#13 Port Forwarding

The story so far: We're playing a fool-punching shadowrunner who saved the Antumbra nightclub in Seattle, then got hired to investigate Aztechnology in San Francisco. After a lone troll killed the Aztech boss and stole our data, we tracked him down to the necropolis of Colma, and fought off his allies from 'Norton's Army'.

Then, we discovered a fancifully dressed man using Civil War era language claiming to be the century-dead Emperor Joshua Norton, with the troll, Shavarus, as his ostensible second-in-command and the obvious brains of the operation. Given a choice between joining with Shavarus in his crusade of scorched earth against Saito, or convincing Norton to let him go, we chose the latter - only to have Norton's own troops attack everyone, including Norton. Parting from the 'emperor' as allies, we chased Shavarus to the docks where we first came to San Francisco - only to find our old friend Turm, who promptly threatened us.

Turm has been hired by Tir Tairngire to protect their boats at the docks. The Tir isn't likely to have an alliance with Shavrus - but then again, he seems to have passed safely and we're getting held up, so there's a connection? Let's try and play nice.

Nope, playing nice did not help.

The idea that elf-supremacists like the Tir are willing to work with a genocidal crazy like Shavrus really puts this setup in perspective.

We appeal to nostalgia - and her wallet.

A lady troll after our own heart. And one more reason not to have taken Dalmin - either time.

Two orks and a troll walk into a bar...

Tactically we have a team of three street samurai, with melee, medium and even long range covered. Well damn.

Following the road brings us to a blockade. It's like we're being corralled.

We're ambushed by two... marines? Saito's marines?

What the hell?

They presumably expect us to be hurting from a fight with Turm. Instead, we're fresh and thanks to Turm, we outnumber them.

Orion drops one with a burst of gunfire, and our fool-puncher drives the other into retreat, as reinforcements run out from the north-east.

All enemies focus fire on our ork, managing to wing him slightly. He takes out the one closest, then runs into the back-line to deal with the furthest gunner. Turm finishes off an advancing marine...

...surprises his friend..

...while 1nv4d3r and Orion double-team the last one.

We advance carefully and spot a mage.

Orion snipes the mage and sarcastically congratulates him for the battle he never even initiated.

We make our way back to the blockaded area.

And once again, we get the drop on Saito's goons? No, these are Tir elves. Confusing.

Orion takes a shot...

...but he's the only one who hits. Everyone else misses.

Our enemies gang up on 1nv4d3r.

Orion snipes again...

..and the others move forward. 1nv4d3r knocks two guys out of cover, Turm blasts a mage..

...and Orion takes the two guys down, one shot one kill.

I'd say this was too easy but our guy is half-dead. We borrow a medkit from Turm.

Moving on from there, the Tir attempt another ambush.

...attempt.

Their second guy does no better than their first. We set up a kill-zone at the entrance to the dock and wait for more.

Orkbro casually dispenses long distance death.

The last one, a mage, runs back and forth like a headless chicken in cover until Orion dispatches her.

Having incurred no damage at all, we make our way around the broken down warehouse where we reunited with Kali just a couple of days ago.

The warehouse itself is huge, and next to it, we find our way into the action.

It's always something.

Our lumber quest takes us out to the road where we find a suspicious-looking police officer.

Had we the Security etiquette, we could've done something here.

Sadly, we do not and we cannot.

We retrace our steps instead and - hey, this looks promising.

It's a long run back to the boat, but everything works out.

There he is - the troll of the hour.

Looks like he has company.

He's in full supervillain mode already.

Whaaa? You're talking about segregation. He thinks segregation will improve the metahuman lot? All that does is ensure the biggest race communities with the most resources ends up prospering over the others.

Ah yes, the patented 'kill the metahumans to save them' strategy. The pitch is no more convincing here than it was in Colma.

Madness.

And once again, Shavarus attempts to kill us.

With Turm's help, we draw first blood.

Orion draws second --

You would have tried.

lol

And then he runs away again. And his allies turn their attention to our fool-puncher.

With Orion's help, we take down a Tir agent in the back line. Turm, pretending she didn't waste a whole round shooting at Shavarus' plot armour, blasts a hapless mage in the back...

...while Orion double-taps the remaining guy.

It's the only thing he's good at.

Hello, elven reinforcements.

Goodbye...

..elven..

..reinforcements.

Time to go home and contemplate the madness we've just observed.