nuyen each to locate
the legendary decker Dodger. Some of the Runners, Fingers, Barger and
Running Wolf – who’d been involved in the Run against Deus during
the Renraku Arcology Shutdown a couple of years back and who knew
Dodger were a bit concerned about taking the job, but after
assurances from the Johnson they agreed. The Johnson also told them that
if Dodger had a problem they were to tell him they’d been sent by his
“Songbird”! The Johnson also told them that Dodger’s last known associate
was a decker called Chromium. Hitting the Streets
and the Matrix they found no trace of the elusive Dodger or the equally
elusive Chromium, until Uruk-Hai though to ask Joe. Joe told them that he
knew Chromium slightly and she had a place out somewhere in
Heading up to the
27th floor, they found the door of Chromium’s apartment
slightly ajar – Fearing a trap Uruk-Hai checked the doorway carefully.
Just inside on a panel above he could see a red light flashing dimly and a
faint beeping sound – the apartment’s alarm had been triggered. Running
Wolf did a quick astral reconnaissance of the areas but aside from some
corruption in one area there were no auras present. Realising that they
didn’t have much time before Lone Star arrived, Uruk-hai, Sister Bodycount
and Barger entered the apparent and began searching.
They quickly located
Chromium jacked into her deck, with a single bullet-hole in her temple –
the memory chips had been removed from the deck, leaving no clue - however
in a book next to the body they found a folded letter from Dodger. Iceface
and Fingers in the hall outside peered out the window down through the
darkness at the street, anxiously looking for signs of Lone Star. They
didn’t have to wait long as the flashing blue lights of three squad cars
pulled up in the street outside. Realising that
entanglements with Lone Star were probably a bad idea the party decided to
split up to make good their escape. Barger, Iceface and Running Wolf and
Fingers took the elevator to the third floor while Uruk-hai and Sister
Bodycount headed to the roof. Once on the roof Uruk-hai fired a grapple
line to the next building and the two made their way across. Down on the
third floor, Barger hit the fire alarm, causing people to pour out of
their apartments heading for the fire exit. Iceface, Running Wolf and
Fingers merged in with the evacuees bluffing their way past cops in the
foyer. Barger, realising that he would stand out in the crowd kicked open
the door of the flat nearby and opening a window shapechanged into an
eagle and flew off. As Sister Bodycount and Uruk-hai made
their way down the building next-door, Sister Bodycount suddenly realised
that the vid-call she’d made to the apartment next door had probably
been recorded and would get into Lone Star’s hands fairly quickly. Getting
Uruk-hai to take her to her apartment she swiftly stripped anything of
dubious legality – handing to Uruk-hai to store and headed to the nearest
Precinct House to hand herself in. She was questioned and then released on
police bail the next morning. The rest of the party
re-assembled at Joe’s where they finally got to read the letter from
Dodger. The letter told them that a recent Run against Renraku had gone
wrong and he was hiding out in the Barrens with an otaku gang. Next
morning as the Runners headed out to the Barrens Fingers put in a call to
their old friend Ronin, but was unable to track him down. Arriving in the
Barrens they headed to Glow City and made contact with the Rusted
Stilettos putting the word out they were looking for an otaku gang. A
couple of hours later, as the waited in Nanny Og’s flophouse, one of the
Stilettos members came with some information - they needed to talk to The
Wise Man. Locating The Wise Man (who turned out to be a 17 year old kid)
in a nightclub in Touristville , he initially seemed disinclined to
help the Runners, but when they mentioned that they would be talking
Dodger to “his Songbird”, he made a call and took the runners to meet
Dodger. Greeting some of the
Runners as old friends, Dodger seemed keen to be off with them, and with
almost boyish insistence suggested that they depart swiftly. Fingers made
the call and a meet was arranged with Ms Johnson in the car park behind
the Chrysler dealership off Heading off downtown
they arrived at the meeting place, the car park was empty save for a
single parked Westwind with blacked-out windows and the headlights on.
After dropping off Sister Bodycount, Uruk-hai swiftly circled the block on
his bike looking for any signs of trouble. Iceface parked his car and
Barger got out, following Sister Bodycount across the car-park. There was
no reaction from the parked car and the Runners sensing something was
wrong began to back off. Dodger, not realising this, impatiently got out
of Iceface’s car and began walking towards Barger. As he did so a single
shot rang out and the crunch of an explosive round hit the decker. A
second later, two air elementals manifested and attacked Barger, and a
Renraku security specialist kill-squad began popping out of thin air,
opening fire on the runners. First Sister Bodycount went down and then
Barger went down in a positive hail of explosive rounds. Iceface reacting
swiftly, swung the car round, and crashed through the car-park fence
screeching to a halt as a fusillade of explosive rounds crashed into the
engine. Dashing out of the car he slapped a trauma patch on Dodger –
a quick glance at Barger showed the troll appeared to be
dead. As Running Wolf
leaped through the window and attacked the nearest guard, Uruk-hai came
crashing through behind them, opening up with the twin light machineguns
mounted on his bike at the group of guards who’d shot Barger and
Sister Bodycount, taking four of the out in a welter of hot lead. As
Iceface opened up on two of the remaining guards, Fingers spotted another
one of the guards about to put a round into the downed Sister Bodycount’s
head and cast a stunball, dropping him unconscious. This left only
one of the kill-squad still standing, who was revealed to be a mage as he
suddenly became invisible. His invisibility proved little barrier to
Running-wolf who, still able to assense his aura, loped forward and took
his throat out with a savage lunge. Close examination of
Barger proved that the troll too had miraculously somehow survived and a
Treat spell from Fingers revived him enough to get him mobile. Sister
Bodycount on th eother hand was badly injured, Uruk-hai stabilised her and
cracked her Doc-Wagon card. In the Westwind, the unconscious MS
Johnson was retrieved and the Runners fled the scene – as usual one step
ahead of Lone Star. |
Friends: Dodger, The Rusty Stillettos Foes:
Aztechnology World
events: Novatech IPO confimed for the1st November. |