Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 192 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vmngdr3q9tyxxu5/S...ok%207.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Archive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
So, another fight – and of course, this being Shadowrun and quite a “crunchy” system that meant most of the 2 hour session to get the fight resolved. However, I don’t think we actually rolled initiative at all, for any player or NPC. With one team being on the ground, and one in the tilt-wing, separated by 700m+, it didn’t seem reasonable to go to that level of micro-management. Instead I went through the list – initially starting with just Marius and Shimazu, as they were the only ones able to “do” anything meaningful – be that dodging fireballs or spotting threats. As players declared they were heading to doors, deploying guns, or doing anything else I slotted them into the list based on an average mental initiative. In some ways this boosted the lower players and penalised the fastest ones who didn’t get their multiple actions per turn – but this also affected the enemy team in much the same way. It also made the combat go a lot faster than it otherwise would have, and kept people more involved.
The only time the enemy got to the chopper was when the spirits / elementals arrived, which let Shimazu get involved with a bit of close combat – handily winning his early fights (though earth elementals imbued with extra reach were a nasty surprise for him!) and otherwise between stealth rolls, photovoltaic paint, spirit concealment and illusion spells, they managed to stay out of sight of the other team – luckily. They were very much aware though that if the enemy sniper HAD managed to get a lock on them, they would most likely have been shot down in short order, as he had a magazine of the super-hot ammo too.
The writeup also differs from the normal a little, in that it contains information that the players didn’t directly see or experience – what happened to the enemy rigger and mages. However, based on the aftermath, I think they could have easily reconstructed the events and worked out what must have happened from the outcome, and besides – I thought it was too amusing to pass up.
As often happens in Shadowrun, once one side starts to lose the fight, it quickly turns into an avalanche, and the runners started to lose badly – but were then offered a chance to surrender, which they took. I was half expecting the live team to land and interrogate / talk to the runner (at which point their identities would have been clear and no doubt I would have taken some abuse!) team. If they had, then the runners would have passed on the details of some contacts in Seattle – contacts the team are lacking at the moment. As it turns out, they didn’t, and it felt during the discussion that they might have got close to just icing all of them which is quite unusual for this team… in the end they left them alone and the phrase was uttered “chances are we’ll never see them again anyway”.
Oh really? *grin*. We’ll see about that!
After dealing with the enemy team, the token was a piece of cake, and we managed to get that done before calling it a night as they headed off towards Anchorage and the next smuggler stop.
That’s 9 of 14 volcanos done – but they have potentially the hardest ones to come, and the find a number of peaks that tower well above the flight ceiling for the tilt-wing, requiring overland treks of several kilometres in storms and icy conditions, with a couple of different challenges to face.
And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Wednesday 29/9/60, Location:53.12637, -168.67578, Time 08:21
2. One F5 GF sky + 2 G6 GF Earth closing in on craft, enemy team concealed by spirit+imp invisibilty - all spotted by Shimazu. Tads transfers to shielding. Spot F7-8 firebolt comes up, Marius dodges, misses by <5m, cast at D. Kai heads for door guns. Tads suggest swapping with Shimazu to attack the illusion, while Shimazu gets ready with sword. Kai gets strapped in with parachute on.
3. Tads assenses concealment spells and thinks - suggests Shimazu to port side door to give them a way in, and slice+dice. Works out it's a F6 trid-phantasm. Aswon puts shielding on aircraft. Tads dispel attempt on trid phantasm - failed but drained. Hunter doesn't spot the drones launching.
4. Tads spots a F5-6 powerball inbound, but bounces off the shielding. Marius calls for fire. Kai blindfires into area, 10 rounds, misses. Aswon goes to rear ramp and straps in. Gets 1 spot on the enemy team. Skidoo+flankers, 1 sniper looking but not locked on.
5. Earth elemental appears near Shimazu, S wins by 1, RR, wins by 8, 11D, no soak, dies. Realises that the summoner is at least G4 to get +1 reach. Kai fires again - narrowly misses. Hunter electronics - fails. Marius spots a pair of small rotordrones emerging from the trid-phantasm. Hunter jacks out, and heads to rear door with AR + grenades.
6. Tads magic fingers poke in the eye to Nicole, one success, surprised, skidoo wavers. Kai fires - misses, Aswon centres+fires at drone, takes out one drone which starts to spiral down. Marius electronics check - 3 X 16s, gets a lock on enemy rigger (fuckers!) Gets a sniff of the sniper looking for them
7. Tads spots the rest of the elementals coming as a pack. EE and SS attack Shimazu. Shimazu QS, takes out the earth elemental. SS comes in to attack, Shimazu slices that one too.
8. Aswon suppressive ahead of the skidoo - 10 round burst. Tads tries to banish, wins by 1. Kai - fires and misses, Hunter spots Jawa, fires and hits (1) soaks with buying/rr, hit with 2nd burst, buys to take a moderate. out of GK
9. Skidoo does a 180, snaps Dak, looses concentration, trid drops, reveals all. Perception checks, spots Boris+Ursula. Tads finishes popping EE.
10. 2 EE+ 1FE in front of Shimazu, QS the FE, beats by 5, dead. Both EE attack Shimazu - 1st, base hit, 8S soaking 2S - ok. 2nd attacks, wins by 7, RR again, wins by 6, buys 1, soaking 9D, soaking, RR, takes a Light
11. Marius tries to infiltrate their comms - 1 X 11, gets on. thick Nigerian - shoot them. Russian - I can't see them!
12. Aswon - 6 round burst, centres tn6, hits for 15D, 4 on the soak, takes an M, driven back a few metres but not knocked down.
13. Hunter, on Ursuala, 2 hits - dodge, 2nd burst, does an S
14. Vadim ties up one of the EE with banishing - draw, Shimazu one on one with EE, does an S.
15. Boris looks - can't see still. Nicole goes mad on evasive driving, Ursula white flag trid phantasm.
16. Shimazu multistrikes. Takes out serious wounded one, then on Vadims
17. Marius - sends a surrender message in English
18. Aswon - pause fire, wait for action
19. Hunter - pause, aim at white flag.
20. Vadim - beats elemental by 1, down to 4. Tads pops it.
21. Kai - stop firing and change face to not Chinese - try local aleut
22. Nicole - you shot my drone! M - not me personally, but you did fire first. N - if I stand down, you'll guarantee my safety? M - if you stand down, we'll let you leave and just be on our way. Nicole stops spinning, mages in a mess on the rope.
23. Kai message - we have your sigs, don't try anything in town. Adds, we can supply medical aid at a reasonable rate.
24. Do not penetrate Ursulas masking. tries again. Aswon and Tads go, penetrate.
25. No response from the enemy team, New Fish leave them alone. Spot Nicole kneel on Daks neck while bioteching Jawa.
26. Kai - sends message to town that dak is taken out, not going to be bothering them anymore.
27. Team discussion about going to help, asking bear shaman for help, look around the area, don't spot anything unusual, fly on.
28. Aswon spots a golden glow as they just go over the top of the volcano, but they find a landing spot and plant token ok.
29. 1436km to the Ice Box, about 3.5 hours flight time.
30. Hunter - research on the Ice box,

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 193 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vmngdr3q9tyxxu5/S...ok%207.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Archive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
We missed last week as one player was on holiday and another got called into work – not a lot we could do about that, and it gave me a free weekend last week which made a nice change 😊
But, back at it now, and the players encountered some fun stuff – first off was the Ares launch facility at Kodiak Island, which just happened to be lofting a rocket into orbit as the team were passing close by, resulting in an AWACs and full fighter wing being up and on guard for intruders. They’ve got this place marked on the map now, and that should hopefully help when they’re offered some missions as part of the comet race in 2064, and should have an understanding of the kind of team they’re going to be up against. But, for now they have a big bubble on the map marked “stay clear”. Then of course, on coming in close to the smuggler base they pick up an encrypted SOS message from a decker based there, who had been kidnapped by a mega-corp. There was some discussion amongst the team as they tried to work out if they should get involved or not, but in the end they chanced it and have made a very valuable contact. Iceman will provide them with a lot of information on smuggler bases all up and down the UCAS (pretty much most of the places mentioned in Smuggler Havens) and that will give them massive fuel bubbles all across the UCAS and NAN – which helps push the plot forward for some of the stuff I have planned.
It doesn’t get them rep with any of the places of course – just the contact info to be able to find them and make use of their facilities as a “basic” customer, and the rest will have to work from there. Given Kai’s normal tendency to offer to take on side missions, I’m sure life will be interesting for them – my aim is to throw enough interesting and lucrative stuff at them in the UCAS to keep them busy for a while, while Nadia is getting closer and closer to her due date and being more and more demanding to Marius to come home… am curious to see if the team will side with him, if Marius will just fly off one day with the tilt-wing (or even more of an extreme, leave it parked somewhere and fly home commercial so he can be there for the birth!) or if the pressure of work will keep him away.
Aden will also be getting back to the team, his patience having run out waiting for them, and with some news – the horror is no longer in the temple back near Tashkent, but has escaped and is on the loose – and now he expects them to track it down and deal with it. Aswon will of course bite on this one – he struck a deal and declared a deed on it, and Shimazu was involved too. With 1/3 of the team magically obliged to follow up, and Tads invested in sorting out the situation as well, that’s going to create some interesting dynamics to deal with too.
Of course, first we have a few more volcanos to deal with, and they’re coming up to the most physically challenging ones, some of which are *way* over their flight ceiling and will require a significant climb in arctic conditions. I think the rerolls are going to get used thick and fast for some of the team as they start having to deal with glaciers and storms!

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Wednesday 29/9/60, Location:53.12637, -168.67578, Time 08:47
2. Weather overcast, not actively raining, cold from wind chill. Tads asks what food to create - Aswon suggests steak for high protein. After 30 mins, reveal info from Hunter. Kai asks for clarity on the sea route to Seattle - in case they need the bird shipping - 3000km, but slow. Tads asks about going via Panama Canal the other way around. Marius - most will go via rail to east coast, rather than through canal. Aswon suggests looking when closer to the end.
3. Sensor check for Marius - no hits, RR, still no hits. Gets picked up by fighter, moves into position. Broadcast in the blind - state details or be fired upon. Aswon suggests putting on the dodgy transponder and claiming some kind of error. Marius ensures EDs are off, Kai on the radio. "sorry, given our equipment a kick. Do we need to turn or adjust heading or speed. Advise to go to 350 degrees. Quick conflab. "Our destination is anchorage, how far out, low on fuel" Advise 75km north, then turn east. Agrees, roger that. Checks on the comms. UCAS accent, military, professional. Map out diversion - not a volcano, no, move on. At top of the diversion, pick up the AWACS.
4. Call ahead, get advice on how to come in, skim the waves from the north.
5. General alert - from the AWACS - launch imminent. Aswon - is there a space base here? AWACS goes onto full broadcast, max power. Thinks... Polar geo-sync orbit launch.
6. Fly through high terrain, canyons, get to north of Anchorage. Just coming in to land, detect the SOS signal, analyse and work out what it is, 30kph, land based. Slow and come in on final, Tads projects and goes looking for suspicious stuff. Finds the bulldog going down the perimeter road. Check in front / behind. Marius sends a signal back in a similar style. Tads merges with body, reports in. Bulldog is about 700m south, at 30kph. Kai asks for accidents on the van. Tads doesn't want to in case it stops a getaway. Kai suspects a kidnapping. Tads sends a spirit off to accident it. Reports back after 20 seconds "balloon burst!". Kai - Get one of the bikes out and asks for a drone to be prepped. Tads nags at people to make sure they are appropriately dressed. Team "gear up". Tads gets behind Shimazu. Rest of team run after the. Kai asks his spirit for a count on the van occupants. Aswon asks for concealment. Message from the spirit - 3 people, 1 changing wheel, 2 on guard with guns. Hunter is riding the bike, Kai behind him. Get to edge of base, spot van
7. Aswon goes vertical up container pile and draws LOS on the van. Tads offers to astral scout. Aswon checks van - thinks not security variant, no run-flats. About 11am. Grotty but not actively raining. Tads finds somewhere to wedge herself in a corner by containers, shouts to Shimazu not to forget her, astrally project and checks out the van - not obvious magicaly active, no open door. Less than 1 min to finish the wheel change. Goes to back, spots hogtied guy. Heads back out. Manifests to Kai "stop them", then heads back to body. Kai steps out with paper to survey the containers and then "notices" them. One at the front raises SMG and Aswon shoots him - instant kill. 2nd guy shoots under the van, hits Kai 9S - soaks with armour, just. Passes knockdown, gets hit with 2nd burst, one on the soak, RR, gets 3. Loses a little toe, skips away in pain.
8. Tads takes a spirit to go snap the cable ties holding the guy in teh back of the van.
9. Shimazu draws gun, about 20-30 seconds away - athletics test on 4s - 2 successes, puts a sprint on. Aswon spots the situation and reports in to Marius. Drone is heading over, 20 seconds too. Aswon spots someone trying to get into the van on the leeward side. Aswon shoots at the window to let them know he has them in LOS. Round shatters on the window, minor cosmetic damage. Kai treats his own wound once in cover. Aswon swops to ex-ex clip. Marius shoots at the engine block - 2 X 3 round bursts EX-EX. Marius does S+M to the vehicle. Tads "you've got friends outside" - mountain spirit breaks bonds, Tads assigns to guard him. Guy tries to get circulation back. Tads asks spirit to kick the back doors open, then
10. Hunter kills the one shooting at Kai after rolling out quickly. Aswon spots the driver bailing out and running for the trees.
11. Marius shoots the driver, does S+M.
12. Hostage skids around corner to face Shimazu - Shimazu points pistol, get down, get in the corner. Compliance. Hands on knees, breathing heavily, watches Shimazu. Marius recovers drone. Ask Hunter to put bodies in the van. Tads and Aswon close to assist - strip them of supplies+boots for Kai.
13. Hunter - driver is Japanese, still alive, driver refuses to speak to Hunter, Shimazu approaches. "devil, back to the island", pink froth spit. Shimazu cocks the revolver, loud and obvious. Driver turns and crawls to the woodline. Shimazu goes around to in front, you have no honour. Guy makes WP test, manages to stand up. Turns and ignores Shimazu staggers down road. Kai orders to drag to treeline and strip him. Spits in Shimazu's face, won't comply, your kind should be killed. Shimazu pulls taser, shoots, overflows to physical, moderate - one box of overflow. Tads runs over to mind probe. Shimazu biotech - fails. Tads mind probs - gets details on the extraction. Kai biotechs and stabilises on deadly.
14. Marius - why are we keeping him alive. Just kill him - it's Mitsuhama. All kinds of bad, they will come after us. Maybe has headware memory. Just kill him.
15. Assense, he does have cyber in his head. Tads asks about resale value of cyber - is it like magic? Aswon - bleugh, don't want to deal with those kinds of people. Get the van off the road and destroy everything. Recover guns and ammo, then head back to the Ice Box with. Kai offers a gun to Iceman66 - nah, I use a keyboard. Aswon - so how are you with paperwork - like international border crossings. Let's get back to the cabin and we can discuss.
16. Heading back to the port.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 194 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vmngdr3q9tyxxu5/S...ok%207.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Archive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
So, the team rescued Iceman from the clutches of Mitsuhama, and made a really good and useful contact. Although Ice is normally very mercenary, he recognised that they saved him from a very unpleasant end and repaid them with some information – fuel stops all across the north American continent that should make getting around much easier, along with a little bit of information on border crossings. Along with the couple of places they already knew about, that’s given them very good coverage for overlapping fuel ranges, as well as providers of cargo and supplies.
I provided a graphic of the fuel ranges to show before and after, and there were some appreciative noises from the team, so they at least recognised how useful that was – more on that later!
After refuelling and a chat they decided to push on, making out of Anchorage without issue and getting up into the mountains into steadily worsening conditions. As they landed and I described the figure coming out of the snow to meet them, both Hunter and Marius’s player did the mock-face palm style move going “oh great – more myffic stuff!” I think they’ve both accepted that there is weird stuff going on with the team by now though… and I’m really looking forward to the end of this mission and the start of the net phase, where Marius is going to come across some tech as a result of the mythic shenanigans, and see what his reaction is.
Still, they met with the contact, and met the “challenge” for this volcano – which was to talk diplomatically with an outsider and describe their two employers, without being too revealing or judgemental (in case their words catch up with them – because hey, Dragons) and let them form an opinion on which side to support.
And towards the end, Shimazu is doing some psychometry and I decided that is was a good time to throw some RP at him. So, this afternoon I need to write a steamy love scene about the betrothal necklace that he’s looking at, with some very suggestive descriptions to throw at Tom, and see how much he would want to reveal as Shimazu. Character building… 😊
So, that’s the session activity covered – onto some other stuff.
First of all, this weeks writeup took me 300 minutes to produce, giving me a word rate of 35.42 words per minute. Not the fastest typer out there, but not too bad for creative writing I think. It does tend to chew up most of a day, around walking the dog, cooking food and other bits of weekend activity like the shopping. Some weeks I really get into the flow and words just tumble out (episode 182 springs to mind – somehow that one ended up being twice as long as all the others from the same session time. Stuff just needed to be said it seems!), and other weeks I find myself writing for 20-30 minutes and then just closing Word and going to do something else instead for a bit. I’ve learnt by now that if for some reason I’m just not feeling creative or like it’s a chore, to put it down and walk away – trying to force it just makes it worse. And somehow, I’ve always managed to hit the deadline, even if it’s got very close! I used to just leave Word open and come back to write or add some stuff, have a think, go have dinner, come back add some more etc… but around episode 99 I started making the effort to only have the document open while I was working on it, so that the edit time was somewhere near accurate. I extrapolated backwards from that point to episode 1 based on my average WPM and the word count from the earlier episodes to get some rough data. With today’s episode taken into account, I’ve got a rough overall edit time of 680 hours… eek.
The other thing to mention is the wonderful site at https://www.mapdevelopers.com/draw-circle-tool.php?
They’ve got a bunch of other map functions, but the circle tool is the one I make use of, as it serves a very particular purpose. When I was planning out the current mission, I took the max fuel range of the aircraft under ideal conditions and then halved that to allow for “out and back” style missions. Then using that range, I plotted a circle over every known smuggler base / stop that the team have contact with, to give me a visual representation of the coverage they had. From the early episodes they had multiple bases around the middle east and southern Russia, giving them lots of options, with the circles spreading out as they moved further away.
When I was prepping for the volcano missions, I could then use these circles to plot out where I needed to drop a smuggler base in to allow them to refuel, which provided about 20 locations that I needed to create. Sometimes I put stuff out of the way or off to one side to “force” a detour for plot exposition or side quest reasons, or just because life isn’t always neat and handy. The team always have the option of trying to file legit paperwork and jumping through hoops to use a regular airport and run the risk of official entanglement of course, and they’ve made the decision to sacrifice a considerable part of their cargo bay to the extra fuel barrels to effectively double their range as long as they can stop somewhere and manually refuel. However, the fuel circles really help with planning out what’s going on in future sessions, and hopefully keeps things consistent and smooth in terms of story.
In my tracking database, next to every smuggler stop is a code showing the type of stop and colour, which matches the hex code of the circles on the map that I use:
Green(Home Base) 1AFF00
Yellow(Smuggler Stop) FFFCD4
Grey(Fuel arrangements) DADBD9
Red(Hostile/burnt) DB4242
Orange(Neutral stop) FFB866
Purple(Civilian Airport) CF0FFF (need to add these, based on where they have visited)
The URL is horrible to look at, but if you break it down in a text editor you can see the repeating sections where it lists the co-ordinates, size, colour, border, fill transparency and various other snippets of code used to generate the image.
The map for my team, as at the end of session 194 looks like this (you may need to go full screen and adjust the camera position for some reason, it keeps defaulting to off the map...):
this link

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Wednesday 29/9/60, Location:61.24288, -149.8819, Time 11:08
2. Travelled 1622km since takeoff at Ivan's bay. Fuel cost = 6488 Nuyen
3. Get to containers. R8 maglock, but thin walls on containers. Meet Randy, description check for the teeth, inside is like a dosshouse, smells of BO
4. Hunter - every branch on the ugly tree? "Yep!"
5. Turns to Ice, where you been - back of a van, long story, new friends. Fair enough - what do you need?
6. Kai - fuel, we have food to trade. Aswon - local knowledge, I am Aswon. RR - have some drugs, some weapons, most of our other stuff went west a few days ago on a sub.
7. Fuel cost discusses - that's cheap. Hunter geology roll, local output. Tads=nothing.
8. Kai - mentions that he's heard of Iceman on the "inter-shadows"... Hunter is on there, likes to swap pokemon or something. Move Kai to the side, asks Hunter for his handle. Avatar is shining knight, handle "XX_Bourne_XX". Grateful for you help, what are you doing over here. Hunter "just on a job." Give me something to work with, I can help you out with some info. Go talk to your boss and clear stuff.
9. Aswon - working down the UCAS, few stops, not penetrating secure facilities. "Right, let me send you a message" Get the info, Hunter maps out the bases, team "ahhh!"
10. Kai talks smuggling routes, Aswon makes sure to share the Iranian stop. Start talking about border crossings - Tsimshin, rough border, Salish, not too bad. Tir tough, feet wet, Cal free very variable. Kai asks for stuff to bring back - Cal Hots, Kai asks about personal requirements - nothing really.
11. I66 asks if they are stopping at Buck Palace or El Diablo. Told yes. Warns about Buck Palace - get Tuxes, play along, learn how to make a martini. El Diablo - watch your back, keep your guns hot, don't leave anything unguarded.
12. Look at route, plan for breaks, work out how far they can get per day, still relatively fresh. Next peak is 5200m, Nav roll for Hunter. RR, 2nd RR, estimates 4.5km to nearest point on the hill.
13. Biotech and Survival rolls - altitude sickness, need external O2 or time to aclimatise. Tads - possibly levitate, but its slow. Estimate 12-15kph, but issues with LOS. Check weather, big front to the south, hundreds of klicks across.
14. Ask Icemand about scuba tanks - I don't have one, but we can find one. Does it have to be scuba or just air supply. Pitches Elmendorf - Aswon - no. Kai - what? That's right up our street! Aswon - no time, can't get arrested or get injuries! Back to plan A - get there, aclimatise, then get up and down quick.
15. Hunter search on the volcano, not active - but cascasdes. Gets good roll, some tribal info: Its name in Tlingit is Yasʼéitʼaa Shaa, meaning "mountain behind Icy Bay", and is occasionally called Shaa Tlein "Big Mountain" by the Yakutat Tlingit. It is one of the most important crests of the Kwaashkʼiḵwáan clan since they used it as a guide during their journey down the Copper River. Mount Fairweather at the apex of the British Columbia and Alaska borders at the head of the Alaska Panhandle is known as Tsalx̱aan, it is said this mountain and Yasʼéitʼaa Shaa (Mt. St. Elias) were originally next to each other but had an argument and separated. Their children, the mountains in between the two peaks, are called Tsalx̱aan Yátxʼi ("Children of Tsalxaan")
16. Aswon - good think about how difficult this is, very serious, changeable.
17. Tads makes good steaks and food. Randy asks if he wants to buy some chips - Kai, always interested, Ultimate Cage Fight 9, Kai redirects to Hunter. Sold. Bulk deal, 10-12 for 100 nuyen. Sold. Iceman shaking head. Offers more - declined.
18. Check with team - decline the run into the airbase. Some regrets, but time pressure.
19. Plot course on landward/interior side to avoid worst winds, stealth 4, EDs on + spirits, not spotted leaving Anchorage, 1 hours flight towards #10
20. Flyu across, some bgc but all managed, small isolated extraction lumps. Lots of biodiversity, little sign of man made interference.
21. Engines start to struggle, Marius finds a place to settle, great handling check. About 4.75km from drop point.
22. Perception checks as they come in. Not quite make it, white-out. Hunter changes skin to white, warded door is on the leeward side. Kai - starts to do fuel. Tads looking for quolls - spots the Eskimo, tells Kai to turn and face.
23. Aswon tells Kai to say hello, good roll on Athabaskan. Finally, you're here! I've got some shelter. Do you want to come and talk? Kai - got some other people. Marius takes over refuelling with Hunter. Shimazu, Aswon, Tads and Kai go to talk to Eskimo. Tads checks for magical activity.
24. Indian - Kutara Snowpiercer, tribal shaman, middle age, eskimo gear and appearance, G3 shaman, alter temp, guard spirits, snow-walking, gets basic info + F6 spirit on guard. Into cave, lights fire, alter temp 20 degrees. Spread out furs
25. "Spirits guard and protect you, welcome to my camp, be safe and one with nature." Spirit guards the entrance. Kai does introductions. You expecting us? In a chopper, coming today?
26. Tells of vision quest, make welcome, guidance. Sense of two powerfull entities. One is good, the other bad,
27. Reveal some of the mission, dropping token, but not playing the game. Asks for info. Kai - suspect its dragons.
28. Know someone is coming, but Who to aid, who to hinder. Tads thinks about sharing memories. Aswon - no. Too much revealed, confidentiality, sorry, no offense.
29. Aswon - Ryumyo and Lung, two eastern dragons. Ah, I don't know them, can you tell me. One Japanese, one Chinese. Beyond that I don't know. Stay out of it?
30. Spirits said that we would make a choice. Suggest planting and letting him know, so he can interview them.
31. Kai - can't say which philosophy is better or worse. Commlink open, Marius listening. Dragons roll, 9,5,4. Go for Lung, more inclined to be mindful, though he's still a dragon and we're beneath him, he works generally better. Tyrant or philosphy king.
32. Aswon - Ryumo will send a japanese team, probably, Lung a chinese team or maybe multicultural.
33. Kutara gives summary, leaning towards Lung. Clarify about location and using it as a bargaining chip. Tads - have to ask you not to move it after placement. Have to know where it is to avoid it being moved *sly grin*. Kai - and then if we get interrogated, we're covered and all have the right answer... General agreement.
34. Tells them to get their gear and rest, too late in the day to attempt the peak. All move in with gear.
35. Aswon shares magical stories with the shaman and talks about magical compounds. Tads talks spell design. Tell him about Shimazu Psychometry, done nothing but give him nosebleeds. Pulls out necklace of polar bear fangs.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 195 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vmngdr3q9tyxxu5/S...ok%207.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Archive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
An early update this week, as I’m away at “The Gathering” a large (normally) LARP event over the weekend. We’ll just have to see how Covid affects turnout and the event as a whole. But, with me being away until Monday afternoon I wasn’t going to get much chance to type up the notes/story, so two late nights Wednesday and Thursday managed to get it sorted – fortunately it was a relatively “quiet” week for the characters.
Shimazu doing Psychometry on the necklace came close to the end of the session, and that gave me a convenient place to pause for the evening, and chance to write up his results. I spent a little while on that, trying to strike a balance between making sure that the events were conveyed clearly enough to invoke emotional responses and feelings, yet not being either clear and unambiguous (as it’s emotional content from quite some time ago, and I don’t want to ‘break’ the technique, nor so detailed or gratuitous as to bother people. Hopefully it strikes the right balance…
Certainly Tom (Shimazu) seemed to enjoy the chance to RP a bit, describing to the team over discord his characters tears and oath – at this point none of the rest of the team were aware of what was going on, so they were all working on trust for the character (I’d sent the message to Tom via email during the week in-between sessions, so he had chance to process and work out what he was doing, and to reword it if needed if he was going to retell the events from his own POV) – but they all seemed to support him in his declaration.
A few psychology tests and some Willpower tests from the NPC later, and they’d managed to draw him out of his shell a little, and make sure he was ready to go the following day. That was resolved with some quickness and athletic tests for each “leg” of the journey over the ice and rocks, and some body/strength tests for overcoming the wind on the approach to the summit, which cost them a few rerolls to make sure they managed it without falls or injury. Shimazu is down to 1 RR remaining and 3 good karma now until the next award, so he might need to be a little careful, Marius has 5 left and all the rest have 6+ so a little leeway for them to take some risks or do some hero stuff.

And now they’re primed and in position to head to the next volcano, where they’re going to get battered by the storm, and run into someone – purely by chance – that Shimazu might be very interested in “having words with”. What are they odds? It’s a million to one shot… but it might, just work…

Who’d a thunk it.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Wednesday 29/9/60, Location:60.31944, -141.09447, Time 15:47
2. Shimazu pulls out of trance, few tears. Was she your wife? Nods. You were a lucky man, Kutara starts to cry. Did you know who did it? Did it? Was it an accident. Looked for weeks. Crescent shaped scar - know him? No. They killed you wife. Will you share with me? Asks Tads - can I choose what to show him. She confirms. Casts Mindlink ok. Shows face of the killer, shares feelings of the gift.
3. Kutara - please, show me everything. If you know something. S - it's not new info, won't help you find him, only bring you pain. Do you still wish to see it. Shimazu shares the 2nd half. Stops mindlink, quiet thank you, goes to corner of the cave and pulls up knees and rocks. S - I have no words of solace for you, but if I see him, I'll bring him to justice. Didn't see it, but felt it. No one should have to experience that. Mood very down.
4. Shimazu to rest of team - if I meet this man, regardless of repercussions, I'll bring him to justice. Aswon looks and nods. Aswon suggests hunter search for him, if he's an anglo he's probably findable on the matrix.
5. Hunter sleeps, Aswon thinks about it - no, we should make Kutara happier. Ask him - want to hear some stories. Kutara tries to put on a brave face. Tads - tells him about the Dragonspine. Aswon - car crash in Constantinople and the undercover agents. Tads - the quoll. Random stories. Shimazu starts to tell the Nadia story - others give him a funny look, he carries on regardless. 12+9 on a WP test for Kutara to snap out of it - well, that works. Then mentions Gwoks.
6. Ask him about hazards on the mountain - fairly standard stuff. Tads spends more time swapping info on alter temp+food.
7. Tads wonders about visiting the quoll, but then thinks about the risks of mana storms. Decides not to.
8. Thursday morning at dawn. Everyone in good shape. Aswon, Hunter, Shimazu and Kutara as guide going, Tads staying back with Kai, Vadim and Marius. Shimazu will do Legolas impressions, Tads and Vadim doing 55 min shifts to get up the mountain.
9. 1st leg - Q6 checks, all good. Flares, snow blind minor. Get to first crevasse, climb checks, all good. 2nd leg - Aswon ok, uses 2 of survival pool to get 1 each for Shimazu and Hunter. Body tests as they come into the wind - all ok, all fine. Inside, push on to ravine, plant token, take photos.
10. http://aac-publications.s3.amazonaws.com/a...-1411076804.jpg (image used for description of the area/view from the summit)
11. Kutara examines with a huh. Aswon thinks he's seen something, no - just random walk.
12. Heading down. Body 6 tests from wind - Hunter ok, RR, others ok. Shimazu slides. Athletics 4s back across the crevasse, Hunter only 1, pulls rope loose. Piton pulls loose, slams into rock, shatters. Last leg, Hunter ok, Aswon none, uses last of pool, Shimazu RR, ok.
13. Trip went smooth and fast, get back to chopper. Left at 8am, get back 4pm.
14. Aswon - how strange, coincidence, fancy meeting you here! Give him the teams contact details. Get details of twin forks+landmarks, can pass messages via tribal council, slowly.
15. Eyes of the eagle watch over you, handshakes, hug Shimazu
16. They ask about next volcano, edge of Tsimshin, Kutara doesn't know anything about it.
17. Start prepping the bird, some discussion in team about where to stop, refuel, tsimshin etc.
18. Marius good takeoff, backtrack, come back on ocean side. As you are flying south the weather is closing in fast.
19. Fly south to Fredrick sound, 480km, land and refuel. 100 km west of volcano 11

No game this week, so no story update Saturday/Sunday. Hopefully back to it next week as normal.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 196 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vmngdr3q9tyxxu5/S...ok%207.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Archive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
So, volcano #11, a peak above the flight ceiling of their chopper, and one that would require an overland hike to reach – they have a couple like this on the American side, giving them a physical challenge.
However, the main ‘challenge’ for this peak was a snow-battle. A Mitsuhama / Tsimshin border patrol craft had gone down, taken out by an EMP weapon stationed by Haida rebels on a known patrol path – just an hour before the team turned up. The weapon had just enough charge left to zorch the chopper, sending it out of control and down, where it hit the top of the Mitsuhama chopper at the last moment, causing it to crash at a funny angle.

Original stats:
Near final, they round a canyon turn and get pinged by an EMP cannon that blasts them, causing "stun" to the vehicle, sending them down. Reaction check on 8s to work out how to control the craft with half the electronics down. The EMP does 4 points of "stun" to the vehicle, then a Handling check on 8s+any leftover EMP mods to set her down gently. Failing the handling check will crash them causing Moderate damage to the bird. If the handling check is passed, they come down for an auto-rotate landing but *sitll* hit the other teams bird, spinning them out and sending them into a snow wall. Lots of blown fuses and systems that need resetting / repriming / checking.
The other team will be alerted by the impact and launch an assault, fearing that it's rebels, launching an assault - just as dusk hits. The combat starts with half a dozen rounds punching through the fuselage doing cosmetic damage only

• 5 X Tsimshin paramilitary troops
• B5 Q5 S5 I4 C2 W4 R4((IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) , CP6, Init 8+3D6. All armoured in 6/4 winter armour in police style/colours. All equipped with Wired reflexes 2, Smartlink-1, Eyes with LL, FC, Implanted R3 tactical systems and radio
• Sergeant has 8M rifle with 1 clip APDS, 1 clip Ex-Ex, 2 clips Reg, 1 X IR smoke grenade, 1 X IPE Offensive
• 3 Troopers with 7M non-suppressed SMGs with folding stock, 1 clips APDS, 1 clip Ex-Ex, 2 clips Reg, 1 X IR smoke grenade, 1 X IPE Offensive
• 1 Heavy trooper with FA only LMG on a deluxe gyromount giving a total of 8RC, 1 X 50 round box of Ex-Ex, 1 box of reg, 1 X IR smoke grenade, 1 X IPE Offensive
• Rigger pilot, Dead, strapped in the cockpit

Mitsubishi Border Patrol chopper, Mod 2: Attack chopper chassis. Handle 5, Speed 275, Accel 18, Body 5, Armour 6, Sig 2, Auto 3, Pilot 1, Sensor 4, Cargo 50, Load 1000, Seating 1+5, Entry 1d+b+side, Fuel Avgas 3000 litre, Econ 0.2km/l, S/B-, L/T Vtol, Chass Attack Helicopter, SI 3, Avail 24/2m, Cost 2m

Clearly, a whole bunch of contrivance here, and making use of the situation to try and ‘force’ a different style of fight on the team. Originally I’d planned to have the EMP hit just as it hit dusk, to rob the team of the spirits and stop their use, making them rely on their own abilities a bit more, but they players thought of that and didn’t leave the ground until dusk – so that wasn’t an option.
Instead, I went with the craft going into a “flat spin”, subjecting those in the back to some pretty harsh g-forces and making body tests all round, giving those that failed some very quick healing stun modifiers.

Fortunately from a GM perspective, that included Tads, so spirits were off the board for the first few rounds of combat. This was somewhat inspired by a Tom Scott video where he got to have a go in a centrifuge – check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMKcO-T5Y4o for more info. But, that was really useful for showing how quickly you can go from being “ok” to having drool pour out of your lip whilst you flop around helplessly – and equally how quickly you can recover back to being compus mentus again.
Landing the chopper at an angle also negated the heavy firepower from the door gun, restricting it to a mobile fight between two teams.

The Mitsuhama squad were armed with reasonable body armour and guns, had some APDS ammo to be a significant threat but moreover had planted some sensors around the area after crashing and were all plugged into their battletac systems, giving them good co-ordination, and letting them fight cohesively.
Both sides were on horrific modifiers for the weather, pushing everyone up to about +6 to hit or do anything, so a lot of the gunfire was much less effective than normal – on both sides. The patrol force were competent, within a point or two of the smuggler team, but they lacked the karma pool and re-rolls of the players, which allowed them to get the upper hand.


I was pretty surprised when Tom / Shimazu went for the combat drugs – he obviously felt the situation was a lot more dire than I did, and decided he needed an edge. Well, I was happy to oblige and got him to make a few rolls, watching the happy little smile on his face as he instantly got more initiative and combat strength.
The “X-49” combat drug was obtained from Ludmilla back at the dam in Russia, and they had no idea what it did – so it was a risky move on his part. For your information though, here’s what the drug does:
Gives +1D6 init, +4 strength, +2 reaction, pain resistance 5 for 1D6 minutes, -1 to any ranged attacks due to shaking. Melee hits against enemies also cause Str/2(M) against the user from muscle tears. When effects wear off, soak Str(S) on body, and take +1 "jitters" for 1D6X10 minutes to all actions
We also need to have a look at making an addiction test for poor Shimazu at the start of next week, and see if he has a bit of a hunger for more jam… 😉


And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 30/9/60, Location:57.29336, -133.81481, Time 18:11
2. Check map, go through terrain and how close they can get, about 5km walk up canyon. Discuss astral scout from 1km from landing spot, or sending drone in to map it out.
3. Team waiting for dusk. F3 GF staying with Tads, F5 storm spirit on the bird.
4. Inland, up to plateau, flying around, then Marius checks - 3+1RR on reaction, then good handling getting 2.
5. Body/WP 8 test for those in the back. Hits the non-sensor thing, pancakes. Hunter Int test 5s, passes, close brush with death.
6. 40 degree angle, bad display. Aswon asseses, Tads greyed out, then bullets hit.
7. Aswon back ramp, Kai trying to open port(top) door athletics 6 check-fail. Shimazu get shield and helmet, Hunter release, ask Vadim to scout as Tads is out. Marius working on repairing the craft system
8. Aswon spots a "thing", big, angular, wrong for environment. Filters the storm out, has a listen. Kai manages to get gun up and on duty,
9. Tads - sends spirits out to accident guns up to 200m out.
10. #3 and #5 spot Aswon, #3 shoots and hits Aswon twice, tries to dodge, matches 2 hits, soaks 5S, gets 2,RR, takes a L,
11. Roll for init.
12. Shimazu 23
13. MCT 23
14. Tads 21
15. Aswon 18
16. Hunter 15
17. Kai 14
18. Marius 11
19. Shimazu asks for concealment, drops shield. Aswon thinks - maybe blind fire.
20. Bad guys speculative fire at Aswon, misses.
21. Tads - sends spirits, 1 to Shimazu.
22. Shimazu out and runs towards bad guys, cops for 1 round from the LMG, soaking on 2s - soaked (just),
23. Aswon, pop up perception check on 8s, buy 1, aim for the face on the LMG. 1 hit, takes a moderate. Trying to dive for cover.
24. Hunter, targets #3, takes some damage
25. Kai, suppressive / at the "thing". Miss, RR, hits something and penetrates.
26. Marius, looking at drone start-up. Realises it's not going to work, moves to V/T
27. Shimazu back on feet, running to thing
28. Tads, projects with spirit
29. Aswon, centres to avoid penalties, runs to south west, get around cone of fire
30. Hunter hits 3 again, does S, puts him on his ass.
31. Kai, continue to hit thing, miss, RR, miss
32. Marius - s/b on VTOL drone
33. Shimazu good look around for a simple, gets close enough to attack chopper, free action "stop shooting the thing"
34. MCT #1,2 and 4 all spot Shimazu. 1 shoots, 1 on the dodge, hit for 10D, 3,RR 5=soak. 2nd burst, 10S, 7+1 bought=soaked. #4 shoots, hits, Shimazu takes a moderate. Pain resistance active (1)
35. Tads scouts, gets in the chopper
36. Tads 46
37. Aswon 25
38. MCT 21
39. Shimazu 21
40. Kai 17
41. Marius 15
42. Hunter 12
43. Shimazu quick strike - runs to flanking position around chopper to break LOS.
44. Tads - spots dead pilot, asseses area and works out why
45. Aswon - shoots at LMG, in the face, dead
46. #3 shoots at Hunter, base hit, 2S soaked ok.
47. Marius gets drone out of back door
48. Hunter grenade launcher at back of chopper, scatters, hit the two after shimazu
49. Tads - manifest at Shimazu, they crashed, pilot dead, please relay
50. Aswon - runs forward, lost sight of all targets, goes faster
51. Shimazu - ignores Tads, pops X-49. Init +6+2r, now on 28s. Runs down far side of chopper
52. Kai - more suppressing fire to keep heads down
53. Marius - VT drone up, perception check - lots of snow.
54. Hunter - back to full auto on closest target, #2 wounded by grenade blast
55. Tads - back to body
56. Aswon, spots 3-5, shoots at 3,
57. #4 tries to go for Shimazu at PB range, spirits jam gun, no response.
58. Shimazu, full stab #4, 21 dice attack, 15d end result. eviscerated. Takes an L from muscle tears
59. last guy down under combined assault from the rest of the team.
60. Check Shimazu over
61. Marius scout the area out. Nothing moving. Check chopper - trashed on crash, distress beacon on,
62. Hunter scavenging ammo, Kai checking bodies. Marius checking electronics, Aswon following orders. Tads gets spirits to drag bodies back into chopper. Check Shimazu for damage. (4 boxes) Tads heals.
63. Spot the crescent shape scar man, Kai photos him before Shimazu shoots him in the face.
64. Drugs wear off - moderate wound. Tads shapes earth to right the tilt-wing, then heals ok
65. Stopping for the night, and stopping for the night.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 197 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vmngdr3q9tyxxu5/S...ok%207.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Archive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Now that combat was concluded, and the enemy team was dealt with, the team had chance to take stock and work out what was wrong with the bird. Normally in a crash, the vehicle would be taking boxes of damage that would need to be fixed – but that would cripple the team unless I threw them a Deus Ex Machina, which I really don’t want to do. The tilt-wing has a “book” value of just over 3 million, thanks to the radar absorbent materials and countermeasures built into it – so every box of damage done will cost 300k to repair, and they just don’t have that kind of cash at the moment.

So instead, what I did was inflict a bunch of “stress” on the vehicle. This doesn’t directly cause failure, but it’s the next closest thing – when the vehicle has to pull crazy stunts, I can ask for a stress check, and with having taken 11 points of stress it will almost certainly fail, and that WILL cause damage, and cost them a third of a million Nuyen… they’ll know this, so they’ll be strongly incentivised to fix it. That doesn’t cost a great deal, but it will chew up precious time, and needs some decent facilities to do it in. So that probably means Seattle, where I can set them up for some nice encounters and introduce my next wave of NPCs and side quests. Sorted!

So, with the vehicle plan in the bag, these were my notes for the situation they faced:
• 1km horizontally and 300m vertically from the drop zone, 1.5 / 450m to be "safe" and well inside.
• Winds at 90-100 kph, temp at -40, -60-70 with wind chill.
• Survival check: Arctic 8, weather +4, Winter gear -2, full rations -2, Exertion +1, shelter -1 = 8s
• 1d6 -successes = boxes of stun to allocate around
• Weather eases a little at 4am, to 50-60 and -35, -50
• Eye of the first weather system crosses at 9am, wind 10, -20/-25
• Far side strikes by midday, rises back to 50-60kph and -35/-50
• Maintains for the next 3 days as further systems press in.
• Athletics test vs 5s to get to dropzone and back before storm hits, or risk exposure / hypothermia.
• Vehicle can be made ready to fly by midday, and if they depart quickly can fly back down to sea level in the eye of the storm with minimal risk - though they have to go past the EMP cannon area (which is now defunct)
• 1175 km journey out to sea, past Tsimshin and down to Volcano 12 on the north edge of Salish - Silverthrone Mountain, Or 400km to Buck Palace

Pretty simple really – it was make it clear the weather was gnarly, and give them a little downtime trapped in their tilt-wing with few options, giving them a survival check to cope with the crushing cold. They got a few successes on the test, but not enough to counter the 6 boxes of stun the team had to take, and it ended up with everyone but Marius and Tads on a light stun. They picked up on the window of opportunity that the “eye” gave them, and as expected Hunter and Aswon as the two best climbers headed off to do the plant, with astral overwatch.
The team did obsess a bit more than I expected about the EMP, especially after they’d found it and determined it was dead – still wanting to investigate it and discussing the implications. As far as possible, I hurried them along and made it fairly easy to get to and take care of, as I knew I had my volunteer NPC waiting to connect up to Discord, and didn’t want to leave her hanging.
With the token planted, the team back onboard and them up in the air, I made it as easy as I could for them to exfiltrate the area, describing how they retraced their steps and didn’t run into any issues, and then they took a very wide route around Tsimshin, avoiding the Buck Palace smuggler stop entirely and heading for the next location. I rolled a massive handful of 1’s and 2’s for the Salish border surveillance, so there wasn’t any fudging needed there! And soon enough the team landed up at their chosen site, and I could message my NPC to get her to join the chat channel.

My guest, Sarah, had changed her avatar to a bunny rabbit, and had also renamed herself as “Harmless Innocuous Rabbit” – and joined the channel quietly. This caught some of the players off guard as they weren’t paying attention to the Discord window – in particular Tads/Ali, who jumped in her chair when Sarah spoke for the first time, causing some mirth.
From setting the scene and dealing with the initial confusion and realisation from the team that someone down there was capable of not only casting a Force 11 trid-phantasm, but also masking the spell, and then using one of our home brew extended metamagic techniques to actually give off false readings about the spell, sobering the magical side of the team up immediately, only took a minute or two, and it gave Sarah a chance to listen to the team chatter and work out who was who. Once they were down on the ground and the team headed over to start negotiations, I could take a back seat and just hammer away furiously on the note taking as they chatted away. I think there was only two occasions where I needed to send a whisper to the NPC to try and either emphasise a point or direct them a certain way, so from my point of view it worked really well.

During the negotiations, Kai/Fozzy promised to do a whole bunch of work for free, causing the mentioned quintuple face-palm and lots of grumbling from the team about him being Captain SideQuest, all of which slid of his back like water off a duck… he loves dragging the team into plot and trouble, and is completely unrepentant.
So, the team planted another token, and are just about on their way to Seattle now, having also decided to bypass the Cascade Orks. So, it’s time to dust off a whole bunch of NPCs from our Pink Mohawk and Black Trenchcoat campaigns to make guest appearances!


And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 30/9/60, Location:57.39995, -132.32567, Time 18:46
2. Start with addiction test for Shimazu - failed both. Oh dear.... we'll come back to that later.
3. Cover off the weather, B/R test for Marius to assess the craft - 4-5 hours work. Navigation test from Hunter. Shimazu sleeping after drugs, feeling a bit drained. Kai asks Tads how watchers would be in the storm - snow blocks their sight, but unaffected by cold. Kai asks Hunter to check enemy team electronics. Not great roll (defaulting) - but looks like no signal got out. Some queued up - review and delete. Think about crescent shaped mark, magical group - nothing.
4. Marius - more important, we got shot down with an EMP. Someone has an EMP! Aswon - analyse your footage first before we leave. Kai - use a spirit to find the EMP. Tads outlines chances, lots of negging. Look for man-made / powerful critters, in the canyon. Hit through concealment and resistance. Aswon - more likely to be EMP. Think about critters, check for scorch marks. Starboard side. Think maybe it's locals that hate Tsimshin, we want to be friends - check with Kai. K agrees.
5. Tads finds EMP cannon, whisker sensor, all dead. Checks other side, nothing there. Check for more elsewhere. Tads mindlink to share canon details with Marius.
6. Kai thinking about why it's there. Aswon - border protection, anti-smuggler.
7. Get the bird fixed over a few hours. Set watchers out for tripwires.
8. Eases a little at 4am, to 50-60 and -35, -50. Threaten to get Vadim to dig out - don't fuck with mother nature.
9. Survival check: Arctic 8, weather +4, Winter gear -2, full rations -2, Exertion +1, shelter -1 = 8s. 2 success 4 boxes of stun - Hunter, Aswon, Kai, Shimazu - Tads+Marius ok.
10. Tads offers to levitate up, Aswon says too risky, nobody solo. Tads+Vadim doing astral cover.
11. Aswon and Hunter go, test vs 6s, Aswon 3, Hunter 0 RR 2. Up smooth, cairn, plant the token, down safe, back by 11:00
12. Marius goes to check the EMP. Athletics ok - find it. 2nd gen old miltech, disconnect batteries, back to bird. Top up fuel. Work out the sensor trip mechanism.
13. Handling check for heading down - fly down a-ok. Bypass buck palace, out to sea, round to next 1170 km to SS. Cross border fine, not anywhere near.
14. Head up to silverthorne, Aswon on sensors, sensor check - spots GSD "arctic hares". Compare to thumper hares at previous locations - no they were normal size. Tads - spots F11 trid phantasm, get sig, what sig? Check - hasn't penetrated Masking.
15. Aswon - don't like that the fates are taking more an interest in this the further round we get...
16. Land a bit over from the bunny, far enough away to avoid being a threat. Tads creates carrots, hands to Kai.
17. Gear up, Kai goes out unarmed. Tads heads out with staff. Aswon gets 50 cal ready. Shimazu goes out too. Hunter hands AV to Aswon, puts APDS in his rifle. Aswon suggests using Ex-Ex.
18. "What are you doing on my mountain?" K - that's a long story, got time to explain? Go on and try. K-excellent. Like to point out they're armed but I have carrots and mean you no harm. Keep trying! Have a task, to plant something small and innocuous on your mountain, don't want to destroy/steal/damage anything at all. What is your task? K-Gets out token, this has to go up there. Done several, this is one on our route. What does it do? K-someone has to collect it. Tads - it's a game, for other people. What people. K-that's more complex. Keep going with your story. K - we're mercs, we do various jobs, hired but not with achoice by powerful beings to do this, didn't want to check how powerful, like you - our mage was a little bit scared of you, so we're being respectful. That is sensible. Hunter looks outraged.
19. K - can I ask about you name. Tads - no, ask what they want to be called by, not their name. She's a clever one, I like her. Call me Ice-maiden. K-nice not to be attacked by you. Yet, maybe... so you want to leave a token for your game. K - so yeah, but we can pay, by doing you some favours or tasks maybe... rest of team facepalm.
20. C (Crunch/Carrot/Ice-Maiden) - where do you stand with corps. K-mostly avoid them because they don't like our ethics, unless they're employing us. C-good. Your plane - interesting, what kind of fuel are you using. M - high octane jet fuel. C-have you considered low sulphur fuel. stops polluting my mountain. K - honest, but no idea. Pilot likes efficiency. We can consider it... Tads - maybe we can commit to look at better options that are less polluting options. K - we have dones things for ecological groups and awareness before. C - interesting. Shimazu doesn't even leave footsteps, very good on fuel miles. Kai - I use a bow and arrow, try not to use gunpowder. Even Hunter doesn't use too much ammo. C - tell me about this gun? K - I'll let Hunter tell you about his gun. Argument. Tell the rabbit. My name is Ice maiden.
21. Aswon relays info about Hunters gun.C- sounds like an advanced prototype of an Alpha. Hunter, raises eyebrow. K - is this your real form (politely) C - are you sure you're ready? K - yeah, I am, not sure about the rest.
22. K - Ice maiden has invited you out. fairly certain we're not going to get eaten. Why not come out. Aswon - want me to bring my cannon? K - leave the guns, come out, she's not ripped my head off, all pleasant so far. Aswon leaves gun, grabs spear. All out into the snow.
23. Description of dragon as she transforms. Tads - oooh, you're pretty! C-thank you. K - bows politely, nice to meet you, Likewise. Shimazu bows. Marius death stare at Kai. Tads offers alternate food - C, I'm fine. So - you want to leave this token and leave. K - yeah. C-and you said you'd pay any price. Kai - yeah...I did; pick your team member! C- no, but I need people to do things for me. Aswon - we're working for powerful beings though, we'll help but we're on a schedule, we don't want to bring trouble to your door that might hurt you. C - I won't delay you, but I will find you if you don't come back.
24. Aswon - but we have a job after that for another powerful being after that. So we don't want to get into trouble.
25. Tads - and I'd love to chat to find out if I can get help with one of their problems. C-I have minions with phones, we can co-ordinate and communicate. Kai - business card.
26. C - and respectful lady, I'd be happy to help if you can tell me about this powerful being and your problem.
27. Tads - we found a thing, 1/3 of the way around the world couldn't fight it, could only rescue, one of your colleagues has tasked us to rid the world of this creatures. Really want to know about their weaknesses, they're terrifying. Hey, don't ask, don't get.
28. C - take a breath. Describe the thing. T - many tentacles, subterranean temple. Tentacles in chest, sucking the life force from people. Needs strong magic to escape we think. C - "Sounds like an eldritch horror... that's an unpleasant thing. Hmm... maybe I should have a think about that... can chat more when you come back..."
29. Aswon - we have to do that next. C - I might have info you need. Kai - we'll come back that way then. Aswon - ahh, that's decided is it. K - yep. We need info about the horror, it makes sense. Aswon - research, yeah, makes sense.
30. K - pretty sure we can only die once. Probably. C- mmmmmm. K - what may we do for you Ice maiden. C-I need competent people in my employ, and you have an interesting work ethic. If you will do jobs for me, you can leave your token.
31. T - there's some jobs we won't do, murdering children for instance. Hunter gets token from Kai, starts to head off, about 2.5km, Aswon - you coming. Yeah, one more thing. We can work for you, but we can't work ONLY for you."
32. C - you can tell him (points to Aswons backs) that I never asked for exclusivity.
33. K - is there anything you need urgently, because otherwise I'll accept a deal and we can do some work in the future. But can come back once we've done our job to discuss. Kai mentions going to Seattle - C - ah Seattle? Ok, if you can find me 3-4 deckers willing to work for anonymous Johnson. K - have to be Seattle? C - preferably. K - act as middlemen? C - very much so.
34. Marius - does not know anything about Ice Maiden at all. Kai offers refreshments to IM. Have you had a truffle for a while? Tads - makes truffle 6 success. C- best truffle I've had in a long time. T - I have another offer for you if interested. I can show you the creature in the cave if you want to see. C-poker face. Def looks like a horror.
35. C- you have a lot of work to do. I'll get my minion to contact you, call them when you get to Seattle. K - you have our card, 24/7. C - yeah, if I like. K - nothing up there that will eat them is there? C - nothing that their shiny weapon can't deal with - but don't kill anything under my protection. Tads notices that astral space is pristine. Kai goes to make small talk - IM takes off, glides off to keep half an eye on Hunter/Aswon.
36. Discussion between H and A, minions, power hungry, H-got in a fight with something.
37. Soon as the team is back, takes off and heads south - heading to a improv landing spot to refuel and straight on to Seattle, bypass the cascades.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 198 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vmngdr3q9tyxxu5/S...ok%207.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Archive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Sorry for the delay on this one – I’m actually writing this in the Netherlands at the moment, where I’m on holiday at our delayed World of Warcraft guild meet – pretending it’s March 2020… having a very relaxing time with friends though, playing a few Shadowrun 1-shots, running a live tabletop version of my Wednesday night “Ebon Flame” Shadowrun game (EF is our WoW guild, on the Moonglade server, FWIW), playing the Shadowrun Sprawl board game from Catalyst (pretty good and very enjoyable) along with our regular guildmeet games like Battlestar Galactica, Arkham Horror, Cards Against Humanity, Flux, Dobble, Avalon, Secret Hitler and more. Anyway, I digress… we’re still here, so there was no game on Tuesday, so don’t expect a writeup on Saturday/Sunday this week – we’ll just be getting back into the UK and trying to catch up and get ready for work on Monday. There is a game scheduled on Tuesday 5th, so hopefully the next update will be Sun 11th.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Having taken the job from Ice Maiden (with all the face palming that included) we started off with two of the runners heading up the mountain to plant the token, and the rest back at the tilt-wing. The two heading up the mountain had a fairly easy athletics test, but no chance of random encounters – right in the middle of her domain, Ice Maiden has complete control over what is going on, and had a couple of spirits clearing a path for them – she wants to make sure they can do their thing, so she has some implied leverage over them for gaining their help in the outside world.
The team back at the tilt-wing had a good chat, coming up with lots of things for Hunter to do when he got back (for which they’d have to wait of course, as a result of which the notes are somewhat jumbled as they asked for info on the next sections of the flight and then got delayed answers. They had a bit of a brief panic when they checked the date and discovered they had less than 6 days to finish the job – but then relaxed a little when they also realised they have 2 volcanoes left to do, and only 4 hours flying to get them both done – assuming of course that everything went well and in straight lights.
Note. Everything is not going to go well, or in straight lines for them… 😉
With the bird very carefully refuelled, they have more than enough to get down to Seattle, and there was a lot of discussion about how to get into the Metroplex – realising that the Cascade Orks were their best bet for running the border, but also the biggest threat to having the shirts stolen from their backs. In the end they decided to head out to sea, and then fly in over the international shipping route, dodging between boats and skimming the waves, even though the route was narrow and they were in full view of the Salish sensor posts. Thanks to the Stealth Roll, Spirit Concealment and EDs on the bird, they made it – just, and got into Seattle, then immediately did a hard “nope” on going direct to Everett as a random roll had the Carrier battle group getting ready to sail to do a bit of flag waving for the UCAS and preserve the freedom of the seas – so their electronics was all up, creating a bubble of “I don’t care about your concealment, we will see you” with that much flux to throw at things. So they came in further south, and worked their way through the crazy air corridors of Seattle up towards their destination – which turned out to be a disused church, now turned into a homeless refuge, which also doubles as a Shadowrunner Haunt. Here they met their first contact “Rad” – a decker from our Friday night Pink Mohawk Campaign, who was happy to give them their first side quest for Seattle. I’m using a whole bunch of the characters from our PM game who are scattered across Seattle to either throw a bit of Shade at players (having them meet their own opinionated crazy toons and have to deal with them as NPCs), as an Homage, or just because they’re fully fleshed characters with stat sheets already written up and well documented which saves me a butt-tonne of work. I’m also “stealing” a bunch of locations from our PM and Black Trenchcoat games for the same reasons.
So, having met Rad and taken on his little quest to dig a hole for his data-centre he wants to set up (the characters actual goal in our PM game as well – can’t see any reason why stuff can’t flow both ways!) they worked out that’s going to take a day to do using up some of their precious time. However it will let Marius get to work on fixing the 11 stress points on the vehicle using the facilities there. They’ve also got a few other contacts to chase up to get in touch with additional deckers to help fulfil Ice Maidens requirements.
From there, with full tanks, they’re going on one more hop down to Cal-Free and the last volcano, and we’ll be at the end of this little mission and can start the next part of the arc which I’m really looking forward to – got some big and very well known NPCs to roll out, some more unique gear/rewards for the team, and some more world plot to entangle them in, before they get a break from major events and get to go back home to see Nadia and the baby, and maybe do some actual smuggling somewhere!

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:

1. Thursday 30/9/60, Location:51.50211, -126.14977, Time 14:37
2. Assumed that team have (carefully) refuelled the chopper from the barrels while Aswon and Hunter are returning. Now 2457km from Anchorace, so with 1800l from the barrels, they've used 657l from main tanks, leaving 1150. About 550km south to Seattle.
3. Kai checking border procedures+smuggling routes
4. Double border details, both sides some hostility. Smuggling - cascade orks, some risks.
5. Kai - ask Hunter to search for civy airports that won't ask questions, Hunter yeah, also checking flight rules. Good roll on rules, only ok on airports.
6. Aswon - can ask spook but FOAFOAF - no trust. Maybe Germaine. Tell her we're in Seattle, it's kinda exotic, can ask her if she wants anything. Tads - anything small! A - prefer germaine, rather than spook, exposing her too much.
7. Kai - do we want to get in touch with Shaman to let him know about the crescent shape dude? Team generally agrees, brief message+location. Kai suggest putting location of chopper on Shadowland for scavengers to go for a chopper. Aswon - no, keep it our secret!
8. Kai about to send basic message, had to fight, they're dead. Tads offers to go and relay message to tribe directly. Do both.
9. Marius doing some repairs. Tads relayed, tribe was warned.
10. Ice supplies a decker contact - puppet. Have to negotiate with the boss, give address for Dantes, talk with him, warns about idiosyncracies.
11. Hunter - flight rules, complex, air corridors, loads of corporate no fly zones, mix of rules, very complex. Cost for a brief licence = 5k
12. Also checking with Iceman66 about Seattle. Brief hellos, hey, I'm a decker, arcology, Warns about vehicle appearing like a security vehicle. Steers towards one provider as more reliable.
13. Almost no private strips in seattle, surrounded by international borders, most airports are legit and clean.
14. Discussion about land or sea borders - Kai prefers sea, trusts Marius. Wants to message Germaine to see about contacts.
15. Marius thinks about delivery, reminds everyone chip. Kai calls - "hey chummer, whatever you need, I can get for you!" K - we have a delivery for you. Just need somewhere to land, paperwork light. R-avoid imperial entanglements. K - yeah, R - what kind of craft. K - gives clearance. R - gives co-ords, near I5
16. Ordered the transponder details - BUY IT NOW!
17. Fang nibbles Rads ear, gotta go chummer.
18. Team look at last two volcanoes - 55km from Seattle to Rainer, 1100 down to Diablo. Far away from Shasta (Jez looked suspicious), 250km from Bust.
19. Lots of discussion about rainier - diablo, end up agreeing salish-ute-bust-calfree as better options.
20. Transponder package arrives, Hunter passes to Marius. Ares TR55C - lucky roll, find colour map and Tads checks for vehicle masks.
21. Takeoff, heading south, crossing the border themselves, warning Rad and asking for fuel. Hunter looks for local taxi colours.
22. Clear out to sea, get pinged once ont he way in, EDs work, in over the shipping
23. Same thing over the UCAS border.
24. Get near everett, carrier is up, avoid that widely.
25. Close on the church, BGC 2, call Rad and advise, clearing the car park, spot Rad, runners with AR/SMGs around. Spool down the engines.
26. Rad approaches, Kai face sculpts to be more elven. Kai, Shimazu get out, Hunter cover from the door. Tads shielding up.
27. Reaction checks on 5 for 3 outside. Hunter and Kai surprised, Shimazu reacts, draws sword and points. Welcome to seattle - now duck! Shoots drone with laser.
28. K - rad, as in radiation? No, radical, radiant. Radtabulous. So, you have something for me? K - we certainly do - do we need to move, go somewhere quiet. No, it's all cool. Kai gets the package, Rad calls for fuel.
29. Tads checks astrally - F3 GF spirits on perimeter, F5 city spirit on guard. Tads gets signature.
30. Rad - longshot, but do you have anyone good with a Komatetsu LD-45 electric backhoe. Tads - might want to talk to their shaman on the way back! Marius - can look at the LD-45, over to the vehicle bay. Rad "so how much do you think you can excavate in a day"
31. What's wrong with it? Nothing. Just need a driver. Talk about excavation. Hunter - gotta hide the spoil. yeah eyah, just chuck it on the river. Think about it, not a problem, will take a day.
32. About 16:30 now, fuel tanker pulls into the car park. 15.5k for fuel including barrels.
33. Agree to do the dig, spend 1 day, plan to fix the bird. Rad very happy, starts calling on people. Tads wants ML, Rad woah - calls Fang, agree to do the ML, spills the plan. Tads sends back warding details. How much will this cost me? Refers to Kai.
34. Kai we need someone with talents - I am very talented - I've heard that, glances at Fang, no response. Kai reveals need for decker, F2F meets etc. Gives numbers for 4 best deckers in Seattle. Perception check - passed. Discuss 4 numbers, different times of days.
35. Get to work...

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 199 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vmngdr3q9tyxxu5/S...ok%207.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Archive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
I had a quick word with two of the players before this weeks run – Tads and Marius – explaining to them that it was likely to be a very quiet week for them, due to player actions / plot. Lee (Marius) normally paints miniatures while he’s playing, so he was quite happy to sit and listen to the developments from the rest of the team, and Ali (Tads) also seemed happy enough to sit and listen, and take a more passive part. So, once the night started, I got both of them set on their long-term tasks – fixing the stress on the tilt-wing and doing the digging for the secret underground lair, to get them and any dice rolls needed out of the way. With that taken care of, they could pretty much relax and enjoy their podcast and crack on with stuff to entertain their hands while they listened, and I could focus on the other 4 players.

And what were they up to? Well, they were running slap bang square in the face into my other campaigns – kinda sorta. They were starting from the “Church of Sin”, the current location of the Pink Mohawk game I run on Friday, and had bumped into a bunch of the player characters from there (Rad, Fang, Mace, Monk, Archie are all current played characters, whilst Kenedy is an NPC) – using those characters and their back stories to provide plot / rationale for interactions. So why not extend this in a cinematic universe kind of way?

So, of they went, travelling down to the low class area of Black Diamond and Dantes Nightclub (whose tag line is ‘No, not that one, we’re the other one’).
This used to be the prime bar/fixer location for Pink Mohawk before ‘the incident’ and the reset of the world. But in the smuggler game world, none of that happens which gives me a ready made den of iniquity, with floor plans and another stable of 30+ runners with their own little tweaks and foibles, and things to amuse or upset the players. It was interesting from my POV to see how the players reacted to this – trying hard not to let their out of game knowledge of the location (once they’d realised that was where they were going – I didn’t make it clear until they arrived and I started to describe the location) affect their thinking – aware that I could well have changed crucial details to keep them on their toes.
So they got to meet Jeff the handsy misogynist bouncer (a constant source of irritation to the PM female characters to keep them on their toes), Tiny the enormous troll bouncer (who could mostly be relied upon to keep Jeff in check, and was a solid and dependable source of support for most of the characters at some point or another, The Puppet – the fixer who ran the club – who was a very high force ally spirit for the figure in the robe that was always next to them, Dantes the bar man (playing on the trope of high level retired adventurer who’d gone to be a tavern keeper instead), and a bunch of the PM characters – Swoop an Owl Shapeshifter, Nikolai a high level skillwires character with only a tiny shred of essence left, Boris the Russian sniper who they did encounter up in the Aleutians (and they killed his best friend Daq – but fortunately Boris didn’t know that, or there would have been a kicking off due!) with the chance of more.

But – they played it cool, and got to meet the Twins, a pair of very talented but horribly juvenile young idiots with a bit of a sex-addiction problem (again, a running theme in the old PM campaign with some characters being giant enablers, some just ignoring and some actively trying to reign them in…)
With Rad and the Twins onboard through, they have two good deckers in Seattle, and a lead on the third. If they head off down to Tacoma in the morning they can meet Grungi the fixer, who in turn will introduce them to CAD, giving them the three they need – and giving Marius a chance to meet “Nim”, another rigger at the Church. This 12 year old Japanese girl is a remarkably proficient orphaned rigger, and can help him get rid of another stress point on the vehicle, while Tads finishes off the underground excavation. And of course that means I can drop a couple of breadcrumbs amongst the three groups to see if I can tempt them on a bit of a side quest – which I’m expecting them not to take on, due to the pressing deadline for their main job. But – players…. So we’ll see.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 30/9/60, Location:51.50211, -126.14977, Time 17:45
2. Move the tilt-wing into the hanger. Tonka comes over - what you doing. M - needs repair work. Do you want a hand - do you know much about tilt wings, no - but I got vehicles and electronics, shows toys, ooh - condor, I'll go get my toolbox. Check, Condor fucked, ping pong table, gets to work.
3. Rad approaches with Kenedy, Mace, Monk, Fang+construction gear, does intro, ready to start work on the construction. Tads chats with Fang about possible spell learning. Fang observing Tads, reserved, not quite hostile.
4. Marius starts work, RR, gets 2 on complimentary - 8 hours, 1 stress point gone.
5. Kai+Shimazu going to hunt down deckers. Tads mentions that she wants some research done, Kai says he wants last 2 volcanoes doing as well. Check Hunters Meds, he's going to rest. Look at address - 70km south. Tads suggests negotiating for vehicle based loans based on digging. Rad agrees to SUV loan, break it you pay for it, otherwise FOC.
6. Check location, plan route down to Black Diamond, arrange via text with puppet for 22:00. "Tell the bouncers when you get here..." Kai - unarmoured, no weapons. Shimazu armoured vest, ruger in the car, sword+vibroknife, Aswon - wild hunt jumpsuit no armour vest, Purdey in the case, extendable stun spear. Hunter - form fit, armour vest, ares monosword, pistol smg in the car.
7. Clear run down to Black Diamond, spot the Raging Panthers, crowd with batons / small pistols, lots of orks, club gear, some blue collar. Discussion about what to take in - Aswon to Hunter - one or the other, not both items. Get to the front, spot Jeff, visual checks, Hunter spots weapon scanner in front door arch. Shimazu spots people being afraid of the bouncer, especially the women.
8. Spot the bikes with the panther faces, individual but same styles. Kai checks - never heard of them. Look around local area, get basic description, doesn't stand out in car park. Kai asks spirit to stay in car and guard it, Shimazu leaves sword in car, takes vibroknife, asks his spirit to guard it. Aswon conceal Purdey, stay in car.
9. Round corner, spot Tiny out with Jeff. Kai approaches. Starts to speak, Jeff sends to back of queue, Tiny interrupts, takes into the club. Start to check weapon. wave off - behave, show AR. Flick coat back. What's your name - tiny, hellos. Basic layout of club and description, Aswon astral perception - spots F8 air elemental doing zoomies. Also about a dozen mage/phys-ads just minding their own business. Panthers near the dj booth, about 40.
10. Find a booth, Kai goes to the bar. Bottles, draughts, weirds shit up the top. Kai drops 200 nuyen to give the gangers a round of beer, "we like the bikes, we appreciate good machinery". Dante - want something special. Soft drinks, working evening. Where are you sitting. Send bar maid over. Soft drinks+basket of fries.
11. Aswon filter out music, hearing dampeners, listens. Get details of blood sport fighting from table next to him. 3 others all spot Nikolai staring at them. Swapping chip, continues to stare. Dj swap over, crowd toilets or bar, Kai - Shimazu if he goes to the loo, do you want to check him out? Serving waitress sends them to corner room. Heidi. Into the puppet room. Hello. Aswon pauses - that's weird. Invited to sit. Kai laughs politely at the "take a seat" joke. Hunter standing behind, rest sit.
12. I'm the puppet, what can I do for you? Kai - need services, pointing in your direction. Hand over to Hunter. Straight talking. Send next door - few minutes. Kai - just one minor question. guy in combat fatigues. narrow it down. Chiphead - ahh, ignore him just don't look like you're ignoring him.
13. Door opening abruptly, twins walk in, weapons drawn. They have milkshakes, "awright dudes". Kai - intro. Names - ahh, "you scheming bastards, fuckers, proper names." Pull decks out, pass to Hunter, explain mission.
14. Aswon - are you good? We're better than good, we're funny. Is that better, oh yeah - star haven't caught us yet. Aswon - what can we do to test them - connect to Marius. Give them rough details. Quick decking run. Crash cart cover, to the salish. Rest of the way? That's gonna cost. How much - 5k. Kai - what do you like? Hentai porn. That's to shock us - really , what do you want to do? Live cut to bunraku parlour...
15. Credstick, 5k, sort out flight clearance. Outside, Nikolai gone, spot swoop. Kai penetrates Masking.
16. Spot Boris on the way out, rifle case, smell, quick assess, keeps going. Kai asks Hunter to check car. Aswon says can we drive away a bit first. Kai - no, check for bombs. Check the car, spirit search, clean. All back in. Team heads out. 22:35. Keep an eye out for tails, uneventful journey back. Back to the church for 01:30ish. Tads pretty filthy. Marius tired been dressing cables.
17. Tonka has fixed the condor, frankenstein monster, 6 stress points. Download crashcart colours and decals, program into the tilt-wing.
18. RAD will dig up details on Grungi's bar down in Tacoma and pass to Tads, to pass on to the rest of the team.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 200 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vmngdr3q9tyxxu5/S...ok%207.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Archive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
I was hoping that the team was going to spend perhaps another day in Seattle – spending some time to visit the second location (Grungi’s bar, down in Tacoma) where they could meet a 2nd fixer by the name of “Trophy”, and through him get at his resident decker “CAD” – but they decided to do that on the way back. That cut short the time, so I shelved the other plot encounter for the moment, and just threw in one more of the Pink Mohawk Runners, to give them chance to get rid of another stress point on the tilt-wing. It’s still highly stressed, though undamaged – but they’re aware of the risks now.
They’ve also bumped into April Sanders, the ex-Docwagon EMT who has asked for help getting medical gear – again I wondered if we were going for a quick raid on a hospital or clinic somewhere, but they decided to save that until they’ve finished the current job. That meant we were just about ready to go, and they could head off towards Rainier and bump into encounter #13 – some hostile, unreasonable Lava Elementals. This “challenge” is all about the magical combat, with the team having to decide on if they stay mobile in the air and rely on Tads and Vadim, or land so they can bring Shimazu and Aswon into the fight as well. They’ve gone for the latter, so next session is going to delve into some combat fairly quickly, as the elementals start laying down fireballs on the “away team” as they climb the mountain. Aswon will get some protection from his spear and the fire reduction it gives, but the other two are going to have to rely on their armour and body stats, so we could end up with them getting a little scorched. It might also persuade Tads (and Vadim) to leave the safety of the tilt-wing and speed up the mountain on a levitate spell to add some fire support or defensive capabilities.
The encounter won’t be too tough though, and once they’re done and back down the mountain into comms range, they can pick up the next set of flight clearances from the Twins, and head down to Mount Diablo in Cal-Free.
Mount Diablo. Doesn’t sound at all ominous does it…. *grin*

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 1/10/2060, Location:51.50211, -126.14977, Time 07:38
2. Aswon up first, wakes tads - perception check, Nim sneaks in. Both fail, hear something round the tilt wing - pincer movement. Stroking craft. I am Aswon. don't scratch/break - never hear the last of it. Will polish. Cat approachs - assenses. Drone cat. "that's impressive. Marius will want to talk to you." exchange details a little. Aswon makes oatmeal, then gives cookie. Quietly eats, watches, observes everything. Marius wakes Kai wakes. Handoff to Kai. Do you live here, where's your parents. No just me. Where are YOUR parents. Tibet. All the way other side of the world. How old are you. Suspicious. Pointy teeth. Shows teeth. You're not Marius then. Impressive aircraft.
3. Why hasn't he swapped the sub-processors on the landing gear? Lost me at I want to know. Marius should be along in a moment. Live here now? Yeah in the church. What's the cat called? Why? Kyosho. Did you build the cat? Why. Me and my dad built it. It's very good. Kai spots moment of vulnerability. Rest of team getting up, getting food from Aswon.
4. Tads heads off to find Rad and finish digging. Kai warns Marius. Aswon and Shimazu and Hunter go do exercise / sparring. Tads drops hints, limited time, sooner the better.
5. Outside team spot a few runners coming back from a late night. General waves / hellos.
6. Nim talking to Marius. Shiny - all good, apart from the saggy bits. Having to undergo some repairs. You know stuff about vehicles - yeah, they make sense. Talk a bit about drones, wanna see my barghest. Goes to car, spots the exercise "cool", gets the Barghest. Back towards tent. Marius compliments on quality. Talks about Dalmation, too loud, fuel use. Spot mods in the car.
7. Landing processor - why not a Renraku model 4. Marius B/R test. 68 pin socket, 70 pin socket. It is! two pins too many. she explains the extra pins. 1/10 price. Flex hands, ask permission, tightens up some loose cable. "do you want a hand", you can help. Starts work with tiny little hands.
8. Hunter does research - good roll, gets all data. Assess - if it goes up, they're all dead. But minor tremors could be bad and create hazards. Kai - will it have BGC. Aswon - long time ago, should be ok. If it's got one, it's probably natural. Check flight ceilings for craft and drones. Kai thinking of leaving about 12-1pm. Aswon thinking about oxygen - looking for local clinics if easy to find. Find April, discuss O2 masks, 2k Nuyen. Aswon goes to get Kai, Kai starts negotiation, wants more supplies. April - sure. But you need to get me the cash to pay for people to steal me replacements. She explains story about kid dying from infection from broken tooth. Anything for the next 2-3 hours? You can go do a clinic over? Kai - maybe on the way back... Kai offers to hire for 2k and bring med gear. Bites his hand off. Kai goes on rounds with her. Sees the state of medical care and the work she's doing. Asks about relationships and who is organising the digging.
9. Marius takes another stress point off the vehicle, down to 9. Marius offers to take Nim with him, offers to pay her 1500 nuyen to cover her costs. Ahh - but I have jobs lined up. Hops from foot to foot. Marius - got an hour to decide.
10. Tads finishes digs, including the tunnels.
11. Approaching 1pm, All jobs finishd, Vadim has been off talking with people in the church for several hours. Wheels up. 45 minutes down through Seattle towards Pullyup. Healthy altitude over volcanic ash.
12. Get clearance for border crossing under medical flight. Tads - guard spirit for clean air. good environment. round to NE.
13. Shiumazu on optics - magical perception check. Spots it, gets angry vibes - warns team. Assenses. gets good success, magic background. Spirits engage, start volleying fireballs. Aswon puts shielding on the bird. Fireballs coming, Marius dodges, drops down behind ridge lines to break LOS. Assumes fireballs can damage them. Tads puts shielding up on bird, Aswon concentrates on trying to put fire resistance on the tilt-wing.
14. Kai - Tads, do you think they can be negotiated with. Tads - maybe, but I'm not going on my own. K - what about with Vadim? T - still no, might lose both of us. Aswon - bad idea.
15. Hunter looks for different landing spot - Anvil Rock. Aswon - it's named, might be sacred. Magic background for all possible users - spirits may detect their presence.
16. Aswon - we need to fight on the ground, we have more power there. Can't be fighting in the air.
17. Anvil rock, at flight ceiling, pvp to look like rocks. Coming in to land, conjuring test for Tads - 12 successes, spirits don't want to be here. Hostility, ask if they can go. Tads sends spirits back to metaplane.
18. Marius brings in for a smooth landing, all good.
19. Shimazu, Aswon and Hunter going, suggest taking one of the mages - Vadim. Kai on door gun. Tads staying - doesn't want to fight at all, but will stay with craft in case Kai messes up.
20. Team start to climb up the mountain, disappearing into the low clouds. Shimazu carrying the oxygen. 2.75km walk, climbing 1000m vertically, taking camping supplies.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 201 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vmngdr3q9tyxxu5/S...ok%207.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Archive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Well, the original brief for volcano #13 was “A bunch of chaotic evil lava elementals will try to take out the steam-bags invading their territory - just because.” So that’s what we got. The air barrage at the end of the previous week let them know there were hostiles in the area and forced them to plan B for their landing location, giving them a bigger and harder walk to get to the drop zone. But, in true player style, they still decided to split the party – though at least they took 3 of them, rather than the normal 2.
I’d expanded the repertoire of the elementals a little to ensure that they could be a challenge / threat to all of the players, and ensure that there was some risk, and not just pointless soak rolls:

• Force 6 Lava spirits, personal domain for banishing but not for their other powers.
• Basic attack = 6M lava storm (fireball), with 12m diameter
• Focussed attack = 6D lava storm (fireball), with 3m diameter
• Lance attack = 9S lava lance (firebolt), single target

So, with their double force for banishing, that stops them from just being popped out of existence in a few rounds with no risk, and it gives them a big AoE at moderate damage to make people dodge and soak an “easy” attack, a smaller Aoe that by virtue of being at Deadly requires a luckier soak or more combat pool thrown at it, and then a higher power but lesser damage attack to cut through the heavily armoured types.
I’d worked out a random number to roll for (d3+2), given them a karma pool of 1, and then worked out the distance up the slope to make the players just far enough away that they were out of line of sight and easy physical reach (even Tads would take 10 combat turns to levitate up there physically), but well inside radio range, and trivially easy to get to in astral space.
The fight went well, damage was taken, Tads felts she had to go and help astrally which tipped the balance, and Shimazu took a pretty hefty hit and went down. That in turn bought the rest of the team up with the med-kits and to do some physical healing, and got them all together.
Of course, now they were all together – and had bought up some of the big guns, I was faced with the next decision – should there be another wave?
I did some very quick math-hammer in my head, and went with no. If more appeared, there was likely to be a giant stunball go off – and as a Grade 6 mage, Tads has enough dice to throw that that to make it stick unless she was *really* unlucky. And that’s what karma rerolls are for. So, they’d either be disrupted very badly, or at least all moderately stunned – which would make them far less effective on the attack, while Shimazu and Aswon sprinted at them again with weapon foci. Marius would be pretty immune to their attacks with vehicle staging, and Hunter would be much more effective with the sniper rifle due to the higher base power. So what I’d get would be a lot of dice rolling, with very little drama or tension. So instead, I went without, but took a little time describing the ascent and descent, keeping them guessing on if there would be another ambush.
Once they were back through, they got down off the mountain as quickly as possible, then started to head south. Lots of flavour description as they flew over the Salish, including some of the higher-tech stuff like the solar farms, then down to the border with Ute, and a little fun crossing that… just the way the dice go, both the Salish side and the Ute side, with sensors 3 and 2 respectively, both got a bunch of exploding 6s and got a hit on the tilt-wing! Of course, with the Eds mounted on there, they didn’t get the threshold to get a lock, so the players managed to get away, but did see the Tir stick their oar in as well, reminding them about the much higher tech and nasty neighbour.
Getting across the Ute was plain sailing – I didn’t want to throw anything random in, and was happy to let them get to the next smuggler stop and a place to bed down safely for the night and refuel, to keep pushing the story forward. This “mission” – i.e. the job for the 2 dragons putting tokens on the volcanoes – started back in episode 156 – so they’ve been doing this for nearly a year of real time. I think that’s been milked more than long enough, and it’s time to move on to something else soon!!!
So, they get to the Oak shamans grove, get to see the evidence of his earlier divining metamagic (will this bunch of yahoos screw me over?) and make him a nice juicy steak to get on his good side. He’s got some chips to sell, as well as the fuel, though they don’t have a lot of cash to be actually smuggling with at the moment. A quick jaunt down to El Diablo for the last drop, and then I’m expecting them to be working their way back to Seattle to finish sorting out the deckers for Ice Maiden and working out what they’re doing next. Though I’m going to ask them I think next session, just to make sure they aren’t planning on invading Aztlan or something equally batshit crazy…

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 1/10/2060, Location:46.82987, -121.72613, Time 14:11
2. 120m along, 40m up from tilt wing, 3 spirits appear 30m away
3. Hunter 16, Aswon 19, Shimazu 19, 3 X Spirits 16
4. Aswon, release from rope, sprint towards combat. Athletics test to go faster(6)=2, sprint. Moves to 28m/turn.
5. Shimazu, release, charge, sprint, Q(5)=3, 27m/turn.
6. 1st spirit target Aswon, lava storm, hits, soaking 2m
7. 2nd spirit targets Shimazu, misses
8. 3rd on Hunter, 2 successes=6S, 3S after armour, soaked
9. Hunter - fires full auto, spangs.
10. Kai grabs medpack, gets ready with door gun.
11. Tads asks vadim to keep watch, goes astral
12. Aswon+Shimazu continue to close.
13. Spirits, 1st on Aswon, 2 successes, Aswon dodges-fail. 2D soak (not enough dice) takes an L
14. 2nd misses Shimazu
15. 3rd targets Shimazu - base hit, 3d soak, 4 combat pool: soaked, just.
16. Hunter, change mags to APDS.
17. End of round, reroll init.
18. Tads 47, Shimazu 21, Aswon 22, Hunter 19
19. Shimazu uses combat power to go first, net of 2, uses GK takes a Mod
20. Tads - assenses, about F6, evil, irrational, unreasonable, personal domain vs powers
21. Aswon stabs #1, net 4, 10S, use 1 GK, takes a Mod
22. Hunter - APDS full auto, spang
23. Tads 37, attack with Shimazu, net of 9. Does D stun+M physical, disrupts and gone.
24. Aswon 12, continue combat, net of 6, 10D, disrupts
25. Shimazu 11, attack #3, net of 3, 9S damage, two on soak, takes a mod
26. Hunter 9, run towards Aswon
27. Spirit does lava lance, hits 9S, 6S soak on 7 body, takes an S
28. Tads 27, attack #3, 7 net, disrupted. Out of combat time.
29. Marius gets tracked drone ready. Others get into cold weather gear. Plan to get drone heading up on tracks.
30. Tads - if we go up the mountain, I can be back to the tilt wing in a split second, it's warded, should be sort of safe.
31. Hunter - bring up Aswons sniper rifle? Aswon - that should work, but it's damm heavy. Can you use? Hunter - yes. A-ok, you can carry it and you're responsible for it.
32. Med-Team get up to first team. Tads heals Aswon, then Shimazu. H,A+K notice Shimazu has a combat injector clenched tightly in his hand
33. Head up hill, all make athletics tests/handling checks ok. Plant token in a crack
34. All back down the hill ok, checks ok, back to tilt-wing.
35. Put Shimazu on the optics, take off, Aswon mugs at Hunter to check the other auto-injectors.
36. Kai biotech test, reflecting on 1st use of combat drugs - get bsae bonus +1d6 init, +4 str, +2 reaction.
37. Heading east and then south towards the border. Team talking about the horror, potions, combat delivery mechanisms, trying to drug it and leave it, then wait for it's comedown period.
38. When into cell range, call from the twins - cover as a crop duster. Work out they can fly that slow, no real fuel hit.
39. 2 hours to UTE border, rough details of overflying area. Some spirits.
40. Talk about border crossing - Kai gives details, talk about Big Dance route
41. Marius choosing to go for stealth crossing, no spirit concealment (but ready). Stealth 10. Three way tickle.
42. Heading down across Ute, scorching through the dusk, up and over ridgelines.
43. "Bust" What. "Bust?" Coming in, next few hours, I'm kai. "What are you carrying" Not much, some fresh foods. Looking to maybe buy. "Sure"
44. Slip across the border, up the valley, into old Oak growth.
45. Call, Bust, we're here. Aim for the lights -
46. Land, spot Trevlar, assense - get his grade, not masking, wood spirit. Probably wujen after discussion from team.
47. Kai thinks about magical societies - nothing. Strips down to basics, heads out. "Hi, Trogdor, what you got to sell then?" We got bits and bobs, and some food. "sounds like a free dinner, come to the camp fire, you got time to wait until the morning for fuel" Ask for anything that would offend the stop. "Dont damage / pollute, don't be dicks."
48. Big stone circle, small fire, pitcher of water.
49. Kai - ask about the place. "It's my grove". No wards or lodge. Perception check on 10s. Aswon, Tads, Hunter, spot vague outline of tilt-wing.
50. Tads makes food.

Additional update - I've just emailed out the latest story chapter to the players, and as we're getting near the end of this very long and torturous mission, I also wanted to find out what they're up to - so I sent out this email to them as well, trying to find out what their intentions are. I'll update the thread with their responses, and hopefully get a better idea of what is going through their minds!

Latest smuggler write-up attached.

On the basis that you're now coming up to the end of the volcano mission, I'd like to find out what your general intentions are please, at least from an OOC basis.

Assume for the moment that you get to the last volcano and deal with whatever challenge / situation / scenario is there, get the token planted and get away without any deaths or losing the tilt-wing, from my POV the situation is:

1) You're due a reasonable size payout from the Mr Black and Mr White who gave you the job in Japan.

2) You're due a karma award for everything that has happened since episode 183 (the end of the Hong Kong / Chun + Harley arc). There's going to be a bunch of mission Karma of course, but you may want to think about things you've done for personal awards ahead of time . (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

3) You have recruited 2 deckers for Ice Maiden, and have contact details for a 3rd back in Seattle. She wanted "three or four", and hinted at helping with information on fighting the Horror.

4) You have an outstanding arrangement with Aden to go deal with the Horror in the underground temple, which two of the group have declared deeds for.

5) There's something about an amusement park, that's apparently important to someone....

6) You do have the one shot deal with Maersk for shipping yourselves and cargo somewhere, that could get you across the pacific if required. Or the atlantic if you went the other way...

7) Nadia is now about 7 months pregnant, just FYI Lee

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) The tilt-wing still has 9 points of stress, and needs another 2 weeks worth of work to get it back into A1 condition. The blimp also needs another 5 days, in a workshop.

9) Vadim will also probably want to initiate, and needs some time in a woodland / forest area somewhere to get in touch with his totem


So you'll have a chunk of cash, and be down in Cal-free. My expectation is something along the lines of:

Fill up the tanks at Bust, then head back to Seattle via Ute > Salish > Metroplex. Head to the Church
Marius works on the tilt-wing a bit more during the day, while others go do any shopping etc
Get to the last contact you have and recruit a 3rd decker.
Decide if you want to play safe and get a 4th decker, arrange that if needed.
Look for replacement armour for those that have had it trashed (I'm thinking mainly Shimazu here after the lava lance attack), or upgrades whilst in Seattle on the basis that it should have just about anything you want
Head back to Ice-Maiden to deliver info, and get any help from the dragon re fighting the horror.
Work back over towards Tashkent and the temple, to go deal with the horror, and get Aden off your back.
Get back to the ranch in time for Marius to be there for Nadia when she gives birth
Decide what to do from there...

However, it's your story, and you're in charge of what you want to do. But if you can give me an idea of what you're thinking, I've got more prep time to try and deliver a better experience.


So, what'cha thinking?

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 203 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vmngdr3q9tyxxu5/S...ok%207.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Archive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Ugh – bit of a stressful session. Home broadband crapped out on Monday afternoon, dropping my VPN to work and giving us really slow and laggy responses – fortunately close enough to the end of the day to not be an issue. Fault in the area, the ISP had a message on the fault line, nothing we could do so we found other stuff to do. Still bad on Tuesday, including into the evening – so we were getting lag induced robotic voices, stuttering, freezing video and other such nasties, which made the session harder to run anyway (though slightly easier when Ali/Tads and I turned our video off to cut down on the outbound bandwidth a little.
And then, just to make life more interesting, Dice Maiden (our dice rolling bot of choice in Discord) decided to pack up it’s knitting and stop rolling dice – fortunately at about 20:30, so most of the way through the session.
Still – I think that’s the first time in 2 years or so of remote gaming that we’ve had technical difficulties like that, so it’s not too bad.

Anyway – back to the game. They’d landed in the Shamans grove, a massive stand of mature Oak trees, where oak trees have no right to be. But, the players seemed fine with this, didn’t enquire, or make a fuss about it. Ok – not a problem. Potentially that side-quest / thread can be rolled out again later on.
There was some discussion about the chips, money, future plans and so forth, but most of that was of an out of character nature, confirming details rather than an IC chat, so it wasn’t germane to the story – hence the relatively “light” number of notes shown below. But they bought some stuff, got some rest, got refuelled and then on their way in the morning.
The encounter with the jet fighters was random, just to add some colour to the session – an Ares recon flight had gotten a little too close to the Japancorps in San-Fran, and was being pursued by 3 fighters from Sato’s defence force, just trying to hint at the tensions in the area. All the team had to do was “practice the art of not being seen” – and fortunately with spirit support and a good stealth roll, along with the EDs on the craft, that was doable.
Then we got to Volcano #14 – El Diablo. There was a chunk of Wikipedia article I’d pasted into the chat as Hunter’s research, and of course they’d zeroed in on it being JUST the right time to hit “the march of the tarantulas” – which combined with the name and some wind-up-grinning I’d been doing made them very paranoid. Very paranoid indeed. So they were flummoxed when I asked them if they just wanted to set down in the car-park and hide the token under a bench, or a bin or something like that…
Each Volcano you see I’d written up and tried to work on a different challenge, to test certain skills or behaviour.
#1 - natural elements, bad weather, St Elmos Fire
#2 - neutral non-human NPC to persuade / diplome with (the Quoll spirit)
#3 – Japan-corp strip mining, and prisoner workforce trying to escape – Huk Rebels
#4 – Salamanders attacking the party in a mob – straight combat encounter
#5 – Astronomical event with hundreds of sky-watchers – stealth tests
#6 – Shinto priests wanting the area undisturbed, begging the players not to interfere – balance diplomacy vs time
#7 – the fallout from #6, depending on their attitude and behaviour dictates their reaction here
#8 – Yakut Shapeshifters – a fight, but leaving anyone alive to report back will earn the team more displeasure from the Awakened nation.
#9 – Shadowrunner team out talismongering, think the players are stealing their stuff
#10 – The native shaman on a vision quest, wanting to know if he should help Lung or Ryumyo’s forces
#11 – Mitsuhama border patrol crashed, and the EMP cannon that took them down, brings down the players in the same spot
#12 – Ice Maiden – a young dragon seeking to recruit “agents” and build up her power base
#13 – Lava elementals on Mount Rainier, who will attack and try to destroy the team
#14 – and what was the challenge for the last volcano? Fear and suspicion! My initial notes read as: “There's nothing here. It's a cake-walk. Nothing of note. Lots of tension though... and suspicion. This is their freebie to finish on an easy note.” I figured after none of the other volcanos being easy, they’d be very suspicious and would be waiting for the other shoe to drop. And they were!
Still, with that done, they were ready to head back north. It was at this point that I tried to do a few random rolls and checks for the border crossings, and Dice Maiden decided not to play nice – so I decided ‘what the hell’ – let’s go narrative, get the team back to Seattle, and give them their pay and a week of downtime to fix the bird, get a meeting in with the other decker, and do some shopping and spell learning.
Besides, that puts them in one place long enough for me to trigger the next plot-line. At the least convenient moment, when they’re furthest away from the ward on the tilt-wing, one of them is going to be the subject of some ritual tracking, and then they’re going to get a message from Aiden, informing them that their mission has changed, and he has new instructions for them.
And these are non-negotiable… they have enough time to gear up a little and finish off some stuff, then they have to be in the Sioux nation in 15 days time. Just long enough to learn some spells and initiate maybe, but then we’re on to the next major plot arc, a new unique item/ability for two of the team, and probably the start of book 8!


And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 1/10/2060, Location:39.39222, -120.30863, Time 19:45
2. Kai biotech test on Shimazu, spot tiny little bit of agitation.
3. Aswon asks about putting hammock up, Trogdor is ok with that.
4. Look at route to Diablo, decide dogleg. Look at amount of land for Japanese occupation force
5. Kai asks about stopping on the way back, wants to get job done.
6. Buy 50 standard recordings, 2 dir-x = 3k, +fuel of 8250 = 27k left
7. Tads looking for spells - rolled up: Alter Temp(7), Fix(4), Cure disease(5), Detox((IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) , Treat(11), Heal (6), Silence (9), Stealth(3), Lightning bolt(11), Fix, Makeover (6), Manabolt (9) - Tads turns them all down.
8. Saturday 2/10/2060, 08:00, summon spirits, fuel bird, plot route.
9. Random encounter, double 1, Ares fast mover being chased by 3 Mitsubishi fighters. None of them see the bird. Marius spots the flight and takes evasive. Shimazu spots some high force spells.
10. Lead plane spots SOMETHING with a 25, 2 of the chase planes also get 1 hit. Ares breaks high and right, Jap corps break left, high g forces. Shimazu spots the wards on the planes.
11. Jap plane fire missile, pop chaff and flares, misses Ares, slides past the bird. Ares heads north on the deck at 100m mach 1.5, fooling the japs who get lost behind him about 10-15km.
12. Fly on, all quiet.
13. Hunter analyses footage - 3 X mitsubishi, 1 X ares
14. Close on the top, car park has 2 cars, about 200m from the top. Look around, go into a hover, levitate Shimazu out to a tree to plant. Plant in a tree in a shallow slice, then back aboard, back to Bust.
15. Back east, avoid the fire in the barn, back into the mountains, Kai calls the number.
16. Female voice, hello "good evening. it's kai, we've done, awaiting instructions" please hold. "you've finished, authorised to release payments. "in seattle, in a day or two" reference? No, just Mr Kai.
17. Work out fuel range, how much cash left, how much they can spend on spell formula.
18. Back to Bust, no med supplies. Talk to Trogdor about spells, has he designed some, purchased others.
19. Shimazu sneaks off to recover some drugs
20. Much discussion about what spells to buy and how much cash they need at a reserve.
21. Kai asks about archery / arrows - does he have anything to do with that. Nope.
22. wait for dusk, fly back to seattle.
23. Sunday 1am, get back to the church. Kai calls contact to arrange meet. Aswon pitches in re stress / time.

I did get some feedback from my players as well by email and on our discord channel. Pasted below in case it's of interest or so you can see their thinking.

First response from Jez / Aswon:
I'm not going to reply all cos I just don't think this is a convo that'll work via email! But the sorts of things I'm likely to bring up when the in game conversations arise so you can decide how you want to handle it, below. Might be worth starting a few threaded conversations in Discord with titles like:
Intel to gather
Sourcing Deckers
Repairs
Getting Home from Ice Maiden
Dealing with the horror

That might be taking things too far. I dunno. I do know if I took it upon myself to do it no-one would pay any attention so if you think it's a good idea you'll have to!

Anyway my/aswon's thoughts on the points raised:

1) You're due a reasonable size payout from the Mr Black and Mr White who gave you the job in Japan.

a. We’ll see how much we have left after expenses, eh? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Can't plan in detail till we've repaired the bird and planned our route (and subsequent cost in fuel if necessary) home really.

2) You're due a karma award for everything that has happened since episode 183 (the end of the Hong Kong / Chun + Harley arc). There's going to be a bunch of mission Karma of course, but you may want to think about things you've done for personal awards ahead of time . (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

a. Damn, all I have noted down since last award is thinking of a test for the deckers – though actually that leads me back to the next point on the list see below.

b. Everything else I've done has just been Aswon being Aswon, I don't think there's been anything particularly dramatic or unusual that he's done.

c. I'll have to have a think, maybe reread some write ups.

3) You have recruited 2 deckers for Ice Maiden, and have contact details for a 3rd back in Seattle. She wanted "three or four", and hinted at helping with information on fighting the Horror.

a. Suggest to Kai using our own money if necessary to get each of these deckers to do something for us that we’d consider difficult.

b. Then not only do we hopefully get useful things – gear, intel, ID, transpoder codes, smuggler routes, permanent access to certain databases, whatever - we can report back with some confidence or caveats, and can possibly say to ice maiden: look we know you probably don’t have “nuyen”, but we *did* use our own resources for this… as a way to either get some other form of wealth or information from her.

4) You have an outstanding arrangement with Aden to go deal with the Horror in the underground temple, which two of the group have declared deeds for.

a. We should ask him and Ice-Maiden about ways to weaken the horror first, even if only temporarily.

b. We also should reach out to the team we rescued and tell them we’re going back to deal with it. Do they want revenge/satisfaction? End of the day, they have some nice toys, and that gives us options. Also Aswon gets to see his French sniper crush.

5) There's something about an amusement park, that's apparently important to someone....

a. OK. I’m not against this, not really. But…

b. It has to be either when we have a job in the area without another one we’re lined up and on the clock for, or when we have enough reserve cash and options to go over there entirely for ourselves – and that means waiting until we’ve dealt with the horror, and, I would suggest, the birth if marius tells us about it before we get home and find out the hard way.

c. We could, however, any time Hunter has the time and matrix access to do this – possibly even as soon as Seattle - start researching what happened, local stories and all of that. Intel gathering generally costs us nothing but time, and we’re going to need it if we’re going to deal with a haunting permanently.

6) You do have the one shot deal with Maersk for shipping yourselves and cargo somewhere, that could get you across the pacific if required. Or the atlantic if you went the other way...

a. Kai’s call.

b. I understand he wants to work back around pacrim, unless we can get a Maersk ship from the Athabaskan council port back to somewhere useful.

c. As long as he has a plan for how we fund another 10 refuels without us getting home already broke again, Aswon doesn’t care.

7) Nadia is now about 7 months pregnant, just FYI Lee

a. Unless Marius tells us this, we cannot plan for it.

b. When he does tell us, Aswon will take the view that regardless of whether marius wants to get home in time, Nadia is part of the team and he thinks the team should aim to get there in time and not leave her alone to deal with this. From his point of view if it is agreed that this is the course of action, then that presents two immediate concerns that need resolving before a course of action can be determined: do we deal with the horror now at the fastest speed we can manage, possibly rushing it, or do we get in touch with Aden and say up front that we'll be waiting x more months until [birth + 1 week or so] before we will be able to start. Jez can predict Marius' reaction to involving a dragon in the birth of his child even as far as letting the dragon even know he has a child, particularly a specific dragon all common knowledge suggests gives absolutely no shits about metahumanity except as food or slaves. Aswon on the other hand will see it as a simple matter of resolving conflicting duties by bouncing it up the current chain of command: if we are to get home in time, we must either deal with the horror very quickly or we must deal with the dragon. If we cannot do the one, we must do the other.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/cool.gif) The tilt-wing still has 9 points of stress, and needs another 2 weeks worth of work to get it back into A1 condition. The blimp also needs another 5 days, in a workshop.

a. Ok well I’m in favour of the Seattle option in the list below to address this, for sure.

9) Vadim will also probably want to initiate, and needs some time in a woodland / forest area somewhere to get in touch with his totem.

a. Fort Lewis/Snohomish/Everett reserve, here we come!

From Andrew / Kai:
From a personal pov - I would prefer to fly back the same route we came (pinching off at the appropriate point to get the best route back to out town base). From where we are it should be easy to get supplies that the various contacts were in “need” of to help pay for fuel on the way back.

Seattle certainly could offer a lot of the resources/places to get things fixed (although being back in Russia may help with some of the parts (is the bugger Russian/Chinese or something? - would bring back over the water to fix be better?). Stress points in general sound bad.

A day or so in Seattle minimum to sort extra deckers for the dragon (and do we have any more digging to do?)

From Lees memory - did we have to go back to Japan to be paid?


From Lee / Marius
I just want to get back as soon as possible,
The free ride with Maersk would probably be easier given the fuel costs and amount of stress. Across the Atlantic would probably be faster. For Marius it is about speed. Definitely no more detours or side quests. I want downtime, training and we need to look at our kit requirements.

Response from Kai
Depends entirely on the opportunity/speed of the ship (and the chances of something happening on a journey are slip on a ship … but out in the ocean, it becomes very very life and death)

Follow on from Aswon
It's the cost as well: each hop we do we have to net around ten k in cargo or we're just shedding cash. A massive maersk ship will have armed guards and defences which makes us safer and if there's a particularly high threat incident we might even score some combat pay or another favour if they're attacked on route.

Also, a big storm is just as much if not more danger to us in the air with our low flight ceiling (as we have already come close to several times), compared to a massive ship at sea using a main shipping line which is already going to be a known quantity in terms of risk/cost ratio or the corps wouldn't be using it.

We have made a deal to go back up to Athabaska to meet ice maiden so we have to do that far. But there's a massive corp port right there where we can probably hop a ship possibly all the way back to Suez along a major route (i.e. safest for cost/risk for a corp).

Our bird will be faster *if* we can stop trade fuel go every time and never need repairs or money. A free ship ride might be slower but I think far more predictable and won't cost us 50-60k in fuel.

This of course is why we have a hunter. Let the logistics expert work out the likely trade off for us.

Another way to look at it is that we don't intend to make this a regular route I don't think, so we don't actually need the contacts/stopover points?

Response from Gus / Hunter
I’m with Marius in the speed and I’m for cashing in the the one shot free taxi ride on a massive ship tbh.
For Hunter the dealings with the fooking gold dragon needs doing as soon as we can.
Details for the deckers for the ice dragon could possibly be passed over to her contacts so that’s one less meeting with a scaly bugger.
An ocean voyage sounds really good about now for Hunter lots of time to train 😉

Also, Jez / Aswon threw together some costs to try and identify how much the team should be charging for jobs, posting out his throughts to our Discord channel:

Jez (Aswon): @Kai El Capitan Sidequest:

For approximate pricing of jobs, I have done some maths. Bottom line: when you're agreeing to stuff, your rough rule of thumb is:

START AT: Y60 per km, before danger pay and similar.

NO LESS than Y31 per km, before danger pay and similar.

Y30.95/km is our base line operational maintenance cost per km including fuel before cargo, our food, nadia's schemes, ammo, bribes, and all the rest. Less than this and we're not just making no profit, but we'd be starving to death if we didn't have Tads.

More to follow in the reply. The point is: does that sound like a workable finger in the air bit of maths for you?
[9:23 AM] Jez (Aswon): Maths to explain all this:

The Y31 per km is also the effective running cost of the vessel per km when empty.

We actually only have about 1000Kg of the 3500kg and about 50CF of the 300CF available in the bird after putting us and all our gear in the bird, that Y30 per km has to cover, meaning we have to make a profit on 1000kg and 50CF of space.

My suggested price of Y60/km should therefore be good enough for you to go negotiate with, and if you can get close to it we can be reasonably sure we will make some money.

When you have Hunter with you and you can turn to him and casually say "run the numbers on this and get me a price would you" whilst you carry on with your patter, then the actual numbers for a specific load should be calculated like this:

(0.61Y per CF per km) + (0.03Y per kg per km) seems like a good formula to use to estimate when quoting a job. This would mean small stuff would be very cheap, large or heavy stuff quite expensive. And that seems... right?


That is our specific optempo of 30.95/50CF plus 30.95/1000Kg, meaning we're basically charging based on a proportion of our precious cargo weight and volume.

It is a bit of double counting: this is on purpose so you (Kai) always have a high figure to start from. We know it's slightly over priced, which means you can follow your instincts and compromise on the prices... without leaving us destitute 🙂

I hope this was useful!
[9:35 AM] Jez (Aswon): Some rough examples:

Shoebox of calhots from Calfree to Anchorage: approx 0.5CF, 0.5kg, 3000 km. Y915+Y45+ value of the goods. That's about a 1K premium on the chips for shipping, plus whatever extra we want to put on top. Entirely reasonable.

Ship a body 3 armoured drone the same distance however and we're talking about 14CF and about 750kg. That's going to be 25.6K + 67.5 or 94K or so.

"But that's outrageous! If I had ID I could buy that local for only about a 10K premium!"
"So ka. But you don't have the ID, and we don't have the fuel, food for our emaciated pilot or medication for my poor disabled dog at home. You know how it is. I tell you what we'll fetch it for you at cost, let's say 60K. But we want some of that [special ammo/riggerware/whatever). "

...we get our 2 fuel stops covered and can guarantee about 30K profit, which is two more fuel stops worth of cash. If they actually take our first offer without negotiating then that's another 30K on the top... and we could have afforded to go lower if we really liked the contact or it was a favour.

It makes us seem expensive (because it is) but at the same time also seem very reasonable and open to discussion and goods/favours in kind as trade offs, with our main selling points actually being: we are fast, we can be very quiet, we're prepared for a scrap if we need it and provided we can get fuel at regular intervals we'll literally go cross continental for you.
[2:01 PM] Kren: 🙂 Nice one Jez. I would also factor in something as an overall modifier to cover world events. You may not have realised it, but with the mission you did to take out the Fuchi pipeline along with the other team getting their oil declared contaminated, that drove supply down considerably, and the price per barrel up - which quickly impacted at the fuel pumps, and made your next 2-3 fuel stops cost several grand more...
[10:23 AM] Jez (Aswon): The costs I've come up with here are meant to allow for running costs and fuel averages we've seen over the campaign thus far, with some safety margin built in. It's to give our main negotiator an immediate rule of thumb for where 'profitable' actually starts. Specific job & world conditions are to my mind just points to negotiate the specific job around?
[10:25 AM] Kren: Fair enough
[10:26 AM] Jez (Aswon): Just to specifically talk about fuel costs vs the figures I've got above:

We buy fuel on the spot and as a campaign aren't really using 'optempo': we could include the fuel as an extra: at the rates we've been paying its approx 10K per 1000km, or Y10/km. If we want to be sure then we could say Y40/km is our absolute floor, simply to prevent Kai from offering deals that are too sweet.

...But to some extent I already planned for this:

- Y60/km figure is around twice what our optempo should be (Y30.95/km) if fuel costs were abstracted.
- In our campaign fuel is not abstracted and it's not really clear how much of an optempo calculation is supposed to be fuel. But we can be confident some of the Y10/km is covered.
- This is why I said Y30/km is the absolute floor: if we don't take damage or stress, and the trip is quick, then Y30/km will still cover the Y10/km in fuel we're spending. For the right client/package/sob story anyway.
- I double-counted package mass and space to give us lots of wiggle room around that, because of the unknown. I could've done some averaging, but likely we'd have been flying on margins far too often.

Where fuel suddenly shoots up in price mid-job due to world events then as long as it doesn't double or triple, if we've used the values above we should still turn a profit. World events that are already happening at the start are something Kai would factor for in the negotiation, make sense?
[10:27 AM] Jez (Aswon): #ThingsILearnedWatchingMartin

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 203 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vmngdr3q9tyxxu5/S...ok%207.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Archive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
So – the Pacific Rim job is done, and the team have planted 14 tokens on a variety of volcanos over the 14 thousand kilometre run, with a few days to spare. Ryumyo and Lung will now send their squads out to hunt and find each one, with the first to claim the token “taking” the volcano and it’s ley line / power lines for themselves. Of course, Ryumyo is going to concentrate on the ones near Japan, while Lung looks elsewhere, and that will directly lead to the earthquakes and events of the Year of the Comet. As this was a major plotline and milestone, and it had been 20 play sessions since the last Karma award, it was time to through some cookies out.
At least having the notes and the writeups makes this a relatively easy task to go back through the sessions and note down karma-worthy tasks and quotes, and to check on activity – and the players did very well out of this! The Karma awards were:
Aswon 30, Hunter 28, Kai 26, Marius 26, Shimazu 25, Tads 25 (and Vadim and Nadia got a boost in abilities to keep them in the same league, if not the same division). That puts most of them around the 200+ karma range, so they’ve got a fair bit of power now
As important of course is the karma pool refresh, and the knowledge that they’d soon get their million Nuyen payday – so the players started to plan out spending the cash to get some replacement gear for what they’ve lost and a few upgrades, and then also plan what skills they want to try and learn. Two of the group (Aswon and Shimazu) can’t initiate as they’ve declared ‘deeds’ of killing the Horror (or at least dealing with it), but Kai and Tads could if they wished, and of course everyone can raise skills and attributes.
They’ve also lined up their last meeting with a decker to satisfy Ice Maiden’s request, and should get that done without issue, and be ready to head home then - they’re busy making plans for getting back to the ranch, working out which route to take, either cashing in their favour with Maersk for a free trip on a boat, or if they’re going to smuggle goods back around the Pac-Rim, and fly back, trying to do enough biz to cover the fuel costs.
None of which matters really, because that’s not what’s going to happen. Events are in motion which will head them off on a tangent and see them heading into Sioux lands for a meeting soon, and a chance to meet some very interesting people!
I’d also spoken with both of the people who’d played the two dragons back at the start of this arc, and while only one of them had availability to pop into the session and have a chat with the players, the other was able to record some voice clips for me and send them over, which I could then play back – both dragons effectively saying “well done, you’ve proved yourself competent, we’ll be in touch later to use you again” – the price of doing a good job! Of course, doing a bad job would mostly get you eaten… so they’re probably ahead.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 3/10/2060, Location:51.50211, -126.14977, Time 00:53
2. Karma award - A30, H28, K26, M26, S25, T25
3. Sleep until morning, spirits, running, breakfast
4. Marius calls Nadia, doing repairs, wants to get home as soon as possible. She's now running the hotel, they're rubbish as business.
5. Just at the end of breakfast - messages from Neil - clip #3 then #2. Line goes dead. Kai says thank you anyway, just in case.
6. Kai calls the number, different voice, good evening. Call to finalise payment. Outside the space needle. Dusk tomorrow evening. Lovely, ok. Yellow handkerchief+red poppy
7. Marius working on the bird.
8. Tads wants spell formula, custom design from either Aslick or Popov; Hunter wants a big hand gun. Talk to rad, explain re elementals.
9. Marius asks Kai "what's cheap in seattle" Discuss fix spell and use, especially for small drones / components
10. Kai phone call, congrats are in order, you've survived. Appreciate the efforts your team has gone to furthering our aims. You and your team have peaked my interest. Will be watching with great interest. | that's flattering and frightening at the same time. |I'm sure you will do great things, will speak to you in the future, and you won't disappoint me *menace* | No, of course we won't. | I hope the renumeration will be satisfactory, and that you stay in fine health.|I'm sure you'll get in touch when you need me. | Maybe not personally, but you never know. Hangup.
11. Kai - puts on tinfoil hat. Goes back to talking about shopping.
12. Talk about enchanting armour, difficulty based on modern materials
13. Rad comes back with a gyro-jet, 2.5k, it's "clean". 5 clips of reg ammo, 3k. Agree to deal.
14. Shimazu asks for APDS / AV - can't get hold. Asks for down payment for 3-4 weeks, refuse.
15. Nim comes over to Marius to help out. Brings him a toolkit
16. Aswon - wild hunt jumpsuit+massage lining+ 3 points chem seal+ 2 thermal masking, 6k per suit.
17. Aswon looks for helmets with 1/1 helmets with detachable gas masks for 350 Ny each - 8
18. Look for armoured suits. Conservative suits, 2.5k each. Choice of fabrics and options for the "corp team", suits from Batumi. Flash pack pockets. Choice of 2 scabards, angled and flush.
19. 2 X Ghillie suits (aswon+hunter) @ 300 each
20. New anti-coagulants for Hunter - but not from April. Aswon refuses to do a job with no recon, and they need some downtime.
21. Marius fails to remove stress point - RR, fails again, 1GK gets a 9 one success, but Nim does 2. Stress = 7
22. Monday - Nim gets 2, Marius 1, stress=5.
23. Taxi down to Grungis "no drifters". Description of grungi. Gets beers, 4%, poor quality but drinkable. Soy-oinks. "Make your tail go curly". To Hunter - "did you get the number" confusion, truck that ran over his face. Rotting teeth+belch. "Are you grungi"? Yea, my place, pretty sweet huh. Looking for work - ahh, one of those. Get beer for trophy. "don't make a mess in my bar". Hunter - why would you notice?
24. Trophy - toilets through there, unless you're looking for something else. Hunter passes beer over. You come recommended. Rad - oh, green mohawk, yeah, know him. Hunter, looking for deckers. Phone, speed dial #4, explains out of town, 1k fee, passes phone over. Intro to CAD. Kai explains, not taking a fee. CAD confused. What's in it for you. It's not all about money. CAD freaked out a little, but ok. Shimazu spots trophy drop into astral. Shimazu assenses gets massive success - g2 phys-ad. Shimazu drops masking for just a second. Trophy reacts with some surprise. Kai carries on conversation. Face to face meet - what? Are you mental? Meat space? Face to face? Like.. touching? 1 hour, Tacoma mall, floor 4, outside Mcronalds. Chocolate milkshake with sprinkles. Offers job to team, critter recovery. Shimazu says in the city only. Kai asks for age on CAD.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 204 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vmngdr3q9tyxxu5/S...ok%207.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Archive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Fairly straight-forward this week, and mostly concentrating on the actions of 4 of the team – with Marius back at the Church fixing the bird, while Tads desperately tried to cram some astral quests in with someone who could teach her spells before they left. Of course, I was sitting here all smug knowing that “plans were afoot”…
Finishing off the meet with Trophy was fairly straight-forward, and hopefully conveyed how paranoid / weirded out the man who lives mostly in the matrix was with having to have a physical meet. They also discovered that one of Kai’s ID has now expired – the result of a flaw in creation which gave it an expiry date.
The pickup for their pay at the Space Needle was simple enough, as benefits what happens when two great dragons want something to happen and stop bickering with each other – and here’s where I failed to take into account Kai’s ID being burnt. Thankfully caught it after a prompt from my better half, and modified the writeup to fit (as Kai wouldn’t have access to the shell company they set up, with the linked ID now no longer valid) with Aswon doing the validation. Still, that’s all good and I’m sure they can get around that.
With the mission around the rim done, it’s now time to send them on the next major plot development, so I needed to get them into Sioux territory – so Aden’s done a ritual to track them down. The players helpfully obliged by having some of them well away from the tilt-wing and that pesky Force 10 ward, and with Tads and Vadim being otherwise engaged, they had no real way to stop it. Then it was a matter of trying to have some tension with it building up as they drove back to the church, before the drake arrived to deliver the message – rather than Iranian clerics or Azzie Blood mages which is what they were expecting.
The team seemed very surprised with the news that the Horror has escaped, and it threw all their plans into disarray – but with two of the teams having declared a deed for dealing with it and being unable to initiate until they complete that, it’s pretty much a sure thing that they’ll be off to sort it out.
Maisey – one of the two Pink Mohawk characters they’ve interacted with at the training centre - was from the Sioux, so she’s going to be a handy conduit for info about the place to Aswon (who has been told to go read the Sioux chapter from the NAN book to remind him of the details and regard most of that as common knowledge now)
After working out how long they needed for the maintenance on the tilt-wing and spell learning, we settled on about 5 days to do some downtime and a quick training montage, so we’ll advance the calendar a little next session. While sorting out the downtime, Kai’s player Fozzy finally bowed to pressure from the group and decided to not only initiate again, but also to bond the weapon foci they got from the Jewish hit-team, which also meant buying edged weapons 1… which left him with one good karma!!!
And that’s why they’re going to go do a raid on the hospital before they depart, to see if they can earn one or two more, just in case…

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Monday 4/10/2060, Location:51.50211, -126.14977, Time 15:00
2. Team get in a cab to Tacoma mall - 8km,
3. Get to tac mall, into area ok, to atrium, multi-level slides, entertainers, spot Cad, assense, check area, Kai gets food including chocolate shake with sprinkles.
4. Arms under table, doing something, suspicious. Checks drink+id, sits Kai down. Team feels like they're being watched (especially Aswon). Get expanded description, "ok, I'm here, what's so important" K-traditional, working for someone, verification. CAD - ok, all done then yeah, I can go home now? Kai - no, can you meet the client| does trophy know them. | Paranoid when Kai says not the only one watching. Kai - it's all fine. What do you enjoy doing? |Are you serious? I just play games, nothing illegal.| Excellent - you pass the first test. | How much do you charge | depends on the travel. | Asks for demo - gets security footage from mall. | Anything you don't like? | Dying. We done here then? |Yeah, swap details, down payment. Hunter explains more about the job.
5. Cad goes to leave, leaves calling card behind - transparent plastic with light grey text. Team finishes food, takes card, leaves.
6. Checks out archery shop - Kai's ID fails. Aswon scans then pays on cert stick. Hunter computer check. Advises Kai to try stick elsewhere - comes up invalid.
7. Call another cab, drive 40km up to space needle. Kai's ID fails to scan.
8. At space needle, heavy security, Aswon puts his hat on... totally untraceable (!)
9. Spot girl selling plushie dragons. Astral see F10 air elementals on guard, + a few watcher spirits, some people brushing them off. Bimble around until dusk, then head to stall.
10. "You seek dragon, plushie dragon, 10 nuyen!" I'm kai by the way. This dragon no good for you. Swaps, "enjoy your dragon" Kai can feel credstick in the centre. Finds credstick inside - Ebony certified.
11. Look for souvenir ashop, find ATM. Look for grimy area - none. All sparkly clean. Deposit money to the holding company. Kai - sudden thought, is NAdia going to spot this? Aswon - maybe. Kai - I'm scared of her.. Aswon - sign of a good office manager. Realise she's not on that account. Kai gets a receipt. Puts cred stick in the bin. Aswon hassles him about shares...Kai buys a space needle souvenir for Nadia...
12. Back in a cab to head to Church, WP check for Aswon in cab on the way back. Shimazu checks out his aura - being tracked. Call Marius to advise might be coming in hot. Try to call Tads, get Vadim - might need help. Might need to get back to the church. Aswon looking for places with wards - just in case. Just approaching the church, builds to a crescendo, call for Vadim.
13. Drake arrives - looks down at Aswon - "ahh, there you are." "You're looking for me? I am Aswon!"
14. Delivers message. Aswon - do you have any more details? No, just the messenger. Are you going? Yes! We said we would.
15. Vadim - was that a tiny dragon?
16. Hunter checks location - 1600km
17. Sourcing PEM 4 (40k), Decrypt 4 (90k) for Marius to allow hacking. Also willing for 5/6s
18. Tads orders spells from Aslik / Popov. Talks to Gavin as well.
19. Kai - 5 days to initiate
20. Hunter - WP training
21. Aswon - Body training, small unit tactics
22. Shimazu - WP training
23. Tads - spell learning (5 hours+4 hours for shapechange), teach Fang a few spells (1 day), learn increase attribute 3 (2 days)+teaching Vadim (1 day) Shopping with Gavin - limited armour (7), Fix (7)
24. Marius - fixing the bird
25. Training montage talk to Maisy about Sioux culture.
26. Scoping out targets for April - Kaiser Everett hospital with attached doc-wagon response pad. Mid size clinic/small hospital
27. Providence medical centre, western Everett - big 6 story hospital, multiple wings, big car park
28. Everett primary clinic, large clinic/small hospital, separate car park
29. Team discuss types of break in / blags. Do some recon on targets 2 and 3 in the evenings.
30. Team will decide on which target to hit post recon.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 205 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vmngdr3q9tyxxu5/S...ok%207.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Archive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
So, with Kai down to only a sliver of good karma, the team decided to meta-game a tiny bit, and do a quick run on a hospital to make April and the people at the church happy, and see if they could earn themselves a couple of points of good karma, to help them in the fight against the horror. As they’ve got a week to fill, I’m actually ok with that, and it seems to make sense for them in-game as well. And what they don’t know is that it’s unfortunately not going to help them – the Horror, having escaped from its tomb now has a wider range of powers, one of which is inspired by the dragons “Twist Fate” power – and he’s going to dick with their karma anyway (or at least try… - if they can make the essence check target number, then good for them – and they get to be smug while everyone else in the team suffers)
So – they needed a run on a hospital, so over to Google maps I went, found 3 sites close to the location of the Church and threw together 3 quick bios for them based on what I thought was reasonable from a casual watch / walk by and a cursory matrix search.
The location information was:
Locations:
Kaiser Health Centre+Doc Wagon station, 47.97793, -122.19146. Ares owned
Just off the I-5, fronting onto Maple street, with Pacific Avenue to the south and Hewitt Avenue to the north, with Pine Street to the west
Very small hospital / large clinic, 5 story building with 3 story facility over 2 story parking
This facility fulfils basic physical and medical equipment accessibility standards.
This provider is Preferred In-Network. Summit PPO members who get care from a Preferred In-Network provider will have the lowest out-of-pocket costs. Refer to your Evidence of Coverage for more information.
Additional providers and pharmacies are available to Summit PPO members at a higher cost through regional and national networks
Virtual Plus - Connect Network members Your costs may be higher if you receive in-person care without a referral.
Departments: Cardiology, General Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Injection Room, Laboratory, Nephrology, Occupational Therapy, Oncology, Orthopaedics, Pharmacy, Radiology, Women's Health Care
To the north side of the hospital is an attached facility owned and operated by Doc-Wagon, home to two air-response units. One is a Boeing chopper for urgent care transfer, one is an Osprey for HTR recovery.
Doc-Wagon have electrified fences topped with razor wire, decent cameras and night lights, good quality maglocks and are protected by a F3 ward.
The hospital is staffed with Bulldog security, a local Everett firm that provides security and investigative services - according to their matrix site, they provide forensic and investigation services FOC after a security breach - 'A Bulldog doesn't let go!' The hospital has reasonable camera coverage, modern maglocks and a screamer card / tags for the staff.
27 Doctors and 43 nurses, 61 ancillary and admin staff.

Providence Regional Medical Center, 47.97566, -122.21713. Secret Mitsuhama facility
eight block campus between Pacific Avenue and 33rd Street, then Kromer Avenue and Nassau Street
Large hospital, 7 story main building with 5 story annexe, two six story car parks. Hospital has roof helipad and Level II Trauma centre.
Matrix site lists numerous ways to "give" along with considerable religious rhetoric and reference to the "Sisters of Providence".
Main departments: Trauma / Emergency centre, Family Maternity Centre, Children's Centre, Heart and Vascular Care, Neuroscience Institute, Surgical services, Neurosurgery, Diagnostic Imaging Services, Hospice Care Centre, Clinical Research, Rehabilitation Services
Often handles urgent care patients from the docks, railroad, Boeing and sports centres
Hospital relies on city based Lone Star services and internal manpower for most security, with only CCTV being contracted out to a local IT firm - Managed Technology LLC. Security seems generally very light, with code-lock doors and the CCTV system looks a little older than usual.
84 Doctors, 219 Nursing staff and 691 Research, ancillary and admin staff.

Everett primary clinic, 47.96558, -122.20883
Two block area between Rucker Avenue and Colby Avenue, and 39th and 40th Street
Large clinic/small hospital, separate car park. Part of Optum Health Care (Yamatetsu)
Urgent Walk-in Care M-F 7:30-19:00, S+S 08:00-17:00
Walk-in clinic visits are billed as office visits, not as ER or urgent care center visits. Please check with your health plan to find out how walk-in visits are covered.
Departments: Urgent care, ENT, Cardiology, Musculoskeletal medicine, Obstetrics and family medicine, Ophthalmology, Podiatry, Rheumatology and arthritis, Urology
Hospital uses Blue Shield security, mostly retired cops / service personnel, generally somewhat elderly with a focus on experience, customer care and decent gear.
Security uses CCTV with on-site monitoring, and the building is rigged - many of the elderly patients are moved about on robotic gurney drones.
17 Doctors, 58 Nurses, 38 Ancillary staff and volunteers, bunch of robots/autobots
All of the text was “inspired by” (read: shamelessly adapted from) the real world locations, so the range of services fitted with the size of the location, and then I just finger in the air guessed on the number of staff. All of the data was put into powerpoint, some google maps + street view images added, then the whole lot output as a PDF and uploaded to the players for them to read through and discuss.
I tried to put a bit of emphasis on the locations, making them feel slightly different to get over that each would have a different challenge:
#1 – Doc Wagon are very well trained and equipped, and do work closely with the facility, and there was a high chance they would get involved with a HTR team, probably leading to some kind of fight.
#2 – The large number of staff especially researchers indicated that there were projects going on – and Mitsuhama have a hidden floor underground where grisly experiments and organ harvesting is going on, that they would probably have run into – just by chance, you understand.
#3 – Has an active rigger network that would have been a workout for Marius and provided scope for MIJI and other electronic warfare fun if they’d chosen to go that way, or they could have (and what they appear to be doing) used magic to work around the technology, saying to Marius “what can we do that would affect you in the worst way?” and rely on his expertise to get around the obstacles. The guards here are *very* experienced, and setting off the alarm will have them meeting crosses between Casey Rieback and Cohen the Barbarian. Mostly because it’s funny, and I’d love to see the look on Shimazu’s face if he comes across some seventy year old dude that also has quickstrike and slaps him across the face with a bedpan…
They were right in the depths of planning some very complicated stuff when I rolled for a random encounter, got a “good” result (I normally do random rolls on a D6 – a 1 indicates a random happening, 2-6 all quiet. Sometimes I roll a dice and ask a player to roll a dice, and if they match that means a random encounter. Sometimes I ask someone to roll a D6 at the start of the night and make a note of the number and that becomes the “hot” number for the night. Keeps things interesting. And, once I’ve rolled for a random, then unless I have some pre-planned tables or events, it’s normally another D6 roll ranging from 1=awful to 6=very helpful actually – so sometimes it’s a good thing to get a random encounter) and had a couple of trolleys being sent back over to the urgent care building.
Very quickly they threw their plan in the bin, ran with a new plan and had 3 of the team infiltrate the building by tailgating the trolleys, and sent Kai in the front door. So, next week while he does distraction duty, the three of them get to pillage the ICU and run away with some phat loot. 😊
Then we can get on with heading up to Ice Maiden for some “help against the horror” – which they still have no idea what form this will take, before heading off to Sioux to meet up with some big names – Ehran, Harlequin, Frosty and Damian Knight. At which point they should feel like they are WELL into deep water and in a lot of trouble. At least I hope so!


And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
Saturday 9/10/2060, Location:47.96859, -122.19593, Time 07:00
1. Kai - don't like doc-wagon, too heavily armed. Aswon - not all of them, just the HTRs. Favour the small one, Marius is more stubborn than their rigger, I bet. Just have to be quick. But doesn't like Bulldog - forensic=bad
2. Tads - big one, external CCTV cover, we can deal with that maybe with Marius/Hunter
3. Aswon - also depends on what we steal and the value. Can try to get into the IT place and scout it remotely.
4. Kai - not sure about the ward on the small one as well. ASwon - nah, should be fine. Low force. We can all sleaze that.
5. Marius - depends how long after we do this we leave the area, and how far aware we are as well. Aswon - yeah, we'll be up to Ice Maiden then over to the horror quick enough
6. Tads - Aswon you'll be the hardest to hide of course, we can all disguise much easier than you.
7. Aswon yeah - another one about the one guarded by lone star, need to be careful which sins we use and get tagged in the area of a crime / incident.
8. Marius - find a senior exec, shanghai them and get invited in. Aswon - not sure if we have time. 7 days to get to sioux, and we need to get to Ice Maiden and then act on what she shares with us.
9. Tads - want to go non-lethal as a first choice.
10. Marius - DEA pharmacy spot check? Not sure if that's a practical thing. Some discussion about using Kai to get in as a blag.
11. Tads - find out what local pub the security uses for a brush past mind probe. Shimazu - that's probably near their base, not near the clinic.
12. Tads - can we gather info on their network if we get Marius inside their rigger network. Marius - just need to get
13. Kai - clarification on how mind probe works / how long it takes
14. Marius checks on Optum - owned >50% by Yamatetsu
15. Plan to go scout out Everett Primary clinic, Aswon confused about urgent care vs office visit costs, Shimazu and Kai explain about costs for treatment
16. Tads - feeling guilty, can we not just buy some stuff and donate it to April?
17. Team go for a walk-by.
18. Pharmacy - extended hours 7:00-00:00
19. Kai - suggest getting maintenance staff keys / swipe cards for access everywhere.
20. Recon walk by - reasonable CCSS, good coverage, probably has a rigger on site or active at all times (Shimazu confirms)
21. Guard, PSS,e-holster with alarm, G'morning. I am aswon.
22. Tads - could we offer to ward the place? Aswon, like it - maybe steal stuff while there.
23. Plotting to get into the smoking area, mind probes for info, working out who to send in - probably Kai, Tads and Marius, while other 3 stay outside / be ready for a distraction or decoy.
24. Then discussion on going in for a recon with a fake injury / ailment. Disguise Hunter and Shimazu as fighters?
25. Tads suggest - spirit / accident / locks - then Marius+co come in as "maintenance"
26. Marius - all go in, 3 visible, 4 hidden, get in and then steal the stuff from the trolleys. Plan seems to go down well - then modify to great form spirits concealment. Do an astral scout. Find warded cupboard, suite and room with high force wards
27. Marius - cover the small movement with the big movement. Hunter medicine check
28. Kai - go in with "famous" clinic, want to go low-profile. Hunter queries - why would you be here? Change plan - no blood, go with concussions instead.
29. Robotic gurney goes past, open top, yellow beacons - now's a good chance to go in.
30. Tads does F1 imp invis - Marius first. drains, drops and recasts raising from 3 to 6. Shimazu 2nd, 8 successes, drain ok. Aswon 3rd, 1 success. Drops and recasts. 3 success. Takes a light.
31. Marius slides in after the gurney, leaf, get the others in, dark corridor, go listen. Go left and listen.
32. Hunter pre-search for common drugs and equipoment - 3 successes. Starts to drizzle. Kai changes face / tone, head to front door, feigning concussion and claiming to be important / discrete
33. Inside they listen, left door is a ward being cleaned, right door is quiet, high pitched 'charging' whine.
34. Go for the cleaners as the rigger will be sensing movement already.
35. Find manual over-ride and wait for cleaners to go and then get the door open to head in, just as Kai is getting to the front door.

Alas - no smuggler update this week, two players down and as we're in the middle of the raid on the hospital and both of them had very relevant skills, I pushed the session back to next week.


So - instead, a question - in two parts.
A) I've had several occasions now where I've had guest NPCs join our session - notably the two dragons that gave them the Ring of Fire job, and the younger dragon 'Ice Maiden'. Given the stylised nature of the writeup - can you tell that they were "live" people playing the NPCs, or not?
B) If your GM (assuming you're not a forever GM - in which case, my sympathies, here - have a cookie) bought in someone to play a big NPC role for you to interact with, would it enhance your game? If not, can you explain why?

Hopefully back to normal for next week, but I'd love to see some thoughts and opinions on the question!

A) It's been a while, but I don't recall thinking that they must have been played by players rather than the GM... maybe if I re-read those parts?
B) Complicated. We sorely lack players, so anyone willing to come to the table, I'd much prefer they stayed for more than a bit part. That said, in an ideal world, I think it could be awesome as a way to emphasize the importance and individuality of the Big Bad NPC.

How would one go about becoming an NPC with legs in such a long campaign, especially without having read the whole story?

Depends on the level of involvement you would like!

If you just wanted to share a favourite character concept or NPC from your own table, then just fire the details over and I'll try to stitch them into the game and give them some story and impact on the game world, and bring them to life in our canon - for better or worse.

If on the other hand you fancy a more active role, and could be on Discord on a Tuesday night between 19:00-21:00 UK time, then I'd welcome a 'live appearance' and interaction. I mean, pretty much the same thing as above - let me know the concept and I'll work out where we can slot things in, then we can go to town with exposing my bunch of reprobates to a complete unknown player to them (and me, I suppose!) and make them pay attention to what's going on. Fun fun fun!

Fun, indeed. I've never been on Discord, so I'll check it out.

Most of the PCs I've played were in 4th edition, so I would have to rejig one for your campaign. If you PM me what might be fun for your group (archetype, experience, where they are at the moment, etc.) I bet I could whip somebody up.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 206 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vmngdr3q9tyxxu5/S...ok%207.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Archive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
We started off just at the start of the heist, with half the team in the clinic, invisible having managed to get in through the drone entrance, and just waiting for the cleaners to depart. Once inside there was a little fun and games as they realised they couldn’t see each other thanks the separate invisibility spells, but with encrypted throat microphones and ear buds, they could work around that ok – it just needed a bit of thought.
The heist itself went smoothly – some rating 5 locks with anti-tamper 1 were tough, but not beyond Marius, and their invisibility let them wander the facility at opening time without any real trouble. They correctly identified that trying to work on the lock on the main storage downstairs would leave them exposed, so they moved to the upstairs store at the end of the corridor, giving them time to work on the entry ok without being disturbed.
Once inside, having a couple of team members with a high biotech skill they could work out what the optimum mix of value/size/portability was, and steal only the ‘good stuff’, filling up several backpacks with high end drugs, surgical equipment and the like.
Coming back downstairs I rolled for a random encounter, got a hit and then a ‘good’ variant, so they got a distraction in the form of little Billy and his horribly broken arm. I though they were chancing it rolling out a machine from the ward while there were two staff in, but some low perception rolls from them and a good stealth roll from Aswon let them get away with it, and soon they were on the way out with a massive stash of good stuff.
The orks in the pickup truck chasing after Kai was another little random event – no ulterior motive here, they just saw an out of towner walking down a cul-de-sac and through they could roll him, but then got a surprise when backup turned up very quickly and fled for their lives!
Towards the end of the evening, I sprang the Vadim surprise on them – none of them were expecting that, and Tads in particular got quite stubborn about it, much to my amusement, as she argued with the rest of the team. I’d been planning this for some time – Fang the local shaman had left Amazonia to come to Seattle to investigate some Dark Plot ™ that was threatening the land down there, and it seemed fitting to have him suddenly roped into her plans – as well as getting the NPC out from under the teams feet and making it easier to manage. They can also bump into him later to see how he’s getting on, and what’s going on in Seattle.
Despite saying that I wanted the NPC out of the way, we then had another join the team, at least in the very short term, with Maisie coming along at least as far as Sioux to act as a guide and help steer them around, and to serve her own needs / purpose as well.
We ended the night just arriving back with Ice Maiden, and that seemed like a good place to call it. I’ve already arranged with my friend Sarah to be online at the start of Tuesday nights session to reprise her roll as the ‘bunny of unusual size’ and to give them some information on what’s coming up, give them a reward for helping her with the deckers, and to send them on their way again.
That gives them a few days before they’re due at the next location, so I’m expecting them to get back into Seattle and have another 3-4 days of training time as needed that we’ll probably just ‘montage’ past, before they run the border and head over to their date with destiny!

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:

1. Saturday 9/10/2060, Location:47.96859, -122.19593, Time 08:00
2. Kai just approaching front door, Shimazu, Marius and Aswon in tunnel just about to go into ward, Hunter and Tads out on street waiting
3. 3 some into ward and look around, spot nurses lounge (admin+coffee)
4. Kai into front, nervous looks. Clerical staff, greet, Kai - need assistance, blathers a bit, tries to calm him down, claims to be a little bit famous. Tablet, terms and conditions, font size, daytime TV.
5. M+A explore downstairs, R4-5 med stores, head upstairs up the stairs - avoid ramp (rigger),
6. Upstairs door - 4 success on R5 maglock AT1, 1 min to get the case off.
7. Electronics test 4 success, in 15 seconds - very up to date firmware.
8. Biotech test for Kai and Shimazu to describe what to grab. Peel off RFID tags. Use surgical gloves.
9. Random roll for value - 8 X 10K.
10. Case back on easily and AT re-engaged.
11. Little billy, broken arm, into trauma wing. Internox, nurse going to trauma. Check over arm, start to treat.
12. Look, spot machines, conflab, go for the ultrasound. Back to ward A, get the ultrasound machine packed. Hunter reminds them to check it for RFID
13. Kai provides distraction to help get them out of reception.
14. Back out to Tads and drop spells. Zig zag back to the church.
15. Kai hangs back to spot tails, rest move on - check again for RFIDs.
16. Orks come around corner - run towards Kai, drawing coshes.
17. Spot Shimazu, Hunter and Aswon charging them, pass int check and run back to the truck.
18. Team pursue and make sure they leave, get a good look at them. Uneventful back to the church.
19. Kai and Tads go to see April. "What have you broken now?" Nothing - found some things on the street. Unpack supplies. "You know I can't pay for that" Yeah, it's fine - you looked after us. Happy holidays!
20. April calls for Grimmy - we got surgery to do today.
21. 09:00 2nd breakfast, Shimazu and Kai assist with Biotech/surgery, Tads does magical healing. Tads looks for Vadim, nowhere to be found. Aswon "wasn't he off with the local shaman doing initiation?"
22. Shimazu goes off to collect the suits and bits and pieces. Tads checks Fang's lodge, two bodies laid out comfortably. Tads heads off to go see Ice-Maiden, search takes 30 mins, heads back to team.
23. Maisie offers to escort team to Sioux in exchange for some help legitimising her ID.
24. Final prep and packing, getting ready to head north to Ice-Maiden.
25. Vadim comes back with Fang. Asks to speak to Tads and Kai. Explains he wants to stay, mystic quest. Texts his mom. Tads queries on his demob date. Team gives him some basic gear and 5k cash. Tads suggests calling the brigadier to make things go smoothly and keep him up to date. Team describe him as being on learning quest / detached duty. Tads goes to chat with Fang and appraises her of the situation.
26. Tads wants to talk to the captain, Kai doesn't. Could end up in international trouble. Tads not happy about leaving him, her responsibility. Refuses to go without talking to the Captain. Marius photo memory - recounts situation. Thinking - should not mention Vadim, creates a loose thread.
27. Leaving, Vadim on phone to mother, fang in view, who's that?
28. Whoopy cushion - Hunter spots, wraps a smoke grenade, gotcha in Russian. Hunter gets a smoke, wraps in the cushion and rolls to Vadims feet as they take off.
29. Smooth journey up to the mountain, arrive no problem. Marius grumbling about the place. Rabbit sitting in the meadow again.
30. Marius staying aboard but on comms, Maisie staying on board with Hunter. All the rest wander over.

Surprise post session post - milestone achieved!

Tonight was the 5th Anniversary of our Shadowrun game.

We're on session 207, so we've kept up a pretty good track record for the games, and not missed that many sessions - which for a bunch of mostly adults with families and jobs and all that baggage is pretty good going.

My narrative writeup has turned into a sprawling behemoth, and is likely to top 1.5 million words with this weeks session written up. My tracking spreadsheet now has hundreds of NPCs and locations in, lists of weird magical effects, calculators for ranges and fuel costs of the different vehicles, lists of the fake identities used by the team and which crimes on what continents they are linked to, and so far 28 more rival teams to compete against.

This is by far and away the most effort I've put into any TTRPG game ever as a GM, and after 5 years of play, we're still not up to the 1 year mark in the game. I think it's the most involved storyline I've ever run, and I'm hoping the players are enjoying it as much as I'm having fun planning it out.

So to mark this occasion, with a bit of help from several spouses I arranged for everyone to get some birthday cake to celebrate. Players either had a parcel hidden for them in their gaming room, or delivered to them to all arrive at the same time, and we had a brief stop of the game for people to examine their goodies, and for me to say "Happy cake day everyone!"

Photo of happy players!