#27 Die for the Swarm

Last time, on Before the Shadow:

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

Previously, 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 later become an ally and friend. One devotee 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 ruler Saito by destroying its water supply. After he tried to execute said plan, we stopped him but spared his life so that he could reverse said plan.

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 episode, we travelled to San Francisco to meet Kali and also reunite with Hailey, and we did the latter. We also met our contact from the previous module - only to have him violently gunned down! Saito is out for blood, fueled by misinformation about our purpose, and believing that we're going to join with Tir against him. We're on our way to Eclipse - where Kali is, incidentally - and find the truth to clear our name.

"Nobody feels like dancing tonight" is an amazing line

The scary thing about 'abandon all nuance' Saito is that after this campaign, he only gets worse. But anyway, let's focus on the present.

We're ready for combat but apparently equally important is looting scrolls from the resident mage and shaman vendor in the corner.

With one enemy quickly downed, Hailey takes command while our actual leader pretends he didn't just run off to loot scrolls right away.

She seems very enthusiastic about her drone's sniping skills.

The ground floor is cleared out, with only a bare scratch to one of Hailey's drones. Norton's summoned a horrifying nature spirit from the summoning spot near the circle, and sent it alone towards the staircase. Meanwhile, our guy is taking cover from the dangerous, lootable lockers just waiting to attack him.

The spirit flies in, beak and claw, and stuns one of Saito's goons - but then it gets magically teleported back to the entrance when the rest of the team makes it upstairs (???)

Things get intense as we try to gain ground, the spirit getting pretty far away from its summoner. At this point, it has a 46% chance of breaking away when we try to keep it bound - but it stays bound.

- and then rewards our faith by knocking one guy silly and killing his partner. Damn.

We succeed at another control check - 51% chance this time - and send our glorious compost elemental forth to conquer the top floor in our name.

I love how out of the four guys in this room, no one can hit it.

Back on the second floor, we find an old friend in the corner.

Seemed like the smart choice.

Right back atcha. Pleasure doing business.

Meanwhile, upstairs:

There's playing with fire and then there's biological warfare. But I'm not in the mood to just unleash the nature spirit, so I leave it there to soak up fire. Might as well wait on Norton.

Because I have no shame, I've taken to gathering my people around the door to wait for Norton, popping upstairs to take a potshot, then running back downstairs.

Then we bust in, Hailey's drone starts shooting...

...Dorbi starts fireballing...

...and people start dying. The room is clear in no time. 1nvader runs off to meet Kali, who's waiting in the corner, while the rest of our team picks off hapless goons who stray upstairs.

We try to sneak past Kali to do more looting, but she catches us.

Er. Yes. I'm here to help you. Not to rob you. Nope, not that latter thing.

Yes - Kali - pragmatic businesswoman and rainbow bae herself - is going to back us up.

How, you ask? What class could she possibly be?

She's a magical monk, that's what she is.

Kali is a physical adept. She's also specialised in Unarmed Combat - but stronger, more agile and smarter than 1nv4d3r. She's just as tough, just as charming, and has adept spells on top of all that that make her run faster and hit harder than a mere mortal could.

Talk about making a guy feel inadequate.

Kali runs down to guard the door, Hailey runs up to deck the system, our fool-puncher is still looting and Dorbi gets winged as basically everyone swaps position now.

Meanwhile, Dorbi's ill- advised wall of fire near the door is providing our enemies cover instead of blocking them. Whoops.

Our enemies soon learn that two fool-punchers are better than one, as a poor guy runs right through the door only to have Kali take him down with one swing.

Hailey finally decks in but encounters her own problems online.

We breeze through with only a debuff for our troubles. Maybe I should have said 'annoyances'.

Oh. We immediately summon up an Assassin ESP program to take care of the Black IC in the back there, and prepare for something a bit more involved.

Our assassin program gets damaged but it works out, and the nodes come alive when the last IC goes down. Every node we hack extends piece of a virtual bridge towards the other end of the chasm in front of us. Clever.

In realspace we've already fought off three or four waves and the elevator is splattered in blood. 1nv4d3r and Kali make an incredible team - Saito seems to be the one with the disadvantage here.

Not in cyberspace though. Hailey makes it to the next zone, only to run face first into the enemy decker.

Hailey summons a shield ESP - and one of the enemy ICs is so insecure about its aim that it slides up to point blank range.

Before long, it's over with one ESP half dead and the other near dead, but no one cares about ESPs.

Jackpot.

Yep. So about that rewa-

Drek indeed.

Even the music gets serious, swapping from one of the party tracks to this -

Our Assassin ESP makes it out the gate before Hailey does and flicks a switch that turns the bridge in the other direction.

Hailey makes it out next, and -

Ambush!

We ignore them all and run for the exit while 1nv4d3r leads the rest of the team out of the building. Hailey will have to catch up while we clear the way ahead.

Our decker leaves cyberspace to find three of Saito's troops - guarding Kali.

Or standing around bemusedly.

Either or.

Tir has made it to the dancefloor a little late.

Every so often the building shakes with gunfire or grenades, but Tir is hopelessly outnumbered.

These four guys have just taken to watching the entrance and blasting down any Tir elf that gets through it.

On our way out, the Emperor gets scratched up pretty badly, thanks to a last minute third wave from Tir, but we all make it alive.

With the clock ticking, we're off to find Kali's corp allies and save them from a fate equal to death. Aaand we'll do that next time.

Happy running!