#24 Down to Business

Last time, on Before the Shadow:

We're playing as 1nv4d3r, a fool-punching ork shadowrunner.

In the previous two modules, 1nv4d3r saved the people and holdings of Antumbra, a Seattle nightclub run by music artist and producer Kali on behalf of megacorp Mitsuhama.

He was later hired by Mitsuhama to investigate the Aztechnology corporation in San Francisco. This led him to the devotees of Emperor Norton IX, a strange man who claimed rulership over California and would later become an ally and friend. Among these devotees was a troll terrorist named Shavarus, who had secretly teamed up with the elves of Tir Tairngire to strike back against the city's oppressive rulers by destroying its water supply. After he fled to execute said plan, we stopped him but spared him so that he could reverse his plot and secure the water.

In the start of this module, our hero got overwhelmed by the publicity and tried to escape it. Instead, he ran into Norton. Sponsored by Kali, we're to gather allies and supplies to protect Northern California from an impending invasion by Tir Tairngire and their megacorp allies.

In our last mission, we proceeded to Interstate Five to protect our supplies from gangers. Sponsored by a cheerful troll rigger named Rick, we met a fiery dwarf mage named Dorbi, who joined us when she learned that her hapless boss had teamed up with the 'Native Californians' - a band of human supremacists. After beating him, we destroyed a bunch of NCs in a junkyard and found out that they were being directly sponsored by Tir Tairngire, having contact with Hans Brackhaus and thus Lofwyr himself.

With our supplies secured, the game sends us back to the little dark room.

We put all those karma points (save one) into Body - survivability - and move on to the next room, which should hopefully show the fruit of our labour -

...or not. Let's go talk to Tomas about this. And by the way, as sparse as this crowd is it's still two people more than we had when we first got here.

Your backstory can wait, soldier!

Ah right. Last time, our choices benefitted us more for supplies, not people.

With that out of the way, we ask about his past.

Retired shadowrunner. That fits.

Hopefully we can get more "trustworthy people" from him in the next mission.

We move on to the stockroom and it does look a little better than before.

Hey, Seline.

Uh. The elves. I mean the elves.

That's not very promising. We decide to get personal instead.

She's a Ranger, like Rick. Not every day you hear about people loving the tax collector but I guess when they're protecting you from bandits, everything's relative.

That's a fun, effective way to buy a Ranger's loyalty. Weird seeing government and corps working together, even unofficially, but the elves are just that big a problem.

We clash with Humanis in the actual Dragonfall campagin. They're terrorists, frankly, just more widespread and better organised than these clowns.

I'd agree with that 'hopefully' but knowing who their sponsor is, they're probably in for the long haul. Amelia is next on our visit list.

At least she's predictable.

Nothing's for sale that we need right now, so we head to the back of the garage.

Dorbi and the ork beside her are blasting targets - Fireblast for her, a pistol for him. Dubious practice but still practice. We chat up Hrafna in the corner.

We try to extort free stuff out of her but it doesn't take.

Curse you, capitalistic reality! Intruding on our fantasies of rebellion!

Time to go I guess. The machine won't feed itself.

We pass Dorbi by and head over to Horatio, who's as pleased as ever to see us.

Which is to say not at all pleased.

Great! Less than 10% mortality.

HOW MANY OF OUR PEOPLE HAVE YOU BUTCHERED, DWARF?

Though we want to install cyberware later, his stuff is very basic right now. So we go talk to Dorbi instead.

HOW MANY OF OUR PEOPLE HAVE YOU BURNED, DWARF?

Nah, we decide to encourage her.

That was actually a much more serious answer than I was expecting.

So was that. Damn, Dorbi.

Now this really seems like a dumb question but let's try it.

Yeah, she got blindsided there. Also useful to know that she has her own honour, however sketchy it might be.

I still can't believe her boss decided to betray the mage of the group. A mage. So many creative ways to take revenge and by creative I mean explosive.

So am I the only one who didn't expect hyper dwarf girl to have this messed up backstory? Cause I didn't. We say goodbye and --

Great.

With our other options exhausted, we retrace our steps.

What're you lookin' at?

We return to the heart of our operation. Tell me your secrets, shaman!

Or... that. Tell me that, yeah.

What does a man like this consider to be unusual ideas anyway?

Ah, that would do it.

Wisdom is a strong word. This is more like 'unfortunate necessity'. But yeah, Saito is a bastard and he becomes a worse one later on in canon and the sequels. Hopefully the corps and others can fill the gap in case Saito gets unusual ideas.

Finally, back to the war room.

Only one option is acceptable here.

...not this again.

I just keep looking between the portrait and that and no good thoughts are coming to mind. This may end 'happily'. but not 'well'.

Just a reminder - trideo is three dimensional holographic television, which may or may not involve matrix access and simsense (sense-immersive VR).

Feel like our boy is more of an action-drama guy but that's not an option, so... let's just be predictable and punch things.

Action star it is.

That may be one of the nicest things you ever said to me. Warms my fool-punching fists.

Imagine how awkward it would be to go looking for a "supporting performer" for adult trid.

Saying goodbye to Kali actually forces us away from the console.

As with calling Kali earlier, there's only one real choice here.

We have to get Hailey.

More than ready.