#28 Strange Bedfellows

Hey all! We're returning to cirion's Antumbra Saga campaign where we play as 1nv4d3r, a fool-punching ork shadowrunner.

Previously, on Before the Shadow:

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 Norton IX, the (disputed) absolute ruler of California. Norton later became our ally.

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. We stopped him but spared his life so that he could reverse said plan.

This module started with our shadowrunner on the run from unwanted publicity. We ran into Norton, who recruited him on Kali's behalf to to gather allies and supplies and protect Northern California from an impending invasion by Tir Tairngire and their megacorp allies.

In our last mission, we travelled to San Francisco, and reunited with Hailey. We also met our contact from the previous module - only to have him violently gunned down! Saito was out for blood, believing that were going to join with Tir against him. We met Kali at Eclipse, countered Tir's misinformation against us and won Saito as a temporary ally - only to learn that Tir had launched a last, desperate attack against our corporate allies in the old Aztechnology building.

So that's where we're headed now - off to save a bunch of corporate suits.

Managing to make us feel bad about inadvertently helping the megacorps - just before we have to save their leadership. Mixed messages man.

This is going to be a mostly combat episode, like last time -

-with a timer!

We're off to a good start -

It takes three full rounds for Hailey to get into position for decking and the rest of the group to prepare to breach the next room. So... not such a good start.

Faced with enemies in cyberspace, Hailey chooses to run right into the middle of the group.

She leaves her ESPs behind to mop up remaining opposition -

And runs off to the left gate to start cleaning out the ICs there.

What are we doing in cyberspace? Well I'm not sure yet, but if there's an access point it has to lead to something right?

See? Camera access is something! Maybe not worth delaying the whole group the way we did, but it's something.

We assume control without suffering a scratch -

- though our friendly defense ESP is half dead.

By the time we get back, it's three quarters dead, but we can fix that with our magical hacker-healer powers.

We clear the middle and send our ESP into the right-most area - only to have them fall into an ambush!

So apparently we went to all that trouble to get... access to the minutes of the board (???). Okay then.

Oh look, someone hacked the cameras for us. How thoughtful!

There's three people behind that door, before the door breach. After the door breach, however -

Meanwhile in cyberspace, Dorbi isn't the only person who can dish out the AoE.

Three of us is too much for the defenders. Four ICs fall in two rounds, and in no time, Hailey's headed for the exit while one of her minions does the ground work for her.

Oh my. Corporate dirt. We don't want Aztechnology back but this is still worth holding onto. Anyway, Hailey is on her way out.

And the lone survivor in the room next door gets ganged up on by the rest of the team. Before long, everyone who isn't Hailey has found their way up an elevator and into a new zone.

With the cameras hacked, we can see into the next room - three Tir operatives are waiting to ambush us.

Our first wave wipes the floor with two of them and almost kills the third. He manages to wing the emperor, but Norton is a healer after all.

The room beyond promises more entertainment.

And almost half of our time is gone!

Our drone opens the door, two guys make a futile effort at hiding behind a desk and one guy just decides life isn't worth living and runs right out in front of us.

WISH STATUS: GRANTED

Hailey's drone gets the final say.

The room beyond leads to yet another elevator.

We're past the half mark now. I haste Hailey, remembering how the turrets upstairs could be hacked last time -

As planned, she gets there first - but they are unhackable from this location? Two rooms stand between us and saving the executives. Each room appears to have four security guys. Hailey takes cover in the corner and becomes bait while the calvary closes the gap.

Dorbi and 1nv4d3r blast their way in in a flurry of fists and flame. Two baddies go down.

But 1nv4d3r isn't done yet. He takes down a third and keeps running, set on reaching the next room.

Dorbi takes the last guy and it's a race to the finish. Our guy gets shot twice on the way in, but laughs it off.

Norton summons up an air spirit from the room next door on the way in. It only has a 22% chance of rebelling against him...

...so of course, that's exactly what it does first chance it gets.

Between our ork's sheer hardiness and Dorbi's firepower, we manage to route the last of the Tir soldiers, while our now-hostile spirit does a victory lap.

It doesn't last very long.

The suits are alive and waiting for us.

Trying to look all serious.

It's that same guy who was dealing with the Native Californians, that's who.

Yaaay we get to run aaalll the way back there.

I didn't bother to revisit it because this entry was already looking pretty long, but there actually was a turret control node. I just completely missed it on our way in, and only saw it on the way back out. Still, it was an entertaining run even without the extra decking.

Also on the way out:

Uh. Yes it was. Hi, Hailey.

Meta Shadowrun reference, nice. Reference to the 'pink mohawk' roleplay style - fun and hijinks above profit. I think Dorbi fits it better. Yeah she can be pretty driven but she's pulls it off in such a fun way. Hailey is too... nice?

This is a blatant example of 'game wanting to give us resources, cash or recruits'. For the most part I try to focus on resources but blackmail isn't our style. Recruits it is.

This is such a long run that that little interlude is followed by another.

...he's not the -

Oi.

For me, this kind of reinforces the theory that he's actually a spirit. This utter disdain for basic human impulses, like corruption.

Oh my.

That's not the only possible implication - wink wink, nudge nudge.

Anyway, we find Kali in the first room of the building.

She's sharp and professional as usual.

Well damn, help from Saito? Now I'm extra glad we didn't blackmail him.

Note to self: Dorbi is still an amoral firebrand.

Note to self: Norton is still an idealistic idealist.

We pick the middle road here. We need supplies but can't stand to openly court Saito's favour. And in terms of the greater metaplot, I suspect this makes the most sense or rather, will make the most sense as we go along.

Kali approves, though I'm pretty sure she approves of anything we do (if we reject him she'll point out that doing so will get local metahumans on our side.)

Duly rewarded, we prepare to go home. We're halfway to the end of our preparations.