The Ring, A Shadowrun Adventure Options

[Willow]

At the turn of the 21st century, there was an entity, so powerful, and so evil, that it was able to operate during the fifth age. Death and terror followed in its wake.

Its name was Samarra Morgan.

Eventually, Samarra was defeated, but not destroyed, locked away. But with the Crash of '64, and the birth of millions of new Technomancers, something changed. Samarra is back.

Samarra is a unique entity, part spirit, part sprite, able to interact with both the magical and technological worlds. In Spirit form, treat her as a Force 7 Spirit of Water. She has the standard Water Spirit powers, Binding and Energy Aura (cold). She has the unique powers of Possession, Matrix Materialization, and Hidden Life, as well as any other unique powers the GM cares to give her (typically powers that allow her to scare/screw with people, rather than combat bonuses). The GM can increase her Force if he feels it is appropriate.

Possession: Samarra can possess any child who is awakened or a Technomancer. What effects this has is up to the GM.
Matrix Materialization: As a complex action, Samarra can shift to her sprite form. She is no longer physically or astrally present.
Hidden Life: If Samarra's spirit or physical form is destroyed, she is reformed seven days later.

In Sprite form, treat her as a Rating 7 Sprite. Her Pilot, Response, and Firewall ratings are all equal to her Rating. She knows the skills of Cybercombat, Computer, Hacking, and Electronic Warfare. She has the Complex Forms of Attack, Armor, Black Hammer, Command, Edit, Exploit, Stealth and Track. She knows the Gremlins Sprite power. She also has the unique sprite powers of Paradigm Override, Magical Materialization and Hidden Life:

Paradigm Override: Regardless of any reality filter rating, Samarra always appears in her true form (with a black well nearby).
Magical Materialization: As a complex action, Samarra can shift to her spirit form, becoming an astral spirit or a physically manifested spirit. She is no longer present in the Matrix.
Hidden Life: If Samarra's sprite form is crashed, she is reformed seven days later.

Modius Operandi: Samarra "lives" to cause pain, misery, fear, and death. A new simsense chip is making the rounds in Seattle, filled with disturbing images and emotional tracks. Anyone who watches it immediately gets a call over their commlink, with the message "You will die in seven days." For the next week, they are tormented by dreams, images, and odd coincidences. Seven days later, Samarra appears in the Matrix (often wirelessly activating a nearby Simsense player or computer screen), and then shifts into her physical form, and proceeds to kill them.

Someone who watches the simsense can stave of death by making sure someone else sees the chip (actually making a copy is not necessary, but is a good way to go about doing this.) This doesn't spare them from the nightmares.

Getting the PCs involved: Have someone they know watch the chip and die. Then have them watch it. Then have fun.

Killing Samarra: It's incredibly possible for a shadowrunner team to destroy Samarra's physical/astral/matrix form. That will only serve to irritate her. Before she was just trying to have some fun, *now* she's mad. Look for the real terror to start after another seven days.
Samarra is bound to the well where she died. She can be temporarily sealed away by going on an astral/submersion quest to a place that has the "spiritual" equivalent of the well, and sealing it up. This happened once before, and it took her sixty years to get out.
However, if the well is physically destroyed, she won't have her focus any more. How this is accomplished is up to the players, but the well is in Salish-Shidhe, a short drive from Seattle. Now would be an excellent time for an international incident to tighten up the borders.

Sacrificial Lambs: Given the moral code of many shadowrunners, it's likely they'll just pass the chip onto someone else, and let Samarra kill them. This is a perfectly acceptable solution. Wait a couple of months, and then have it start popping up in the spam-zones.

Scaring the Players: This adventure hinges on the fact that the PCs have seen the Ring. It's not the fear of the unknown that will scare them, but rather of the fear of the known in an unknown form. They *know* that Samarra is going to try to kill them in seven days, but they don't know what exactly that will mean in game. Make them sweat. And if any of them are stupid enough to be alone seven days later, let them have it.