#14 The Last Deep Breath

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'.

"Norton" turned out to be a fancifully dressed man using Civil War era language claiming to be the centuries-dead Emperor Joshua Norton. The troll, Shavarus, had been using Norton as a figurehead to gather followers in a crusade of scorched earth against the metahuman-hating Saito, and any civilians standing in his way. We convinced Norton to fire him, fought our way out and chased him to the docks where we first came to San Francisco.

With the aid of our old ally Turm, we blasted through waves of elven and Japanese soldiers before discovering that the would-be terrorist was being supported by the elves of Tir Tairngire in a mad bid to destroy San Francisco's water supply and force the conqueror out.

Not standing for any of this crap, we chased Shavarus off and disposed of his allies, before returning to our base of operations to debrief and recover.

INCIDENTALLY

The music's gotten all... meditative.

Johnson ambushes us the moment we walk in.

And dismisses us just as quickly.

We go straight to Necalli. We have mysteries to pursue.

Interesting theories. He does call himself 'the ninth' though, perhaps supporting the second theory? Just don't call him a madman to his face.

You SENSE, huh? Okay then, Qui Gonn.

Next, we go south to -

After all this time? I'd certainly hope so.

Just write me a placard and I'll make a living out of this.

We check his cyberware but it's still basic level. Not worth sacrificing essence for, even at the end of the second module.

A mysterious, hooded figure blocks us from going upstairs.

Next, we decide to torture ourselves by talking to Dalmin.

Silence, minion!

In other words, you need us as little as we need you.

Disclaimer: This is a lie, we just want to see what he's charging.

His greed is as entertaining as ever. No. We've done better without him than we probably would with him.

Au contraire - we value our dignity too much to pick him. We go south next to talk to Orion.

Oh God.

Orion's gone from Malcolm X to Frantz Fanon.

Orkbro, I feel like you came away from this sorry episode with the wrong lesson.

Sadly, we're just asking. It would be fair to say that Orion is - well, he's honourable but can we trust him to fight against someone he feels so attuned to?

That just makes it worse.

We excuse ourselves and run off to Kali.

Hey there, rainbow lady.

As one would expect, Kali is all about work. Top 10 is amazing though.

This is her way of supporting us, both fair and businesslike.

Love that practicality.

Oh yeah, we're definitely gonna rock Shavarus' world. A third time. Our conversation finished, she casually turns aside and trots up the staircase.

Next, we hit up Amelia.

So you have contacts, eh? About that...

I don't like the sound of that. Unfortunately, Amelia's best weapon for us is currently beyond our skillset (we need an Unarmed of 5 and ours is currently 3). And our armour is equivalent to her top stock, so we shouldn't upgrade that either.

How's that for a frank question?

One last chat before we head out.

There she is.

So it's less 'fine' and more 'coping'.

As odd as it is seeing Hailey so sober, it makes sense. The same zeal with which she loves her friends, her city, has been turned in on itself now. Shavarus' crusade is just grotesque.

One could say she deserves the chance to end it.

She also corroborates Amelia's intel.

Oof. We invite her to the party.

She and Orion charge the same amount, but Hailey has a personal stake in this city -- and we probably need a decker a lot more this time.

Finally, we return to Mr Johnson.

Typical corp politics. It's all up to us now, with Amelia's mystery team as backup.

We're done here. Time to go.