#9 A Star is Born

The story so far: We're playing a fool-punching shadowrunner who betrayed an employer to save thousands of lives in the Antumbra nightclub in Seattle. Later in San Francisco, the company that owned the nightclub hired us to investigate rival megacorporation, Aztechnology. But we were beaten to the punch (heh) by a lone troll who killed the guy in charge, stole some paydata we may or may not have needed and flung himself out the window, declaring allegiance to Norton. After we helped a group of metahuman gangers defeat several groups of marines representing the fascist Japanese government, we were given the location of this Norton, and have since returned to our base to resupply.

'The metahumans in this city' is a euphemism for 'the metahuman gangers in this city' since Johnson himself is technically a metahuman in this city.

We're left with twelve karma, which we use to upgrade Strength and Unarmed.

Newly upgraded, we head on back to Necalli.

He hasn't, but this isn't a shock, considering who he is and where he is. Statistically speaking, you don't run into a whole lot of Aztlan who weren't connected to Aztechnology somehow, especially outside of Mexico.

On the one hand, I'm glad he's being so frank about this. On the other hand, it's chilling how frank he is about this.

Off Saito and megacorp radar is good, but the 'millions of dead souls' bit doesn't inspire confidence. We take our leave. Next stop on our list is The Dave.

We get straight to asking him to price the paydata Hailey stole from Aztechnology.

We could've negotiated more with Corporate Etiquette but not an option. We take the deal.

This is a pattern you'll see throughout Antumbra. The more you succeed, the more people around you benefit, even when they aren't directly connected to your cause. You seem to be a strange, luck-producing machine, like some kind of Fortune Engine.

With the conversation over, we leave. His cyberware is still too basic for us, and we have replacement medkits in our stash already.

Next, we find Kali in her corner, near the lockers.

Kali's fighting for her place in San Francisco, but she's resourceful. Also, true to form, asking her about business opens her up to another question...

Sure, you aren't just another minx.

Seriously though, Kali's done a fine job of seizing opportunity and making herself into a decision-maker with clout. Of all the forces to be reckoned with in Calfree, it's good to have one firmly on our side.

We head on over to Amelia, who's decided to hawk her wares in the most straightforward way she can.

We dip into said wares, noting serious improvements in her selection. There's even a new fist weapon we'd totally upgrade to, only our skills aren't high enough yet.

We do change our outfit to something a little more Mad Max than before.

This gives armour, more health plus a Strength bonus so we can hit harder and more often.

So does that make her a thief?

Whatever.

Oh, you were responsible for that. Should've known. Either way, it certainly helps us. With all our ground floor business done, we head upstairs.

For the most part, the denizens of Eclipse are the same people in the same places as last time. This, however, is a new person.

I try.

Kind of an important question there.

Nice to meet you, even if I'm not even sure what thrumming is.

Throat humming?

Like... this?

Because if you'll teach our shadowrunner how to do that with his throat, I'm all for it.

Before asking about the demo, we decide to get her opinion on Kali.

She certainly seems to have gotten better at diplomacy.

And Eclipse has a monopoly, it's true. Anyway, regarding our wonderful debut...

Damn right she does.

Oh, we have to go back downstairs again? Alright.

Oh, no, please. Don't drown me in enthusiasm.

As intriguing as some of these names seem, we decide to stay the course.

We get an honest-to-spirits fade to black.

Next scene: that sucked, you're terrible, I can't believe I agreed to do this --

We decide to take that advice and go hunting around for help.

...no offence but I think I'll put those beats to better use.

This guy may have missed his calling as a DJ or producer.

I don't doubt that they will.

We return to the woman who set us on this path.

No, not Kali.

She don't curr.

Mixed praise, but she has a point, considering that our beats were made by an IT guy whose original song was about open source software.

Uh oh, we've gone from mixed praise to actual praise.

With that taken care of, we head upstairs to the bar and lounge.

True to form, Hailey outright calls us a star.

But 1nv4d3r is some carpetbagger from Seattle!

We take the advice anyway.

We promise not to forget about the little people.

And this is where Norton's Army is hiding. Among a bunch of ghosts. Shamans maybe?

So am I, dear girl.

Hailey does have a point though. She'll be a rigger who can mark people for this mission, not a full fledged decker. I don't mind having her along for the company but we could probably afford to shake the roster up.

We part ways for now.

There's a shaman about who might have good advice on Colma.

...sigh.

If you know about this part of the Shadowrun timeline, you'd know that not only is he applying for citizenship but he wants to make a run for the presidency in a few years.

Also, Dalmin confirms what our Johnson and Kali have been saying: the Antumbra site has gotten pretty profitable. And of course, he has nothing to say about Colma because he's an out-of-towner like we are.

His 'low low' price is more expensive than Hailey's (and I suspect Orion's). Perhaps he just knows we're going to a cemetery and assumes he'd be more useful.

We won't.

Speaking of Orion...

Orkbro!

John Agitation had an old comedy sketch in which he sought to woo a girl by going to her father with a prepared speech filled with slant-rhymes from the first line to the last.

After the speech was over, the dumbfounded father replied with "like you [boiled] the dictionary and [drank] the water!"

That's basically how Orion makes me feel.

We actually get more pertinent information about Colma - it's a haven for metahumans, dangerous ones in particular. I suppose even Norton's Army isn't a particularly 'safe' army.

With that taken care of, we decide to get some rest.

Well rested and fully remixed, we return to the rainbow-coloured goddess of destruction.

Well, after promises like that I'm glad we did all that extra work on it.

We return to Johnson who briefs us.

We picked someone who seems to take the concept of a 'street samurai' absolutely literally. I think that counts as dependable.

Let's go get some answers.