More unedited tales from the tabletop

Saya awoke some 15 minutes after falling unconscious. She had been brought to the street doctor who she was able to contact through Rhys O’Connor, her contact, on the back of Aithwynn while Robert was busy binding his summoned spirit to a bracelet with the (flamboyantly gay dwarf) talismonger Visz. Tara had been transferred to Machina’s chair.

Alice, the street doctor, examined an Saya first before ascertaining that she was fine, if a little odd looking. She then busied herself with operating on Tara to heal her wounds. Once this was done, Saya contacted her friend from school, Anna, to arrange a place to stay (the last hotel visit had ended in arson when Ancients surrounded the building). They waited for Robert to return before leaving for the safehouse and making some purchases (face paint, medical supplies, and a long coat for Saya, Plasteel handcuffs for Robert), and Machina took Tara’s broken commlink to a man who would do data recovery on it. The commlink had been shot through, but turned out after a bit of inspection to be salvageable. Machina also used the downtime to see if there had been any word about the assault on the butcher’s. Seamus’s men had done a good job keeping everything hushed up, and the only word was from the teenaged elf that escaped. By then, it was evening. Anna’s apartment was a small two bedroom affair. The group let Martha O’Malley and her family take one room, while they handcuffed Tara’s feet together, with her hands behind her back and then set the elven woman on the bed to be unconscious, and then sleep. The entire group also slept to recover their energy- Robert was especially drained after spending eight hours trying to bind a spirit.

            They woke the next morning before Tara did, with the exception of Robert, who was poked awake by Machina. Tara looked around, recognizing, as if from a dream, Machina, Robert, and Aithwynn. She didn’t recognize Saya at first, but was a bit mystified by her appearance. When she was later able to see who Saya was, Tara commented “Your profile seems to have become a little outdated.”

Machina opened up questioning with threats of she could talk and go to jail at the minimum, or “the alternative.” Tara refused to answer until she could be assured some safety from the other Ancients, so Machina called up Seamus to inform him of the possible deal. Though surprised that the group had managed to not only take the butcher shop, but the Butcher of Belfast herself (and alive, to boot), Seamus agreed to allow Tara a safe hiding place, in exchange for informing on the more illegal aspects of the Ancients gang. 

Once that information was relayed to Tara, she revealed that Slick O’Malley had been working for the Ancients, but refused to continue when he was asked to help distribute a new drug that went by the names of Tempo and Flipside. Slick had issues because the drug was highly addictive (indeed, Jace and been addicted- he had noticed forced astral perception (or projection) and several other effects) but it was that addictiveness that caused him to be worried about his family. To solve the problem, the Ancients turned over Slick to the Vikings, a ScanUnion gang who had started up operations in the town of Sligo. His family was taken hostage so that they would be “safe”. Tara also mentioned that the Vikings she had met when handing off Slick were a giant (not just a tall man, the troll metavariant), a dwarf by the name of Mjolnir, and two men called Thing 1 and Thing 2. She indicated as well that the reason Saya had been recognized at the butcher shop was that Jace was able to get his contacts to do some searching- Saya was the easiest one to find information on.

After the discussion ended, Aithwynn related the circumstances of what really happened to her husband. It was only then that the Martha was able to break an alter memory spell that had been placed upon her. Martha told about how her husband went missing, when Jace and Mjolnir went up to her and said that he was with the Teeth. When Martha had said that that was not the case, she felt something, and couldn’t remember anything after that.

Soon, the government vans pulled up to take Tara away. Saya stayed inside the apartment for fear of being seen. Among the government people was Brandon McCallister, who the group had dealings with in the past. (If I remember right, he was the one who had been rescued by the group at the very beginning of the session)

Machina forged a message to the Vikings, saying that they wished to take Slick back so they could beat him up (Tara indicated that they responded best to violence). The Vikings agreed, and after several exchanges (and checking with Tara to see how she had handled her meeting to give them Slick) decided to meet at in Sligo at 4am, in front of the Formorig bar. They would there exchange Slick for one of their own, determined to be Robert. Data from Tara’s commlink was successfully salvaged, and gave the latitude and longitude of where Slick was being held.

In preparation for the meeting, Saya cast her Fashion spell on the group until they appeared to be dressed as ancients (in black and green). She also lent some of her face paint to Robert so he could have the sign of the Ancients, a green letter A in a circle, drawn on the back of his neck, and painted her own face to hide her blue skin.

When the runners arrived at the Formorig, they had to wait for the Vikings. The drug dealers came in a large black van, and the need for such a size was soon apparent. The first one to step out was the giant, who stood over three meters tall and carried a heavy pipe in his hand. Following him were Things 1 and 2, who stood towards the back. Mjolnir emerged last, dragging a bound and blindfolded Slick with him.

An ascencing test revealed to Saya that Things 1 and 2 were awakened, and so was Mjolnir. Robert, with the aid of his Dark King mentor spirit, was able to see further- that Things 1 and 2 were adepts, and that Mjolnir had magic comparable to his and Saya’s (6), and a ring focus that helped sustain illusion spells. Subsequent perception tests by each of the Runners revealed nothing except to Robert, who was able to see that Slick was in fact not really there.

The problem was relayed through everyone’s commlinks. When Mjolnir asked if they were ready to trade, Robert said that they would be, if there was actually someone to trade with. Mjolnir removed the illusion, and commented that things weren’t appearing completely honest from our side either- They had heard of the assault on the butcher shop, and knew that Jace was dead. However, they couldn’t be sure that Tara was alive either. Mjolnir demanded that he receive a call from Tara, and be able to trace the call. Though Machina had a holograph projector, that would not do because it would be easier to fake. At a loss, Machina called up Tara through the number they had reached her at earlier, but only heard from “Steve”, a low level government man who could only say that he had seen Tara leave. Machina then tried to reach Seamus, since Seamus was the one who could most help out and was close to Machina. Seamus failed to pick up.

After Saya commented that both sides seem to be missing information, the meeting was rescheduled for 10pm that night, at the same place. 

Seamus returned Machina’s call at around 7:30. Machina told everything that had happened, and after a bit of thinking Seamus agreed that he would be able to arrange for Tara to make the call.

Aithwynn, Machina, Robert, and Saya returned on time at 10pm. Machina gave the cue for Tara to place the call to Mjolnir, and quickly decrypted the wireless signal so that he could listen in. All that he missed was the first six seconds of conversation, but Tara showed no signs of having betrayed the group, and convincingly lied to Mjolnir that the Runners wanted to beat up Slick and torture his family. Pleased, Mjolnir instructed everyone to follow him to their cliffside base, west of Sligo. It was where Tara’s coordinates had said he would be.

Once there, everyone parked at the side of a cliff, with Mjolnir’s men nearest the cliff. The dwarf told his companions to guard Aithwynn, Saya, and Machina, while he went to get Slick. Robert followed Mjolnir.

While on the cliff, Machina began taunting the Things, with things like “Bork bork bork” and other insults. Saya slapped him upside the head when he wouldn’t stop, but it took a weak nerve strike to set him atingle and finally stop (aside from muttering “bork bork bork” under his breath. Thankfully, the adepts were able to maintain their composure and not go berserk.

Meanwhile, Mjolnir and Robert had made their way down the path to the hideout. Mjolnir brought out Slick while around four others kept their eye on Robert. Robert introduced himself as “Gabe”, short for “Gabriel Nott”, one of his fake SINs. When he appeared, Slick was bound and appeared to have been heavily- and continuously- drugged. Mjolnir quickly left with Slick, and Robert excused himself to use the washroom, which turned out to be a small room in the artificial cave. Once there, he cast improved invisibility on himself and silenced his footsteps, and snuck out from the cave. He was almost noticed, but wasn’t caught.

Once outside, Robert decided he was going to push Mjolnir over the cliff, after some debating. At around the same time, Machina, who had hacked into the Vikings’ SUV, started the car’s engine with the intent of running both the giant and Thing 1 off of the cliff. Aithwynn opened fire on the giant, who returned her blows with his pipe. Both of the Things went berserk. Saya first shot off a Force 7 manaball, wounding Thing 2, before turning from using magic to using her martial arts skills.

Robert summoned a spirit of man roughly half as powerful as the Baron to help him fight Mjolnir, who, hearing shots in the distance, summoned a spirit. One of the Things alerted him that they were being shot at. As the spirits were engaged with each other, Robert’s summoned spirit caused an accident to befall Mjolnir. As the dwarf turned around, he caught his foot and plummeted down below. Olaf, one of the men from the cave, rushed up behind Robert, but Robert threw him off the cliff as well. Meanwhile, Saya was still engaged with Thing 2 and Aithwynn with the giant. Machina had managed to speed up the car enough to do some damage, but while he hit Thing 1, he missed the giant. Both Thing 1 and the SUV plummeted off the cliff.

At this point gaming ended, and it is assumed all the Vikings were eventually subdued.

I wrote this to a word document, and don't feel like editing all of it for spelling or coherence.  I made a bunch of comments in parenthesis.
Maybe I'll write what more of what I remember of prior sessions, but if I don't, here is the background:
Aithwynn's drug dealer contacted her about how his supplier went missing, and an elven gang called the Ancients is suspected to be involved.  The leader of the Ancients is named Tara, and her bodyguard is Jace.  We went to the safe house where Tara was keeping the supplier's family (Martha, Tim, and Steve).  Suspecting that they were hostages, we decided to take them... hostage, and use them to figure out where the supplier was.  Events led to the butcher shop that was used as Tara's base of operations, ominously called the "Butcher of Belfast".  After getting some information from a trog (orc and troll) gang called the Teeth, we called in favors to get a jammer to jam all signals, Robert (former elf, current ghoul, and a mage) summoned a powerful spirit of man, in the form of Baron Samedi.  The group split up, with Saya (Human with latent metagenetics, mage adept) and Robert going to take the front, while Aithwynn (Elf, gun bunny) and Machina (gnome, technomancer) took the back.

My character is Saya, so there's more about her (this session was also a bit Saya-centered).  Most of the detail was supplied by the GM.

And so, here we go...

Saya punched the maglock with her shock gloves, causing the machine to fail but still remain locked. When the door failed to give way from her blows, Robert cast improved invisibility on the door in order to see through. The gunman on the other side failed to believe the illusion- while Saya and Robert could see into the room, and see the gunman with his aim fixed at the door as he crouched behind an upturned table, he could not see them. Saya attempted to cast Influence on the gunman, to make him open the door. She critically glitched, and had no edge left to reroll. As all faded to black for her, Robert could feel a pulse of energy come off of her like a small breeze. Saya fell to the ground in convulsions like she was having a grand mal seizure. Robert quickly tried to ascense what was wrong, but everything appeared to be normal- there was neither disease or toxic substance present in her aura. But, he could see an extra set of arms on her astral signature, and a luminescent form like the dancing Shiva overlayed upon her.

Robert carried Saya behind the counter, nearby the teenaged elf that Saya had knocked out earlier with a nerve strike. A growth on Saya’s back writhed beneath the fabric of her camouflage suit, and Robert, not knowing exactly what to do, though he should cut slits in the back of her suit to allow the growth room to expand. The sound of bones growing and knitting together came from it. Very soon, an extra set of arms, still small, but growing larger, freed themselves, ripping themselves through the cloth. But, she was still unconscious, and there was little else that could be done. Robert took the unconscious elf from the front room and carved off a piece of meat from each of his calves, eating one portion and saving the other for later. As a ghoul, he needed raw flesh at least once a week. Robert also took the elf’s keycard, in time to hear the sound of the maglock rebooting.

When Saya came too, she found that she had more than just another set of arms. Her skin had turned blue, and, though she couldn’t see it under the fluorescent lights, her black hair had begun to glow faintly blue (like a blacklight) with bioluminescence. She failed two composure checks, and stared at her hands, wondering what was happening. It took Robert to find a stim patch in Saya’s medkit and put in on her for Saya to finally snap out of it. When she looked around, she managed to notice the bleeding legs of the elf.

“Did I do that?” she asked Robert

“You did part of it.”

“Which part?”

“The part that allowed me to do that to him.”

Saya felt a mix of disgust and thankfulness. She was thankful that she hadn’t done something so horrible while blacked out. She was disgusted that Robert would do such a thing, but she had known from her work with the government that he was a ghoul.

Robert opened the door with the keycard, aiming his gun at the gunman. Machina, who was under an earlier casting of Improved Invisibility, was behind the gunman, almost at point blank range, and ready to shoot him. Machina shot first, and missed as the gunman turned around, hearing two muffled explosions go off like the sound of a demolition ball hitting a mattress. Saya attempted to cast Manabolt, but her spell also failed. In the second round, the gunman was finally killed, and the group went to the back room. Machina was shocked by the sudden appearance of a blue woman, but recognized her as Saya from her facial features. (made remark that Machina thought she was kind of cute, now that she was a bit weird)

In the back room, there were two dents in the floor from a frag and high explosive grenade that Aithwynn had lobbed earlier. One grunt was standing, riddled with bullets. Robert recognized him as being possessed by the force 8 spirit of man he had summoned before the fight began, Baron Samedi. Saya was able to ascertain the same with her ascensing capabilities. Jace, Tara’s bodyguard mage, was on the floor, unconscious. One grunt was dead, but Tara was missing. Aithwynn was busy trying to beat down the door with the butt of her pistol. When she saw Saya, she had to make a test to not shoot- being drugged with cram, she was paranoid, but managed to recognize Saya’s face.

Saya noticed that a plant spirit was coming towards them on the astral plane- a toxic plant spirit (determined to be force 8 from Robert’s ascensing check). After asking if it belonged to anyone in the room, she tried to shoot it with a Manabolt. No damage was done, but it started moving towards Jace and possessed him. It was after discovering that Jace worked with toxic spirits that Robert changed his plan of trying to keep the mage alive for the purpose of learning what magic he could from him- now Jace had to die. Aithwynn eventually managed to beat a hole in the door and unlock it from the inside. Once she opened it, it was clear why the Teeth had advised first against fighting Tara at the butcher shop, and then against going in without jamming the entire building. Right behind the door was a massive gatling gun, set to fire as soon as its sensors detected anyone. Tara had turned it on after she disappeared through the door. The gun could only see static now, but if it wasn’t jammed, everyone would have been shot to ribbons as soon as Aithwynn opened the door. Aithwynn moved around the gun and down the stairs to the left. Machina followed, directing his sprite, Chip, to drive the chair down the steps safely. It was a rough ride, but the two managed. As Aithwynn ran down the tunnel, she could see Tim blocking the way ahead- Tara, Martha, and the baby Steven were running farther ahead of them. As she ran, her commlink turned back on as they got out of the radius of the jammer that was parked outside the butcher shop. Aithwynn tried to run right over Tim, but met with equal opposition and the two fell to the ground.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Saya and Robert were attempting to fight the spirit. Robert tried to claw at Jace, and Saya’s manabolt were met with stern opposition from the spirit. Suddenly, all of Jace’s bruises and lacerations began to heal, and Jace rose to his feet. The baron, deciding that there needed to be a change in tactics, vacated the grunt’s body to fight purely on the astral plane. Saya and Robert continued to fight until the plant (Vahe?) cast a Terror spell on Saya. She was overcome, and fled the room, moving towards the stair, but the spell’s effect faded as soon as she was out of the spirit’s line of sight. The two spirits were evenly matched until Robert, otherwise unable to help, cast Mage Armor (something similar?) on the Baron, giving the Baron the edge. The toxic spirit was able to use Compel force Saya once more out of the room, as she was the only metahuman capable of hurting it. While she was once more in the stairwell, the baron pulled off an impressive blow that destroyed the spirit. Robert gave the final blow, a point-blank shot to Jace. He then looked over the mage, and found a small barbell, probably a piece of laquered bone, that served as a Manipulation focus for Jace, before joining Saya in following Aithwynn and Machina down the hallway.

Before Saya and Robert’s arrival, Machina had gone into full VR while Aithwynn tried to shoot Tara without harming Martha or Steve. Machina successfully managed to hack into Tara’s commlink and get security access after finding out that all of Tara’s cyberware were slaves to it as a node. But, while trying to shut down her cyber eyes or other parts, Tara threw off her commlink and shot it, sending Machina into (something-drain). Machina resisted the effects.

Saya and Robert arrived in time to see a limp Machina in his hoverchair, Tara having just shot her commlink, and Aithwynn still shooting at Tara. Aithwynn managed to get off two hits, sending Tara to the floor.

“This why you don’t come between me and my drugs!” she shouted at Tara.

Saya, originally intending to check on how Tim was doing, ran over to Tara and started trying to keep the Ancient from dying. Healing seemed like a poor option- Tara had .26 essence. Saya used her knowledge of cyberware, and her medkit, to try and use first aid on the woman, but to no avail. The only option left was to try and use magic- but that failed to score any hits. The heavy damage on Tara meant that Saya suffered nine boxes of stun damage, which she failed to alleviate. Machina made the decision to help Saya out on a whim. With Saya directing the gnome on what to do, he was able to stabilize Tara, who still remained unconscious.

Now that everything was settled, it was time to tie up the loose ends. Machina called Maxine, the dwarf who lent the group use of her jammer, and gave her the gatling gun, which was gladly accepted. The teenaged ran away, which would have been nearly impossible if Saya hadn’t healed him. Saya called her doctor contact in Dublin, who was able to arrange for a friend in Belfast to take care of Tara. Machina was about to excecute the man that the Baron had possessed, but after Saya’s steadfast refusal, he instead called Sarge, head of the Teeth, and delivered the elf into their “care.” Robert called one of the members of the ghoul society he knew of to ask if they had need of a dead toxic mage, which they agreed too (probably sold organs, ate the rest). Saya and Robert went around erasing their astral signatures, primarily from the invisibility and manabolt spells. After this was finished, the stim patch’s effects began to wear off on Saya. She supported herself against the wall with two of her arm, wiped her brow with a third, and with a shudder, sank down into unconsciousness. Robert caught her, and Machina lent her use of his chair to be unconscious in.

When Sarge arrived with another orc and a troll, the only thing he could say was, “Look’s like you guys party hard.”

 The troll took the unconscious man that Robert had stashed beneath the couch, and Sarge, his companion, Max, and Machina helped load the gatling gun into the back of Max’s jammer after Max unbolted it from the ground and removed the ammo. She rolled up the shaded windows of the jammer to cover up both the satellite dish and gun in the back.

As the group headed out, Robert separated from the group, having contacted a talismonger that would help him bind the Baron. The deed was paid for (both for the ritual and the materials) by giving the talismonger, a dwarf, the barbell that Robert had taken from Jace (a base value of 45000 nuyen- even minus the fact that it was used and stolen, it was very valuable) with around 5000 nuyen in change. In the end, the Baron was bound to an iron bracelet.

And that's about it.  I'm planning on having Saya have a religious epiphany and take Krishna as a mentor spirit in the future.  If she hadn't failed so badly at casting Influence, she would have later encountered an area of high magical energy, and her latent metagenetics would have expressed themselves then.