[jack_spade]

John
Tuesday, 26 November, 1150; storage unit under Alaska Way viaduct, Downtown, Seattle Metroplex #192

John had waited for Jan to finish before he answered
“True. But one thing we can be fairly certain is that Triad Tanya really wants Ricky dead/gone. That aligns perfectly with your goals of killing Triads.
Just in case we can prepare a little insurance for the perhaps, maybe, surprising, yet inevitable back-stab. Explosives sound like a good idea for that. I’m going to buy a bunch of HE grenades anyway, so I’ll add just a few more to my list. Also Pepperpunch. It’s cheap and with the right dosage will drop even a Behemoth.”

[jack_spade]

John
Tuesday, 26 November, 1143; storage unit under Alaska Way viaduct, Downtown, Seattle Metroplex #191

“Sure, I’ve got to buy some other stuff anyway, before we can go there. I’ll be back in about an hour.”

[jack_spade]

John
Tuesday, 26 November, 1143; storage unit under Alaska Way viaduct, Downtown, Seattle Metroplex #190

“Think about it: A guy that loves his car that much, won’t rely on one of his flunkies to look for scratches. Also the flunky probably doesn’t know what Ving keeps in his glove compartment all that well.”

If it doesn’t work… Well, we’ll just take the flunky as a consolation price and get him to spill details about his boss’ security.

[jack_spade]

John
Tuesday, 26 November, 1143; storage unit under Alaska Way viaduct, Downtown, Seattle Metroplex #189

<<Don’t you worry. If you want Rick Wu dead, that can be arranged. Standard rates apply.>>

[jack_spade]

John
Tuesday, 26 November, 1142; storage unit under Alaska Way viaduct, Downtown, Seattle Metroplex #188

<<To be honest, that sounds like a lot of work just to get him to sit in his car. Not that it wouldn’t work, but I actually planned to just fake a call from the parking attendant, telling him that someone opened a bunch of cars and if he would mind to take a look inside his own to see if anything is missing. Once he is inside, he’ll find a bit of Narcoject/DMSO coating the surfaces. We hack the car, and have it drive him to an extraction point of our choice.>>

Only ten minutes after he had called her, Nachthexe reported back:
<<Ok John, that was actually easier than expected. The guy does have an active grid guide subscription for two cars – a Rover SUV and a modded BMW 400GT. He managed to get no less than ten traffic infractions on his last joyride that got deleted almost immediately afterwards. There is also a report that he managed to hit a pedestrian and beat the shit out of him for “bumping his ride”. That one got taken from the official file too.
So anyway: Both cars are currently parked in a private underground parking garage in Chinatown belonging to the Triads, but which is guarded by private Lonestar Security. I imagine that that is the reason why the infractions have been taken care of: Lonestar still holds many sub contracts for administrative parts of the justice system. At the moment a Sg. Robert Fisher mans the monitors with two Steel Lynx drones patrolling the garage. The man just ordered his third Mu-Gai-Pan box with an extra large bottle of Fizzy-Splode from the next door restaurant.
The two cars are parked at Sublevel 2, Section Red 2B and C.
Have fun.>>

John replied: <<Wow, that was way more comprehensive then expected. I’m getting you a special present once I’m done with this. Promise!>>

Relating the dosier to his chummers he added: <<So, anyone interested in playing a food delivery guy, or should we just sneak in, ninja style?>>

[jack_spade]

John
Tuesday, 26 November, 1137; storage unit under Alaska Way viaduct, Downtown, Seattle Metroplex #187

John gave out a short laugh:

<<Honey, you aren’t the only one who has matrix connections. I might not be well versed in your mafia politics, but I do know how to find and steal cars. Give me an hour and I’ll get back to you guys.>>

He changed the channel and called Nachthexe:
<<Holla Beautiful. I didn’t intend to ask for your skills so soon again, but my current job is more fun than expected. Anyway I’m again involved in a mafia war, this time the Triads.
I need to find the location of a Ving Sung’s car. You find attached everything I have about him. I’m sure your Resonance Minions can get you this info without trouble>>
The answer came promptly back:
<<If you think your honeyed words are getting you a discount you are sorely mistaken – you totally missed our raid last night. We had to bring in Chibbi with his damn demon summoning to get rid of the vampire spawn and now the whole team has to pay for a remove disease against the demon rot. I’m blaming you for that, you know?>>

<<Jeez, sorry but at the time I was just battling against a hit squad of shadowrunners and a bunch of Triad thugs on a half finished building site. Do it for me, please. I’ll even pay for the whole team’s healing.>>

<<Ok, but you better not miss our next game. I’ll get back to you.>>

[jack_spade]

John
Tuesday, 26 November, 1136; storage unit under Alaska Way viaduct, Downtown, Seattle Metroplex #186

John had followed the exchange with bemused fascination. Sports where a topic he had never understood – watching was kind of pointless and doing it yourself was for him in his current form nothing but a quick paced strategy game. And as far as he was concerned, there were better games around. But before he could get in a wise crack, Triad Tanya had already departed.
<<Serious? Posing as bodyguards at a party where the opposition has numerical advantage and controls what weapons we can bring in? That’s just asking for trouble of the terminal kind.

Normally I’d just skip the Sung angle to go directly for Ricky – I mean even if he is not the one after Al and Jan, he certainly wouldn’t be a great loss to society either. But I get that you like to do this thoroughly.

So taking a step back, we know that Sun will attend tonight – so all we need to do is catch him before he arrives. We can do this in the style of a drive by or we pinch him in his own garage. Hell we could even sabotage his car and turn it into a remote controlled cage.

Hell we could just break into his apartment, stuff him into the garbage chute and collect him on ground level. The less moving part the plan has the better. Hit’em fast, hit’em hard and get out before they can respond.

[jack_spade]

John
Tuesday, 26 November, 1136; storage unit under Alaska Way viaduct, Downtown, Seattle Metroplex #185

“Hell yeah, my batteries are full, my backup done, I’m ready for action.
If I remember correctly we want Ving Sun, Rick Wu’s favorite lieutenant. So let’s find him, kick the shit out of him and ask some questions.”

[jack_spade]

It’s the astral hazing negative quality: In a 2 m radius around Vindariel there is a Background Count of 3. I fluffed it as being negative and sucking away ambient mana.
Dual-natured creatures receive -3 to all their actions in his immediate vicinity. If he stays longer in one place the effect can spread and increase to 4

[jack_spade]

Hiho,
it seems as if the edit button for posts has vanished. I think that one is quite essential 😀

[jack_spade]

23:30h March 18th 2077 – Verdun, at the banks of the Maas

8000 years of experience and still I had fallen for one of the oldest tricks in the book – or rather on the cuneiform clay tablet. Luis was bleeding out at my feet, Alex had started to claw his own eyes out and Renard was currently trying to behead me while the army of the dead bore down on us…

It had started as a “small favor” to my erstwhile patron. I mean he had sent Sahra and a bottle of 25 year old single malt – you’d have to be made of stone to show her the door even if she hadn’t been one of the few individuals left from the beginnings of my life.

I just had returned to the small mansard across the Louvre. The air was stale after over two years without an open window and as it turned out without a functioning cleaning drone. The landlady, Madame Vi who had originally leased the flat to me and who had always made sure everything was in tip-top shape in her house had died at the ripe old age of 102 and left her good for nothing nephew Gaston in charge.
This led to me having to dust and air out every blanket and pillow by hand. Dusty, sweaty and wearing the only available apron (with frills) I became aware of someone unlocking the front door.
Naturally, I didn’t carry any weapons with me but the 18th century candelabra made from sterling silver (a present from my then wife Marie) looked like it would be a sufficiently blunt, heavy object to deal with the intruder. You can imagine my surprise when instead of the slavering beast or black clad corporate assassin, I looked into the sweet, elven face of Sahra. Technically that meant I had been right on both accounts – there is a reason she still works as an understudy to Herr Brackhaus.
“Lanius, I hope you don’t mind that I left myself in, but the door was as good as standing open…”
“Sa’Ira. Well, what a surprise. How did you know where to find me?”
“You yourself took me up here 52 years ago.”
“Oh. Right, I forgot.”
“But even if you hadn’t, there is a plume of dust issuing from your windows that makes the normal Paris smog look like clear mountain air.”
“Guilty. Damn drone malfunctioned. They don’t build them like they used to. Come in.”
She smiled that same little knowing smile she had had for the last eight millennia.
“The dress becomes you. You should wear one more often.”
“It’s an apron – and the only one I could find.” I said while removing said piece of apparel. “What fortunate winds bring you to my doorstep?”
“I bear gifts and an assignment from our benefactor.”
“I like gifts but I fear the Danaer, even those bearing gifts.”
“Liar. You do not fear anything – otherwise he would not have sent me to you.”
I shrugged and relented, leading her to the small sofa that still had some pillows to sit. From behind her back she drew the aforementioned bottle and with a practiced motion removed the seal, using nothing more than her sharp, sharp nails.
“Have a sip, brave Collurio, my Kaern companion and listen to my tale.”
No matter how old I am, her honeyed words get me every time and the whiskey did smell good enough for me to comply.
“Our master learned that you are back on the continent and wishes you to investigate a rumor not far from here, just two hours in fact.”
“Very thoughtful and expeditious of him. What kind of rumor?”
“Oh you know, the usual, a potential portal into hell. Say, have you ever been to Verdun…”

And that’s how I ended up stopping my spring cleaning and instead called up an old shadow contact for transportation and support. Alex and his mates of former Foreign Legionares owed me a favor and agreed to accompany me on this little impromptu expedition.
Alex, the dwarven rigger, Luis the human mage and Renard the troll with the combat axe had been working the shadows for over five years now and were – if not friends – at least reliable companions who had helped me catch a Loup Garou terrorizing a ski resort. I wouldn’t say they were happy to learn that I wanted to visit a 1st World War cemetery, but nonetheless it only took a modest sum to convince them. After all I can be charming if I set my mind to it.

It took a lot longer to reach the destination, thanks to Alex insisting to use only dirt roads with his newly acquired off-roader. It made me long for the time when horseback riding was the fastest way to travel. I mean seriously – it was good enough for over nine millennia…
Anyway, we reached our destination shortly after nightfall. Luis kept his distance – he neither liked me or the void I carry with me.
I had told them that we were looking for a portal to another world – no need to scare them with unnecessary details – and that they should arm themselves.
The gates were closed but neither of us had problems getting over. Luis hovered over them, Alex had his car lift him over, I ran up and jumped the wall, while Renard simply kicked them open. Each after there own, I guess.
I have to admit, visiting the endless rows of graves stretching into the distance had a sobering effect even on me. At least until I took another sip from the witches brew I keep in my hip flask.
Luis complained that the astral space was so twisted and polluted he couldn’t see anything. As so often the case, the mage was borderline useless. Alex had more success with his flying eyes.
“There’s something going on down by the river. The infrared spectrometer is picking up flares of 5°.”
“That’s not particularly spectacular.” I replied
“5° Kelvin.”
“Oh. Right. I hope you are all wearing your ski underwear.”
Slowly we crept closer. The river’s humid air quickly turned into a freezing mist the closer we got to the source of the cold. Louis soon began to shiver violently and not just from the cold. “It’s evil. Darkness and pain. Drowning and suffering. My god, the suffering. And the shells are still falling. We have to get out of here…”
I stopped his rising panic by slapping him hard across the face, leaving a thin trail of blood on my rough skin.
“Get a grip on yourself and stop projecting…”
But it was to late. I realized what was happening a moment after Louis’ eyes filled with utter blackness as my void aura stripped away the shadow spirit’s camouflage. It’s words were harsh and in such an alien voice that I was surprised that a human voice box could produce them.
On cue the earth began to tremble and fountained around us where suddenly the restless long dead World War I soldiers clawed their way up with brutal strength and determination.

I didn’t hesitate. Kicking off from an old headstone I jumped at Louis, aiming for his head with the bared ball of my fist. Bone crunched as the force of my blow broke its jaw and cheekbone. A strike like that would have been enough to send even the meanest mercenary to the floor. But the unholy horror inside its stolen flesh husk felt no pain and no restraint. It lashed out at us with a dread power. Once again the void prevented me from feeling the effect while terror swept over my companions, erasing their conscious thoughts and leaving only animal fear behind.

Although my creator hadn’t seen fit to not allow me the luxury of fear he let me keep fury at least.
With a cry of rage I grabbed Louis’ collar, dropped to the ground and used my own momentum to sling the mage’s body head first across the cast iron cross next to me. It didn’t kill him/it, but the impaled guts fixated his body long enough that I was able to close in and break his neck, twisting it a 180°.

“Quick, I need the axe before it reanimates…”

I didn’t get much further before Renard hit me with his axe across the back of my torso. I’ve been hurt before, and I can hurt with the best of them, but the blow actually managed to pierce my armor and my toughened skin, knocking me to the ground.
Dimly I was aware off Alex sitting on the ground and plucking out his remaining real eye out of its socket with his manicured fingernails while he screamed for his mother. Yet I had no time to come to his aid as Renard with his by now pitch black eyes lumbered forward with deceptive speed to finish what he had began. The dead, or at least their earthly remains had nearly freed themselves from their earthen tombs, surrounding me like a bizarre garden where bone grows like wood.

I felt the injection on my thigh as the biomonitor determined the wound to be bad enough for desperate measures. Burning bliss filled my veins and I stepped through the white fire. I flexed my body like a spring, getting back up on my feet and used the momentum to drive my fist from below into the jaw of the 2,10 m troll, lifting the brute from the ground which had the effect of cutting off his tongue with his own teeth. The combat axe swished uselessly over my head as I ducked and rammed my elbow into the relatively fragile radius bone, fracturing it and forcing the spirit to release the axe from its grip. The Void howled hungrily inside me, slowing the shadow’s movements enough for me to kick out the troll’s kneecap and forcing his leg to move sideways in a way that nature never intended. Gravity took care of the rest and Renard’s body hit the ground like the proverbial sack of potatoes. This time I didn’t give the spirit time to leave it’s host: Renards axe was in my hand and cut off his head before he’d even had time to flinch.

It would have been more stylish if I’d had a scythe, but the executioner’s axe served just as well: I mowed down the undead left and right before they had a chance to move about. Every breath I took burned like fire, but the pain barely registered with me. Blood and gore and rotted bone splinters decorated my face when I reached the center of the site. The portal waited for me, appearing like a cloud of the darkest black that you can’t imagine. Voices howled from within, calling, begging, cursing me, while I looked around for the other Master Shedim. I found it easily enough: It had taken the body of a small girl, no older than eight. And still it managed to smile an innocent smile. But a smile is no defense against an axe made from titanium alloy with a tungsten-carbide edge. The bisected carcass dropped to the ground and the gate closed instantly.

I suddenly became aware of the insistent beeping from my bio monitor, warning me about the enormous blood loss I had sustained and that the clotting agent had barely kept in check. Somewhere a bell tolled midnight and an almighty weariness descended like a lead blanket upon me.
Blackness and oblivion surrounded me until…
“Rise and shine Vindariel…”

[jack_spade]

Alright, Vindariel visits Verdun… 😀

[jack_spade]

I just noticed something with you dual-natured types:
“Dual-natured creatures or purely astral creatures take a negative dice pool penalty to all actions equal to the background count.” p. 32 SG
And since we are talking about negative BC you can’t even get acclimated over time.
How do you function with those penalties?

[jack_spade]

@Aria
No problem, the MA stuff is actually pretty straight forward: Charge in, do damage, grab the target (so it’s within the BC Aura) and do more damage until target stops resisting 😉

And as tempted as I am to incorporate the new stuff, I don’t think this is the game to do so.

(I’ll probably upgrade Isaint a bit in the near future. )

[jack_spade]

I planned to offer my services again once I get a grip on the book – that data entry work is really great if you want to learn the new rules by heart 😀

[jack_spade]

Thought that first too, but you have to read the text carefully:
Buddhism only means you need a lower skill rating – it’s still free for all.

Also, you are not limited to combat spells – it’s touch spells, which allows you for a random example Increased Reflexes used with reagents, or analyse device or any other neat touch spell that doesn’t need force for it’s effect

[jack_spade]

Well, there is that new 10 point quality that allows you to cast touch spells with the unarmed combat skill…

[jack_spade]

Argh, there I am, having gotten my character in order and then… poof… Forbidden Arcana appears and I get so many new options and ideas…

[jack_spade]

Added History to my chara and spent the bonus karma.

[jack_spade]

Vindariel is up on OP, history, etc. will follow soon. He is fully Karma generated. If anyone is interested I can send out the excel document I used to create him.

https://stormy-waters-2075.obsidianportal.com/characters/sop-vindariel