[X] My Assistant

[Kren Cooper]

Good morning all, and welcome to update #170.
This week, I’m mostly grateful to my players for taking the hint! Splitting the party is something every GM has to deal with from time to time, and having people go off on their own or in a subset of the team to do stuff is something you have to accept – especially when due to plot or presentation it really makes sense for them to do so.
In this case however, I wanted to keep the team together so they can all go off to do the rescue mission together – not have Marius camped out at the workshop doing maintenance on the engines, while Aswon is having adventures in Hong Kong completely separately, and the rest of the team then go off to take on the triads together. Not only would it make entertaining 2 of the players much harder, but they’d miss out on the potential karma awards for doing stuff, and their skills would have to be covered by the rest of the team.
So – dropping hints to Marius that he can monitor the process remotely, and then having the NPC be polite but working around him was enough to send him back to the team, and it was even easier with Aswon…his contact just had to explain that she just doesn’t trust Kai that much! And, back he came too, so now they’re all together and can have the meeting with the Triad NPC.
The actual plot drop went smoothly – the players were ready to react, but didn’t jump the gun, and events were set in motion, the backstory has been teased, hints dropped and now they have the clear objective – their hosts son has been kidnapped and used for blackmail to get their host to come out of retirement for a big fight. We’re well on the way to a cracking 80s martial art movie plot! “No Retreat Blood Kid Sport Karate. Part II.” Or something like that… 😊
They’ve started to work on some magical tracking, psychometry and on the photos and investigate possible locations for the holding cell, which may get them somewhere at the start of next week, but they’re mostly going to have to do a bit of good old fashioned leg work to find some Triad members in the know, and then interrogate / intimidate them, or finesse them somehow – I suspect Tads and her Mind Probe spell is going to feature heavily.
That should lead them up the hierarchy until they find someone who has the actual location, at which point they can get hold of a borrowed transport and plan the rescue mission – while their host Chun has to prepare for the fight, just in case they don’t get the rescue done in time.
That’s all to come of course, and we’ll see how far through that chain we get on Tuesday coming.

As usual, here are the notes from the game session:
1. Monday 13/9/2060, Location: 22.22744, 114.24966, Time: 11:15
2. Matrix site details for Marius to remote monitor. Gets impression he is in the way somewhat. Hand sewing of a seat, painting perfect line in the studio next to them. Marius spots multi-cameras and palm/iris scanners. Spots hypercars in for repairs. Marius calls Nadia to fill her in, hong kong, do you want any shopping. Nadia a bit put out...
3. Rest of team back at the dojo
4. Description of fighters - Hunter looking for speed - Simi
5. Shimazu - Hakim for tumbles and jujitsu
6. Tads goes to kitchen to help stock up after discovering no weapons training. Chuns wife. Quiet, subdued, tired - is Tads after a snack? Replenish offer, confused, Tads does food stuffs
7. Kai - any athletics training. Rudi's class. Ask about Archery - no knowledge.
8. Aswon - goes to nature reserve, meditate, practice breathing.
9. Great lunch after Tads does lots of food prep. Hunter question eyebrow at Tads - nods - piles into food.
10. Positive vibes. Break for tea time, bad guy comes in, smoke, sneers,
11. Chun - take that outside. Nah, you probably want to shut up and listen...
12. Tads - magic fingers - pinch out the cigarette. Takes a drag, ruined mojo, you need to be ready to receive visitor. Checks for psychology from Shimazu (not good), Kinesics from Kai - massive success - blagging it.
13. Hunter prepares to shoot. Quiet enough to drop a pin and hear it.
14. Kai asks if tomorrow is when the room is being fumigated. Looks at Chuns body language - tense but wary
15. Shimazu checks the aura of the room - everyone ready to kick off. Shimazu goes to buffet table for food.
16. Chun says yes to the meeting, she can come, you should go. Hunter stands, noisy scrape, hand behind back.
17. He turns to leave, lights up - Tads puts out.
18. Hunter goes to grab cigarette, he ducks back, Hunter raises gun "no". Turns to Chun - you'll regret this, Hunter grabs the fag, messenger leaves, Hunter sits back down.
19. Chun calms students down, we'll listen to them. Tads tells the team in Russian "he was an underling; he didn't know either". Kai offers to help. Chun says he thinks they are triad, but no bother. Quiet for years. No local gang war. Negotiations last time about protection money, ended up a draw.
20. Shimazu asks Hunter to apologise to Chun for overstepping boundaries. Kai asks Chun if he can speak to students about the triads / protection rackets etc.
21. Chun - fine, no secrets, nothing to hide.
22. Tads sends text to Aswon, talk to Spook, ask about Wa Fan. Shimazu offers to be at the meet for Chun, as protection.
23. Kai talks to students. Get details of residential stays, no students involved with Triads
24. Kai sends info to Aswon. Kai asking about area - small seaside retreat.
25. Students frothing about encounter. Team armours up and gets heavier weapons. Aswon talk to spook to ask about triads. Tells Kai not to piss off the local triads, as we're here for a week.
26. Marius - we should stay out of the way, not draw attention to ourselves, so that if it escalates we can surprise them and do the battle elsewhere.
27. Tads checks LOS for potential meeting areas.
28. Aswon talks to spook, catches up, doesn't know the name Wa Fan, too low down the food chain. Blue Lotus on the up. Aswon asks about Chun - he has pull, she wants more info. One slight racist hassling, otherwise good night
29. Vadim training with one of the teams. Nicola does a training routine with Tads
30. Hunter does blindfold training taking assault rifle apart / back together.
31. Marius - working on the photographic memory next edge enhancement - series of mental exercises.
32. Tads herds people through the wards again at a suitable time.
33. Kai asks about getting into kids room for wards, asks wife, she asks Chun, all ok.
34. Hunter computer search on Blue lotus - 2 successes. Gets basic info. Team wondering what the link is - maybe gambling den, Tads - international students, people trafficking?
35. Spook to Aswon: Spook asks you to head back and just check up on the situation. Chun is a friend, and from what she's seen of the team, Kai doesn't always think long term / clearly, it seems. She'd much prefer to have a cooler head on scene to deal with things and let her know if *she* needs to do anything. Preferably that won't put her in the middle of a triad war, but you know... friends...
36. Tuesday morning - surf run, morning training. Kai goes to workshop. Asks Marcello about Wa Fan. Body language change, not so forthcoming, only mix a little, she not into cars, she's not a member of the country club up the road - but Marcello is. He demos bag of ash. Kai offers part payment - refused.
37. Aswon appears about 11am, tells Kai that he's come back to keep an eye on things for Spook. If you make things awkward for Chun, it does the same for Spook, the same for me, so lets not.
38. Some discussion about taking the fight away from Chuns to the triad if needed, Marius pushing the idea.
39. Wa Fan walks down the beach at lunchtime - lots of assensing, unintiated phys-ad, magical tattoo - defensive trigger+spell,
40. Kai rolls on magical societies and politics - diplomatic immunity, fear of oath tattoo.
41. Team monitoring / listening in. Tads covering the wife and baby. Aswon listening but watching out.
42. Intro in chinese, swap to english, you want the outsiders to listen to the business?
43. Throws pictures of Harley onto the deck, fight in a week, you lose, 6 or 7th round, then he comes back. Or else.
44. She turns and goes, Shimazu assenses Chun - pretty devastated. Examine photos, prison environment, some sign of a beating.
45. Team offer to help, need access to samples, info etc. Chun - sure.
46. Start asking about fight location, details of Chun, history. Aswon - but why him, specifically. Kai - ruin the rep of the dojo?
47. Explain to Nicola - possible back room warehouse, she will investigate.
48. Hunter search on Chun, 48 consecutive wins, some medical accident, retired, disappeared 8 years ago.
49. Ask about Harley - adopted son for 4 years.
50. Marius analyse the photos, secure storage, carful positioning, no identifying features / faces. Analyse photos for faint chemical traces - nothing revealing. Ask if Harley has med conditions - no. Ask where he might go in HK - raves, nothing special. Does he like cars? No, but 300 quid trainers.
51. Kai asks Hunter to go do a forensic search. Tads - no - magic search first.
52. Magic team except Kai toss the room and search for stuff. Find hair and fingernails - pass on the wank rag.
53. Browsing history - rave clubs and clothes shopping, no porn, female martial artists.
54. Plan for next week - ritual tracking.
55. Shimazu - psychometry on photos, 8,7,5,1
56. Aswon ask about a safe house - Chun doesn't have one. Aswon - start thinking about it.
57. Kai back to workshop. Checks - no sign of recognition when he mentions gossip.

The session plan:
Start with Marius - cover security, cleanliness, professionalism, make it clear he can/should leave them to sort the engine, he'll only make things slower. Also explain from initial assessment, that though they will come to an "arrangement" with Chun over the labour, the parts are likely to be expensive due to the specialist nature. Normally the job will cost about 600k - give Marius a clue to go check the CMC / damage control computer.
Give the rest of the team time for training montage / introductions - better descriptions of fighters.
Messenger arrives at tea-time to tell Chun they have Harley, and he will receive Wa Fan tomorrow, to find out what is going on. Messenger is low level flunky, unenhanced, bully boy, knows very little, chosen as an expendable asset, very unsure of themselves and trying to put a brave face on it. Has a badge with 49 on it. Also a flowering Blue Lotus neon tattoo on the breastbone
If interrogated, he works for Wa Fan, the local 415/Accounts master at the golf course. If Chun is involved he would favour listening to her at the meeting first, before getting heavy.
NPCs
Chun - small town of 'Shek O' on the east side. (instagram, looking over the ropes)
https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDi...ajie_Hunan.html
Three sided building, training hall, living accommodation, central courtyard - just big enough for the tilt-wing to land in (very restricted terrain, mountain downdrafts, +6 TN)
Tilt-rotor value= 3million. Damage = 20%, so a book repair cost of 600k i.e. more than the team have. Chun can call in some favours to get some parts, access to tools etc. Pitch is as expensive, though if the team are willing to help out with some stuff around the temple, that would help.
Jobs on site - rewire, cleaning, plumbing, roof repairs, cleaning outside.
Gym is clean, but run down - lots of little jobs needed doing. Keeps meaning to, but always tomorrow. Too busy training.
Chun B6 Q7 S6 C5 I5 W3 R6 Init 4D6+6, CP 7. Human, mid 40s, friendly face, easy going, wheeler-dealer, positive energy, forgetful, slightly disorganised.
Kickboxing 10, all moves, Centering 8 (Counting), TKD 6, Wing chun 5, Instructor 8, Weight training 6, Athletics 8, Biotech 5, Mysticism 5, Tattoos 4
Phys-ad, Grade 5 (Masking, Improved Masking, Advanced Masking, Centering (S+A, Kickboxing), Improved ability Kickboxing 6(3), Increase reactions 3(5), Quick strike (3)
Married, two older children, newborn in the house. Quite westernised, but strong streak of historical culture / mysticism, covered in tattoos with "virtues" e.g Honour, Integrity, Fearlessness
Academy students:
• Harley, Human, Male, Anglo, early 20s, Chun's protege / adopted son
• Nicola, Human, Female, mid 20s, Anglo, senior PT / assistant instructor, A squad fighter / competitor with multiple competition wins. Mundane with top line physical stats
• Simi, Human, Male, late 20s, Carrib, A squad / assistant instructor. Physical adept with boosted fitness / martial arts
• Ismael, Elf, Male, mid 20s, Indian, A squad. Mundane with top line physical stats
• Rudi, Human, Male, late 20s, Kenyan, A squad. Mundane with top line physical stats
• Mikey, Troll, Male, late teens, Bulgarian, A squad. Physical adept with large physical boosts - B13, Q7, S16,
• Hakim, Dwarf, Male, early thirties, Nubian, A squad. Mundane with top line physical stats
• Anna, Female, late twenties, Korean, tall, A squad. Mundane with top line physical stats
• 24 assorted martial arts / K1 / boxing students, mostly very fit and several year veterens in their respective areas, on a 1-4 month residential stays
Blue Lotus Triad
Fe Wang - 49, initial messenger. Human, Male, 19, unenhanced, nervous, inexperienced.
Wa Fan - 415, accountant, runs Shek-O area, has been told to deliver the message that Chun needs to be ready to compete in a fight in a weeks time, and needs to make his loss convincing, or else. Works at the mini-golf as the manager.
Lo Han - 438, Shek-O senior member, commands the forty to fifty strong 49s in the area, and runs various trades/crafts. He told Wa Fan to sort out the meeting, but has not explained all the details yet. Works at the country club, where security is fair-good.
Lee Kee - 483, day to day manager, Lee Kee Store in Big Wave, next village north - 2km. Has a Force 4 hearth spirit bound to protect him by ritual
Blue Lotus in Shek-O, BTL trade, counterfeiting, prostitution are the main vices, with gambling around HK city.

Day 1 - welcome to the gym, examine the craft, arrange for experts to come. Chance to train, relax, explore a little. Nicola with a broken arm - get Tads to heal?
Day 2 - local fabricators come - agree to take the engines to their shop to work on them. Arrange students to carry the engines down the path to town to the workshop. Workshop has good security, should be safe to leave them there (also do luxury car repairs, some expensive cars from around the island).
Day 3 - Harley discovered kidnapped, Triads inform Chun about the fight, Chun stressed about the forthcoming Kumite / Harley / Family. Team encouraged to help find him. Local Blue Lotus Triad member leaning on Chun is Wa Fan, 'works' at the mini-golf

[Kren Cooper]

Good evening all,
Hope everyone is keeping well in whatever version of lockdown you’re facing… VITAS is still running rampant here, though the NHS is doing their best to vaccinate the country and doing a pretty good job now the government have stopped interfering.

This weeks story is now live, and has been added to the master document, and can be found at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8cqop2u4ijnjgi/S...ok%206.pdf?dl=0

A little frustrating for some of the players this week – especially Tads, who tried Astral Tracking four times, but never made the target number required. They did do some good scouting though, and got a little bit more information – though I was fully expecting them to find some of the junior triad members and abduct them for a good mind probing!
Still, we have a workable plan for this week, that had a good chance of success, that should lead them to the next higher member of the triad at the country club, that does have some more relevant information that they can follow up on. That in turn should send them out onto the seas in a borrowed boat for a little adventure, and neatly lead them on to the rescue mission. At least I hope so…

Here's the notes from the session:
1. Monday 13/9/2060, Location: 22.22744, 114.24966, Time: 12:30
2. Kai at the garage having just spoken with Macello. Rest of team at the academy.
3. Shimazu explains his thoughts on psychometry. Aswon - thinks they are owing money to someone, act of desperation.
4. Kai calls - spotted Wa Fan at the mini golf. Dressed like an employee, giving orders to some other employee.
5. Aswon - weird, maybe a cover job. Used to launder money.
6. Kai describes her detailing the employee to do the painting on the entrance building. He will stay on obs for a bit.
7. 1 hour passes, first attempt fails - Vadim stunned. Maybe defended.
8. Hunter computer research - older but small triad, now on the up, gaining prestige, Marius thinks possibly from an infusion of cash.
9. Tads suggests looking for big fights to see where they might be asking Chun to fight.
10. Marius - once he agrees, he's probably going to fight, I get the impression personal honour, will keep his word.
11. Shimazu - so do we need to get him? Marius, yes, ideally before she comes back, my personal feeling.
12. Shimazu - can't we just go abduct her and mind probe her, take the initiative. As we'll be on the triads shit list regardless. Marius - that does commit us. Aswon - we can do that LOS.
13. General training with the instructors. Maintenance.
14. Another hour passes, 2nd attempt ends. Tads reports failure. Discussion about astral spotting. Aswon - Possibly get one of the phys-ads to be the spotter. Circle back around to mind probing Wa Fan.
15. Shimazu asks Chun if public / underground fight. Does he know which - no. Where are underground fights held? Psychology tests - Chun looks a bit shifty "could be anywhere". Chun describes typical underworld fight "as far as he knows".
16. Aswon suggests the mind probe more strongly, as a shortcut. Tads - need to find a spot, and she will probably know. Aswon - can't you alter her memory? Tads - I have to touch her. Aswon. Oh - never mind then...
17. Marius - other employees may know - worth a shot? We've all not been seen, might be doable. They may know of places that are suitable, that we can follow up with.
18. now 16:30, Marius looking for laws on personal drones. Nothing too onerous. Suggests going to do surveillance on the beach with the "toy" they got from the Tehran market. Borrow some clothes from students to disguise, go for a stroll.
19. Shimazu see if they can borrow transport - one of the instructors has a vespa, too small to share. Can't fit someone who can both ride and astrally perceive.
20. Try 3rd ritual, Aswon as spotter.
21. Marius spots ramps to underground front and back after setting up his bona fides. After a while spots the entrance name plate for the bar. Marius thinks its a bar run by the triads, with all sorts of vices available. Does more flying, spots no sign of window, but air vents, spots Kai watching the front.
22. Another hour passed, ritual failed, both slightly stunned. Marius - could a spirit search for him? Tads - yes, but blunt instrument, probably set off the alarm.
23. Marius - can we use a spirit to look for places that match what we know? Tads - too many places.
24. Kai reports in - getting dark, keeps being approached by a prostitute, thinks it's a lady boy... Probably going to come back soon. No sight of her for a while.
25. Wait until after dusk, stun gone, resummoned spirits, Tads checks out the bar astrally. Sleezes through ward after finding no holes
26. Main room, mixed emotions, people looking at blobs on the wall, find Wa-Fan, manifest in her room. Accounting, cigarette burning in ashtray, lots of chinese script on text. Surveil for 10 mins - just doing accountancy. Sleaze out.
27. 18:00, team back at academy, no stun.
28. Aswon suggests Hunter try tracking traffic from the bar, and see where it goes. While doing that, Aswon suggests another tracking ritual.
29. 4th tracking attempt, max roll 11 - unsuccessfull. Debate RR, use RR, no better. Both take L stun.
30. Hunter tries hacking - finds a stream of encrypted data heading to the country club, but also aware an enemy decker is zeroing in on him.
31. Wondering if the country club has underground cells. Thinking about drone recon - difficult after dusk, maybe best at dawn.
32. Tads goes for an astral check of the area looking for cells etc. Opulance, care for the grounds, quiet, upmarket, not find any matches for the cell. Widens search to the rest of the golf club, no joy, comes back and sulks.
33. Shimazu - do we know anyone at the country club? Tads- yes, Marcello. Kai confirms. Think about conversation with Marcello - mostly wants to keep his nose clean.
34. Tads sending out a GF spirit to search for a site that matches all criteria listed - not south facing, bars, concrete, overlooking shore etc etc. F5 GF sea spirit sent off, report back to rest of team, Tads goes to bed with serious stun.

35. Tuesday 14/9/2060, time 06:00 - Marius drone flight - give feeling of club, old money, top end luxury, high staff:guest ratio.
36. Report to chun at breakfast - can't find him. Chun: Can't find him or can't find him yet? Can you keep trying? Do you mind?
37. Kai has a "great idea" - know where she's coming from and too, at what time, knock her down, Tads help her up, mind probe her as that's happening.Aswon works out tactics - doable.
38. Marius checks back through footage trying to find her car, looks for cars that match her movement pattern. Narrows it down to perhaps 3 cars? Audi coupe, a BMW saloon, and a Chinese manufacture 4X4, Marius suggests putting an AoD tracker on each of those - Shimazu volunteers, 13 on stealth.
39. Stop there pending beach volleyball scene...

[Kren Cooper]

Good evening folks,
Well, another week, another session, another writeup – this weeks chapter has been added to https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8cqop2u4ijnjgi/S...ok%206.pdf?dl=0

Before I dive into what happened this week, its question time. Just how much is it “fair” or “reasonable” to hit a player with, in terms of plot affecting / based around their character???

So, let’s start with some context… all of my group are adults, and most of them are in their 40s, and have been gaming for 3 decades. The only exception is Tom/Shimazu, who is in his 20s now, but grew up LARPing and around tabletop, and I would say is pretty mature. We’ve also been playing this particular game of Shadowrun for over 4 years now, and they’ve seen a wide variety of plots and NPCs, some of who have definitely been “black hats”, i.e. very clearly at the evil end of the spectrum.
Marius found out a little while ago that Nadia (NPC that they rescued in Azerbaijan) is now pregnant with his child, and after a little bit of RP with her, has reassured her that he will do the right thing by her, and he’s very happy…

I always had “plans” in mind for Nadia, potentially revolving around a couple of situations.
1) Nadia gets a certain way through the pregnancy, and due entirely to natural processes / bad luck, suffers a miscarriage. This prompts a change in her personality, becoming much more bitter / cynical / jaded, and leading her to becoming “harder” and developing more as a Shadowrunner, rather than a support character. Possibly to use as a drop-in in case one of the main team dies – either as a replacement character, or as a temp while we reach an appropriate point to drop in the players new character.
2) Nadia gets abducted by (insert bad guys here – whoever the team have annoyed most legitimately at the point in the timeline that his happens) and held for ransom. From here either:
a. The stress causes a miscarriage, as above
b. Nadia dies, the baby survives if there is prompt medical intervention from the team – landing the players with a situation of having a newborn to care for. Do they fess up to Nadias family and get the child adopted? Do they try to look after the baby themselves? Do they just get it fostered and move on?
c. Nadia survives, the baby dies at/just after birth due to complications from the rescue / situation. Somewhat similar to a, but potentially more of a rollercoaster than option a, causing a more violent personality change
d. Nadia is abducted but uses the skills she learnt from the team to escape / self-rescue, becoming more independent and slightly resentful of Marius who “wasn’t there for her”, even if that’s not his fault – who said life was fair. Potentially that gives him some strong RP too on trying to win her back
3) Nadia has the baby, but due to exposure from some chemical / agent, the baby has a severe disability. Nadia becomes very stressed, suffering post-natal depression, potentially going as far as self-harm, unless the team can intervene – after all they have trained psychologists as well as trauma surgeons to call upon.
4) Nadia has the baby, and discovers she’s one of lifes non-parents. She is completely detached from the baby, not having any feelings of affection for it. She grows to hate it because of the demands on her life, and also to hate herself because of how she feels (or rather doesn’t). How far could she go to deal with the “millstone around her neck”, and do the players catch her, or do they take her word about the “tragic accident”. As an extension to that, how would the team feel if they found out that bunch of people they brutally murdered didn’t actually kill Nadia/Marius’s child – Nadia lied, and abandoned the baby, and they killed a bunch of innocent people?
5) Just let Nadia have the baby in peace, and make her the “normal” trope. No bad shit happens, she stays at home with the baby, managing the base. It’s a relaxing place of calm and happiness for the team to come back to after missions.
So, a bunch of choices there. Some of them touching on areas that could be sensitive for people. All dealing with some adult themes… Certainly I feel that the team are adult enough to cope with them, and they could have strong impact on the game plot and story.
So, here’s the question – if you were playing in an adult themed, long running shadowrun game, and got hit with this plot stick… how would you view it. Is it strong, raw, emotional plot that gives you chance to RP real angst, sadness, anger, hatred, whatever emotion you feel, and to act as a turning point for your character development – for good or bad. Or is that bringing too much RL into your fantasy game, and you just want to smuggle chips across imaginary borders and shoot mafia goons in a high speed chase through downtown. Or is this something you’d be happy to do, but only after the GM had a 1-1 meeting with you to “prepare” you and discuss the impact on your character?
Genuinely interested in people’s thoughts and opinions – would love to read some comments and reasons.

But, back to the story at hand. The team set to this week with enacting the scene from Top Gun, having a beach volleyball game and managed to ambush the Triad Accountant and mind probe the hell out of her, learning the identity of her boss, so they can move up the chain. After that Tads tried another tracking ritual and managed a great roll – a 20+, so managed to get through the ward and locate Harley. Vadim set off in hot pursuit, but got an *awful* roll, meaning it will take him the full 6 hours to find him – so if he tried that, he’d run out of essence and die. Aww….sucks to be an NPC. Still, the team started following as well, leading them to Hong Kong and getting two of the team involved in a quick B&E job, chasing down alternate leads.
So, they’re getting some clues together and will soon discover the Triad have Harley locked away on a remote island, and can look at staging a rescue for him.
Here are the notes from the game session:

1. Thursday 16/9/2060, Location: 22.22744, 114.24966, Time 09:00
2. Kai goes to hide, Tads+Vadim ritual to find, Shimazu to search. 8 successes on search, using bow as material link
3. Astral search - Shimazu gets 5 successes, finds Kai in 3rd floor toilet.
4. Aswon - ask chun and the other fighters if his kid liked to gamble at all, even casually. No - Harley wasn't interested in gambling at all.
5. Hunter looking for Casinos that the blue lotus might have an interest in - 11+5, nothing that shows up on a basic search.
6. Talking with students and instructors on where Harley goes, favourite drinking spots.
7. Harley goes to 3 clubs in particular "Three stripes Central", "Retro Fever" and "Smooth moon", all reasonable nightspots in HK city.
8. Kai suggests looking into local police ops that might have targetted triads?
9. Aswon asks spook to look into 3 nightclubs and the closest casinos to see about triad links, enemies for the blue lotus.
10. Do they try one more tracking ritual? Discussion - probably not worth the risk from stun.
11. Go the volleyball scene, Hunter does the spike, 2 successes on 5s, Aswon does the dive, 5 successes on 5. Tads goes to offer a hand up. Makes charisma test to help, silhouetted against sun, casts mind probe F5, 5 successes
12. Gets all the details from Wa Fan, disenfranchised, angry, has costume.
13. Wa Fan moves on to the house, meets Chun, Kai and Shimazu. Delivers the message, and the tutu. Be ready to go to Macau in 4 days.
14. Aswon - we need to go find the boss maybe? Marius - find him, probe his mind and put a bullet in his head. Talk about going to Macau
15. Hunter nav check - 75 clicks to Macau, but possibly pirate infested waters -
16. tracking attempt 5, 1 X 21 rolled, silver thread leading towards HK. Vadim follows, gets 1 success - base time 6 hours. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)
17. Kai asks about relatives - wife has a sister in mainland china, don't talk that often. Check - harley has no passport. Could they get him over there? Have to find a people smuggler.
18. Rest of team are gearing up. Shimazu and Marius borrow the moped to follow the trail as well. Trail up to HK city, crazy driving, follow the trail to Retro Fever then south towards Mount Cameron, to Bamboo grove apartments, 8 X linked 30 story apartments. F2 wards on apartments. R3 lock+case on outside of apartments, 15 seconds to get the case off, about 3 seconds, hit the service override button. Up the lift to the roof, trail goes up vertically. unable to follow. Marius reports back to the team with status.
19. Shimazu - psychology, possibly the snatch squad bought him here, passed over to a chopper team. Possibly the snatch squad lives here / nearby. Marius checks the local cameras, probably a security office onsite with a host.
20. Local security office, older man (50s), local security company, has a panic button but no monitor, taser baton. R4 maglock, on the super/manager/security officers cubby.
21. Tads worries about dragging heat back to Chun, warns them to mask up. Marius pulls off the case in his hand, over ride button, Go Shimazu! Shimazu runs in, quick draws pistol, sees old man drawing taser and dropping coffee. Shimazu shouts in mandarin "Drop it, hands up!" 11 on intimidate, fails WP check, drops taser baton and coffee which smashes. Polarise the front window hatch, cable tie the guy to his chair, move on to the computer system. Shimazu questions about choppers - guy passes fear test, says no air traffic.
22. Check computers, Marius gets 5 - security system has 50 hours of footage. Turn off the host, turn on - Marius watches the guy log in.
23. Shimazu checks for panic button - finds it. Holds the guy hands, gets the post it note, enter the password. Raid rebuild notice - possibly 4-5 hour scrub time. Take the host - mini tower PC. About 6 hours for shift change. Appealing look for a smoke. Light him up. Shimazu assenses - no longer terrified, resigned, seems happy not to be facing death. Back outside, on the scooter heading back to chuns.
24. Get back late afternoon, Vadim been gone for hours now, team back at Chuns.

Looking forward to hopefully reading some thoughts / comments on the question posted at the start.

[Kren Cooper]

Good morning all, hope you’ve had a good weekend.
The latest smuggler update is now published and added to the Book 6 PDF found at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/71yxpj1b127drat/S...xx%29.docx?dl=0
This week the players started out knowing that the magical trace had been successful (Yay – fifth time lucky – hard to argue when the mage gets a 23 on the success check, it would have to be a pretty tough ward / spirit concealment to stop that!), and were waiting for the second mage to do the track. Unfortunately, poor Vadim, the NPC, got an abysmal roll - getting only a single success. So, that means the full base time of 6 hours to locate the subject, and when you’ve only got 6 hours, that of course means you either die in the process, or give up some way short. I’d worked up a narrative of him setting off an alarm / getting spotted, which justified the slow progress, and he turned up back at the base with 2 minutes left before he ran out of essence, being grappled by spirits. If the players did nothing, or dithered, I was going to have him die and they could deal with the RP consequences of that. Well, Tads and Aswon would, while the rest of the team probably wouldn’t care…
But, when he made it back to the beach, and I’d impressed on the players that it was a time critical fight, Tads came up with probably the best solution she could in the time – put her shielding on him and then just blanket bomb the fight with a stunball – and hope she didn’t get a massive handful of 6s that explode into rolls high enough to actually take Vadim out. She didn’t, he was fine, and they got the info they needed – and Chun is now arranging a boat for them.
Beyond that they’ve confirmed to themselves (hopefully) that following the chain up from Wa Fan to Lo Han is the right thing to do, and will lead them to more info. If they do that, I’ll reinforce the data that he’s on an island, being looked after by another part of the Triad in one of 3-4 locations, being moved around to stop him being discovered. With any luck, they’ll get in the boat and go start chasing down those leads, trying to find him.
That should lead us onto the high seas for a few run ins with pirates / smugglers, maybe some engine trouble, a chance at stumbling across some paracritters hiding in the deep blue sea, and then lead on to the prison location where Harley is actually located for a good old fashioned island assault against an army of mooks armed with crap weapons.
After some of the recent fights vs things like the salamanders who had special attacks and were quite tough, I’m just going to throw wave after wave of cheap henchmen at them, lining up one at a time to engage the players and get trounced – provided they do a modicum of sensible planning and tactics. This should feel like a slog, with potentially them having to stop and loot ammo and be selective towards the end due to the extended nature of the fight – but reinforce that actually they’re pretty dangerous as a team, and a good cut above the low level gutter trash. The feel I’m going for is those 80s action flicks where the hero takes on a whole compound of goons, before a climactic showdown with the end of level baddie… Arnie, eat your heart out.
Island hopping should take some time, and if I can work it right, by the time they get Harley, Chun will already be heading to Macau for the fight, and they’ll have to hustle to catch up with him there, to flip over to the next 80s trope – the big martial arts showdown. As it happens, Jez / Aswon has hit my plan square on the head with his speculation – revealing that Harley is safe early in the fight (but not before) so as to cause maximum pain to the Triad plans.
Still not decided which way I’m going with Nadia in the future – only had a single person offer an opinion to the question raised, so will have to see how things go.

So, as usual, here are the notes from the session, so you can see where the story diverged from what actually happened around the (virtual) table…

1. Thursday 16/9/2060, Location: 22.22744, 114.24966, Time 18:58
2. Hunter computer check on recovered DVR - 50 hours of footage, shit quality. No leads, just normal life
3. Kai - is ritual still going, yes - we should end early. Aswon - won't bring him back, just removes trace. Explain tracking theory, time limit. Possible search in Macau using Tads - may lose 2. Kai, maybe close to the cut off time send spirits? Aswon - yeah.
4. Team wait, plan to have Aswon / shimazu up high on astral overwatch. Weather has turned, strong winds from the south and a heavy rainfall / gusting winds - not a storm, but not great.
5. Get to 5 hours, send spirits off to search for Vadim. After asking for likely locations, send to docks / warehouse.
6. 5:58 since Vadim went searching for Harley - big twitch, like a hit to the stomach
7. Vadim appears, being pursued by half a dozen spirits, F4 watchers X 5 and a F6 sea spirit, battering him just in sight of the academy. Vadims body starts to take damage inside to clue the alarm.
8. Aswon spots, radios through to Tads, cease ritual, get here, calls Vadim to him. Tads heads out physically. Others head out with guns in case spirits manifest. Kai stays with Vadims body, medkit ready. Tads shouts for everyone to get inside. Aswon spots what is attacking and that they are grappling. Tads gets out the front with M+H.
9. Tads puts shielding up and goes for Stunball,F5 cast at M, 6 successes vs watchers, 3 vs sea spirit vs 2 and 1, net of 4 and 2. Watchers take D, sea spirit takes S. Tads soaks. Tads goes to control - gets 5 successes, summoner gets 9 - attempt fails, tads drains.
10. Aswon sprints, takes the spirit out. Aswon - everyone in the ward, the summoner may be coming. Hunter picks up Tads and runs.
11. Tads mind link from Hunter to Vadim, so Hunter can use image link and project what he sees. Tads casts and takes L drain.
12. South to island, round in circles, south to another, round, south west, possible cell, trip alarm, spirits chasing him.
13. Aswon - feels like they are trying to make it difficult to track, astrally aware / potent enemies. Theorises moving from one safehouse to another.
14. Tads - can we check the buildings out, see if they're owned by the same corp for instance?
15. Kai - Lo Han is the next target then. Wa Fan is the firewall/cutout - doesn't know. Aswon - I think Tads is right, check out the buildings now we have a location in a few hours, once the alarm has gone down.
16. Plot route - Kai rolls smuggling, thinks its a weird journey. possibly the journey covered by a more routine flight. Aswon thinks it's weird going into the buildings - maybe under false intentions. Tads - were the photos staged? Shimazu, look at the photos, check body language.
17. Chun - is it ok to come out now? Everything ok? Tads - spirits, best to hide, ok to come out now. Dinner in 20 mins. Did you find him? Kai - some progress...Kai - some connecto to the island chains - do you know anything. Possible triad bases / informants. Do you need a boat? Yes - ok, I'll go make a call.
18. Kai summary - three threads. 1) Nightclub, cameras, people, snatch squad, 2) Mini-golf club/bar - paperwork/tech/people, 3) Lo Han - phones, computers, other people at the club.
19. Tads - surprised if 2 has more info, she's the accountant, she is probably the top and knows nothing. Aswon agrees. Tads - thread 4) hop down to the islands to recon. Kai - oh do that regardless. I think 1, limited info but it might be easy, not triad. Dwarf Lo Han - security issues.
20. Tads - we could neurostun him, then mind probe him - as long as he's not an overseer with minions. Wary of him being a cutout in the chain. He may have limited info.
21. Aswon - have we asked Chun if he knows Lo Han. Someone knows Chun and has it in for him. Kai - it does seem persona. Aswon - fight in a tutu or chop his son up, it's definitely personal. Hunter research chun's opponents. 11+7+4, working on list of 48 opponents. Tads - is the tutu linked in any way? Kai - is anyone good with gambling?
22. Tads - Shimazu, can you check the tutu psychometry in case it's personal. Try, get nothing - feels new, pristine. Kai - if he's wearing a tutu and he loses, how much will it damage his rep. Will look like a setup. Aswon - but he has to sell it and he's still a kickass fighter. Kai - ask about gambling - tripple ones, total botch. Investigate the fight commission. Marius explains how it would actually work - Kai suspicious.
23. Aswon - we need to do the reveal about round 3, suddenly change things up. Throw them off balance. Aswon - rather not put chun through anguish and just rescue the kid and NOT fuck over the triad, but have to take it. Possibility that Harley was in on it, but is now betrayed.
24. Head off for dinner, rest of students curious, get to chat to Chun, ask if harley has new friends recently - no. Kai name drops Lo Han. Talks about triads. Shimazu picks up moment of shame from chun, Hunter spots tension. Kai asks the wife for a rare ingredient - give her a hand. Ask her about Lo Han/Chun. Tells them Lo Han wanted Chun to keep fighting, Chun beat him. Convinces her that they are trying to get Harley back as #1 priority. Waves smelly stuff at rest of team "found it"
25. Marius - probe him and kill him, snatch and grab. KISS. Kai - it has merits. Marius - they decided to escalate, involve people, go beyond business. Aswon - justify with the killing from the betting. Using a personal edge to create a business opportunity. Don't get the triads after us. Knock him out, golf ball to the back of his head, leave him on the green, altered memory.
26. Tads - work out what the deal is with Chun, did he fight for the triads, what is the link. Aswon - yeah, Kai - get him to spill, interrogate him, get him to spill.
27. Kai and Shimazu take Chun for a walk, to talk to him. "Chun, noticed you tense with Lo Han...something upset you" Tells story broken nose, betting. One other person there, pulled a knife, you're next, took him to Hosp, Kai asks and gets permission for a mind link - does the link with Hunter, gets a picture. Lo Han permanently disfigured.
28. Tads - Lo Han feels like the next step. His house is probably protected - so maybe get him at work?
29. Can we get into the country club - probably, exclusive but security not too tight.
30. Check the nightclub for security people - Lo Han's minion

[Kren Cooper]

Morning all! Another week, another session, some more procrastination!
This weeks writeup can be found at https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8cqop2u4ijnjgi/S...ok%206.pdf?dl=0 as usual…
A weird session – we were a tiny bit late starting, but we didn’t seem to go off topic much – yet we really didn’t achieve very much at all. There was a lot of rehashing events from the last few weeks, and having what felt like the same conversations again (which I hope people will be glad to hear didn’t make it into the writeup!) before we made any progress moving forward. However, at least we’ve done a bunch of astral scouting and confirmed details, and they *know* Lo Han is at the club, lives there and where to find him. They’ve also cottoned on to the location of the fight, that it’s a very big deal and have a broad understanding of the Triad plan, and how they can mess it up. So – whether that actually translates into in game action, we’ll have to see.
With any luck, next Tuesday they’ll break into the Country Club, get Lo Han, mind probe him and find the next link in the chain, realise they need a boat and then head out to the island to go rescue Harley!
This actually puts us fairly close to the timescale I had planned for this segment of the campaign – so I guess I shouldn’t complain about them being what feels like a little slow at times!
13/09 Day 1 - welcome to the gym, examine the craft, arrange for experts to come. Chance to train, relax, explore a little. Nicola with a broken arm - get Tads to heal?
14/09 Day 2 - local fabricators come - agree to take the engines to their shop to work on them. Arrange students to carry the engines down the path to town to the workshop. Workshop has good security, should be safe to leave them there (also do luxury car repairs, some expensive cars from around the island) First messenger from Triads
15/09 Day 3 - Harley confirmed kidnapped, Triads inform Chun about the fight, Chun stressed about the forthcoming Kumite / Harley / Family. Team encouraged to help find him. Local Blue Triad member leaning on Chun is Wa Fan, 'works' at the mini-golf
16/09 Day 4 - Successful ritual to track Harley, failed search on the link - alerts the Triads. Vadim attacked and delayed on moving back.
17/09 Day 5 - Chasing down the Triads in town, leading to HK proper, work up the chain turning people until they get a lead
18/09 Day 6 - Boat out to Ngon Chong to rescue Harley - do surveillance, find him
19/09 Day 7 - Launch rescue attempt.
20/09 Day 8 (Monday fight night) Travel to Macau to the arena SW of the airport, with Harley safe, get to arena, see Chun getting battered, then when Harley is shown to be safe, he turns on the gas and steamrollers the opponent. Triad boss in the front row with senior enforcers, makes a move on Chun with firearms. Players decide if they want to intervene or not....
21/09 Day 9 - back to engines / other tasks
22/09 Day 10
23/09 Day 11 - engine repairs complete.

Here’s the notes from the session (you can see how few of them there are!
1. Friday 17/9/2060, Location: 22.22744, 114.24966, Time 06:00
2. Morning run - Kai and Marius not, all else go. Nicole leading, supremely fit.
3. Shit, shower, shave, breakfast, Tads tops up supplies.
4. Finish brekkie by 08:30
5. Tads - he's using a lot of resources to hold Harley, especially as he's a martial artist.
6. Aswon - but if they're using a cover, like a supply chopper, that may be no extra cost.
7. Tads - I'll take spirits with me this morning if we go exploring. Aswon - can you leave one? Take the rest, it makes sense.
8. Discussion about how magically powerful the blue lotus might be, they might know that spirits got to the beach. Wa Fan might have reported.
9. Kai - underworld politics check, if we disappear him, what will be the fallout? Probably police involvement, full forensics, big investigation. Marius in favour of killing everyone, Aswon - whoah, whoah - proportionate response.
10. Tads does a good look around the academy - 11,10,9 - all clear. She and Vadim go to do astral scouting
11. Marius goes scouting again with the drone - spots fence, easy climb up the cliffs,
12. Planning to get to the country club via woods / concealed route for ingress.
13. Marius suspects the country club is a front / owned by the Triad, provides influence over the rich and launder money.
14. Aswon - and he might not be the groundskeeper - just a cover. Maybe.
15. Tads+ Vadim scouting, find old coastal excavations, matches Vadims description,14 on stealth, don't get spotted, spot mage, assense, get Sig,
16. Spot the number of the store rooms, corridor out and up back to the island. Loop around, report in, head back, examine rest of buildings. Spot fishing village / local weaving, nothing interesting, no harley, back home.
17. 10:00 - all back together.
18. Last possible option - to check the night club, generally decided bad idea, likely to tip them off.
19. Aswon planning on getting in, worrying about Tads in - levitate+invis, worried about wards, Plan for Tads to go in about 9pm for scouting, pre a 1-2am actual insertion.
20. Marius - do we think the triad will not trust mages? Old school? Talk about Wa-fan being a phys-ad, having responsibility. Rest of team don't think so.
21. Kai - should we assume bodyguards? Aswon - yes, def. Shimazu - bodyguard check, probably light, defence in depth, doesn't go out much.
22. Tads goes for a scout. Apartment over office, F1 wards, spots secretary, assense - cyber skull, quiet secretary. Kai - maybe mind probe the secretary. Aswon, double mind/probe/alter memory duty for tads though... double exposure to risks. Marius agrees not to take the 2nd risk.
23. Sword stand at end of bed, box with F5-6 ward. One bed apartment, lots of art / tapestries.
24. Nicole raps at the door - need medical attention, Rudi has been knocked out
25. Healers go down, Tads reminds all to go through the wards, they do.
26. Rind Rudi in the gym, knocked out, shattered skull, D stun overflowed to M physical. Biotech from Kai/Shimazu, then Tads fixes all damage with 8 successes left over into time.
27. Kai taks Chun aside, check on how he is. He needs to sell it, needs to get into practice. Training with the instructors to get his edge back.
28. Tads offers to help with his dodge training. Aswon - are you willing to risk lethal damage, we don't have practice weapons,
29. Tads - who is he fighting - do we know? Aswon, we don't know. Thinks about it - know knows it's in Macau, get Hunter to do research, big fight in Macau, full bill, some deathmatch - now have the deadline / location. Aswon - may have to extract, from the arena. Marius gambling check - big legitimate betting.
30. Aswon - security will be extensive, if not especially tight. Marius - good camera coverage of the place.
31. Kai - underworld politics - they might not be planning on giving him back. Just one more job... just something to bear in mind.
32. Stop for the night, about midday in game

[Kren Cooper]

Good afternoon all. Episode 175 is published, and added to the end of Book 6: https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8cqop2u4ijnjgi/S...ok%206.pdf?dl=0
This week, we finally got around to going to meet Lo Han – breaking into his onsite apartment after hours, knocking him out and then rifling his brain with mind probe – so the players finally discovered the instigator of the plan and some solid details on what is going on. From this they now have a really solid lead on the guy who actually shipped the kidnap victim out of Hong Kong, and if they go an interrogate him, they can find out which island he’s on and go stage a rescue! At least, that’s the plan…
We also had a weird experience – the bloodthirsty pacifist. Tads is played by Ali, who is normally a utility healer kind of player. She’s generally on the good side of the morality spectrum, plays lots of clerics, druids or healers, doesn’t like violence and prefers to find a diplomatic solution to problems and is very much story driven rather than combat focussed.
So, I knew I’d hit the NPC on the head when part way through the mental interrogation she looks straight up at the camera and says “I think we ought to kill this guy, in cold blood, right here and now.” And it was up to the rest of the team, the bloodthirsty baying mob normally to talk her out of it.
Weird.
So, I decided to bake that into the narrative, having Tads display some issues about what she could see and experience during the probe, and setting up the character for future issues. While I was out walking the dog late one night, I was thinking about the scene, and I flashed back to the encounter with the Wolf tribe, where her totem turned up and manifested as they were due to be sacrificed, saving them and making the point that not all herd animals are prey… and then had a good long think about the nature of morality and such like.
After that, it was time to have a chat with Ali (which was fortunately easy to do, just ambush her one morning when out with the dog for walk #1 of the day) and talk to her about possible options for her character. What I outlined was a potential for some nudging from her totem, in certain very select situations, where suddenly she could go from her typical fairly quiet playstyle to a full on raving lunatic death machine, as she decides that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one, or that the best way to save the lives of people she cares about it to cast a high force extended area effect manaball with all the dice. *ALL* the dice. No, Ali, don’t save any for drain. Just kill. Good job, now fall over… *grin*
This would be somewhat poetic in a way I think – it was Ali who got the first kill of the campaign – moving the bridge over a river gorge with an illusion spell and sending a car full of people plummeting to their deaths – and a good reminder to the rest of the team that a high grade shaman is a dangerous foe, even if normally she’s all fluffly and light and carebears.
So, I outlined this to Ali, who is still considering the direction. I’m not going to force her down that route if she doesn’t want to, as I don’t want to mess with her character too much – at least not as long as she follows her totemic path anyway.
We’ll have to see how that goes.

As usual, here’s the notes from the session:

1. Friday 17/9/2060, Location: 22.22744, 114.24966, Time 12:00
2. Kai checks on Chun. Shimazu trains with Chun, determines he is a phys-add, penetrates masking. Explains to chun, Chun says he's not magic, just good. Where are we with getting Harley back? Kai - following up on stuff tonight.
3. Marius checked on engines, about 50% done, extensive list - Marius warns Kai this is likely to be expensive... then goes out with the drone to do more recon on the country club.
4. Aswon calls spook re getting into Japan. brief chat - updates her on progress, bribes too expensive - need some shadow source, I'll look into it. Spook will call back
5. First scouting about 10pm, Aswon and Hunter, climb checks vs 4s, then stealth check through the grounds - Aswon (5), Hunter (13). Get up the cliff, broken, but strong. Stealth over to building, hide and observe - Aswon 21, Hunter 15. Wait 30 mins runner, box, in the rain, heading to main building, assense, wait 30, guy comes back, 5 mins, leaves heads home in cheap electric 2 seater. 10 mins later Lo Han comes out. Brolly, up stairs on corner, in apartment, heating on, Aswon thinks he heard sound, music playing - Chinese percussive.Heat bloom spreads a bit. No visible outside security on windows.
6. 23:15, Lo Han goes to bed, apartment starting to cool. Wait until 12:30. Club still lit up and open, but quiet. Tads sleazes in, checks, he's asleep. Goes to Hunter and Aswon "he's asleep". Hunter sleazes up, lock is a Sheng Dong 2000R - fairly basic. Like the Sheng Dong 500 at the apartment, press on the top left corner. Str check, hits the override button, door pops.
7. Sneak in, Aswon trank patches, R6 four successes, well out.
8. Make sure Tads and Shimazu are both wearing very dark colours and have face and head covered, and ask Kai to ask his spirit to conceal us. Levitate up a lot, and then try and aim slowly down from a decent height to land outside the door of the apartment.
9. Aswon assesses sword (lots of 1s) tourist trap bling, sees the box, well made, qood quality.
10. Shimazu assesses sword, 3 successes - ceremonial, symbolic, not a war weapon, but very highly desired still.
11. Tads mind probes - 11 successes Gets the details of the plan, ask about the box. Ashes of grandparents, mark of respect. Sword, was his grandfathers, triad oaths. Details of setting up Wa Fan as the fall girl, who his boss is in Big Wave, plans for advancement.
12. Team discuss what to do - Marius, go to appartment 2709, Kai suggest spilling to Wa Fan, getting her to step over Lo Han, in exchange for keeping chun / team safe.
13. Tads gets from Lo Han he *hates* chun but is also *terrified* of him, full of self loathing and disdain for self, which fuels his hatred and rage.
14. Tads suggests just killing him (hesitantly) Aswon - be clear. Shimazu, we lose our leverage over Wa Fan then. Aswon - we need to stop Chun's kid being kidnapped, or the next person along will do the same again. Marius - not a threat, just make it a business transaction. If we remove Lo Han, Wa Fan will get the promotion. Shimazu - if the triads lose all this money, they'll kill Lo Han... aswon - true, let's not make a hasty decision. Get details of Lo Han and his contacts - lots of people. Tads suggests mind link to Hunter to hoover information. Magical common sense - might be suspicious. Alter memory might be needed. Aswon suggests chain of thoughts leading on to some dirt on key players.
15. Gets half a dozen bits of juicy info x-linked to hunter. Kai asks if he's banging anyone - just prostitutes, too ugly to score. No surveillance in the apartment. Tads - does he think his grandparents would be proud - yes, he's doubletalked into it. Get more details of how he's setting up Wa-Fan for a fall / minor part.
16. Drop mindlink, recast levitate, get out quietly, remove trank patch, all back to the base.
17. Hunter: before Aswaon and myself leave (last) we check the floor for marks we have made even if its to flatten the pile on the rugs/carpets
18. 12:45, back at Academy, all done.
19. Plan, get to the apartment with stuff hidden, break in and deal with.

[Tecumseh]

I always had “plans” in mind for Nadia, potentially revolving around a couple of situations.

A bit belated here but what did you do with the Nadia situation?

Depending on the player and how attached they were to Nadia OOCly, I would have done 2b (Nadia dies, team rescues baby) or 5 (domestic bliss).

I like 2b personally because it's a genuine curveball. Could be humorous, could be a real complication for their lives previously in progress.

The "why do you play" question is very valid. I've had players who just want entertaining escapism and who don't want to think, and others who want to immerse themselves in the world and feel. It's a false dichotomy so I'll oversimplify and say that the in-person gaming leans toward escapism and the play-by-post gaming leans toward immersion.

That said, I always ask my players about their boundaries. Almost everyone is down for everything, but the one answer that comes up repeatedly is "no violence against children". I respect that and, as a father, would probably answer the same. As such, I personally would scratch any storylines where the baby comes to an untimely end.

[Kren Cooper]

A bit belated here but what did you do with the Nadia situation?

Depending on the player and how attached they were to Nadia OOCly, I would have done 2b (Nadia dies, team rescues baby) or 5 (domestic bliss).

I like 2b personally because it's a genuine curveball. Could be humorous, could be a real complication for their lives previously in progress.

The "why do you play" question is very valid. I've had players who just want entertaining escapism and who don't want to think, and others who want to immerse themselves in the world and feel. It's a false dichotomy so I'll oversimplify and say that the in-person gaming leans toward escapism and the play-by-post gaming leans toward immersion.

That said, I always ask my players about their boundaries. Almost everyone is down for everything, but the one answer that comes up repeatedly is "no violence against children". I respect that and, as a father, would probably answer the same. As such, I personally would scratch any storylines where the baby comes to an untimely end.

Hi Tecumseh! Thanks for the question.
In terms of what has happened with Nadia - nothing yet. The pace of our game is quite slow - 176 sessions, over 4.3 years and we're on Day 292 of the campaign - so what I'm looking at doing is still in the future. Nadia is "due" about day 375, so still a little way to go.
I'm now looking at a variant of Option 2 involving Saeder Krupp. Marius is a "child prodigy" according to his back story, and he's taken Exceptional Attribute (Intelligence) as an edge, and is pushing his Int score up. So I thought... maybe he's not just naturally gifted... what if he's the result of some careful gene-tech experiments done by SK? And now they're pissed at him for leaving home? So... Nadia gets to have the baby, and experience option 5 - for a while. All is bliss, happiness and light, with the child growing up showing signs of exceptional intelligence and cognitive functions too, coming along really strongly. Run with that for a few months, let family life settle and play up how nice it is for Marius to come home to his wife and kid. And then have the SK hit team swoop down in the middle of the night, gas everyone at the ranch, and take the baby. And for a kicker, they take it back to Marius's parents - explaining how Marius was MIA, presumed KIA due to enemy corp action, but they managed to retrieve his son, and the corp loves them, and wants to raise the child, as a fitting legacy / memorial to Marius. The parents are both loyal SK wage slave scientists, so with a bit of DNA testing can confirm that the child is their grandchild - and will then raise it in the SK enclave they've now been moved to. And SK gets to continue their gene-tech research on raising intelligence, recouping some of the lost ground - and Lofwyr gets to spit in Marius's eye and prove he's not beyond his reach.
That should provide a nice "A" level threat / long term goal for Marius and Nadia, and remind them of the power and reach of the mega-corps and also split them on their dealings with Dragons - so far Aden is edging towards the friendly side of neutral, and they've taken a job from Ryumyo and Lung who are both ambivalent to the team - so having another great be on the "bad guy" list will be nice. At least for me... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Interesting take on the approach to gaming. We used to do everything around the table until VITAS put a stop to that, and we shifted to online via Discord - but we've been playing the same games as before. The smuggler game is a slow burn campaign, with full consequences and hopefully all of the feels, while the Friday night Pink Mohawk is much more casual entertainment in a lower consequence environment where the real weird and wacky characters come out to play. Wednesday night is a Black Trenchcoat but with some much newer players, and is probably a half-way house. But for me personally I've not noticed any difference between in person and online - perhaps because I've never tried a forum / play by post style game...

But, thanks for the feedback and thoughts Tecumseh, it's great to get some feedback from another Player/GM, and someone looking in from the outside!

With that said - we return to our scheduled programming!
Good morning folks. Another week, another grind at the millstone, but another refreshing outing to the sixth world for our weekly escape from banality where we get to annoy dragons and curse immortal elves – this weeks writeup for session 176 is now published, and can be read at the end of https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8cqop2u4ijnjgi/S...ok%206.pdf?dl=0

After pulling the information they needed from the local triad managers brain, they’ve unlocked the next chain in the links that will lead to Harley, and now have the details of the triad boss that arranged the kidnap and delivery – so they can now find out the location where he’s being kept.
With that sorted, the NPC Chun came through for them with a set of wheels, letting them make the journey into the city, to go raid the apartment block as a team. Stopping for some disguises on the way, they raided their stash and remembered that I’d given them a large container of Neurostun on the journey out of Japan – and that this was the perfect time to use it.
With a bit of astral scouting they determined there was a spirit in the apartment, and I had a moment of surprise – as did the rest of the team – when Shimazu mentioned that he wasn’t down will attacking it. Some RP followed, and the team had to “persuade” him to consider fighting it, and listen too and respect his beliefs. Didn’t see that coming, but it was nice to see the RP side of Shimazu coming through.
Once at the apartment complex, the actual break in went smoothly (as it should, security was not good), they got the gas hooked up, and Hunter managed to not botch the gas delivery with a re-roll and some karma spent (otherwise it could have been *really* embarrassing for them!), and we’re ready to do the break in to the apartment block. They need to deal with the spirit, but that shouldn’t be too hard, and then do another mind probe and decide how they’re going to handle the people there, then they can head back to Chun’s, drop off the van and get in the boat – heading for the secret island base of the triads on the rescue mission.
At least that’s my plan. What the players are going to do is anyone’s guess….
This brings us up to Day 5 in Shek-O, of my planned 11 day layover to get the bird fixed. That means they’ll be almost 50% of the way through the month, and should add a perception of time pressure to get round the rest of the volcanos, as well as a bit more respect for not flying through volcanic ash clouds!

As usual, here are the notes from the game session:
1. Saturday 18/9/2060, Location: 22.22744, 114.24966, Time 02:00
2. Sleep, exercise, breakfast, planning: Aswon - non-lethals and hollow-points, apartment walls might be paper thin. Maybe take out the whole apartment with neurostun - should be non-lethal. Check for allergies. Marius - I like this idea more. Kai - what's the antidote... just time. Marius - we need a van... Tads - can we hire one? If we're not doing anything bad in it? Aswon - absolutely we can. As long as we can tie it back to a SIN. Kai asks Chun. Chun suggests hire from the airport - Aswon, needs to be off the books ideally. Kai - can we do a vehicle mask? Tads, yes - but not at the same time as the mind probe. Marius - we need to get a van, get rid of the transponder. Team look at where the grid guide is / is compulsory. Some plans to stay on back roads, avoid grid-guide, mask and change appearance
3. Chun can get hold of a small panel van - 2 seats up front, separate rear, used for park maintenance - team accept, van will arrive 10:30
4. Kai - what info are we after then, and how loud? Tads - ideally, get Harleys location without them knowing we have it. Aswon - work out how to deliver neurostun. Tads suggests Kai has a chat with Chun re being an adept. Aswon - don't do it now, he doesn't need the crisis of faith this close to the fight. Tell him after. Shimazu check to think about - some kinds of advanced masking. Agree not to push it until after the fight.
5. Aswon think about how to introduce neurostun - probably via the HVAC given the quality of the apartment. Kai - priority then is to get info from the boss, can't wait until tonight based on time, have to go in daylight. Marius - do matrix search, uniform for HVAC engineers, get disguises, go in as workmen.
6. Hunter matrix search - looking for uniforms, Brown coveralls, velcro patch. Fairly standard gear.
7. Marius gets details for initial quote on repairs - 600k. Spook contacts Aswon - details of Harikona.
8. Team - shit, how do we get the money. Kai - maybe ask the dragons for cash, or bet on Chun, Aswon - do wards?
9. Aswon - and we want to be careful about how much we're relying on alter memory. And besides, I'm worried about Tads. Ngun Hai is likely to be just as bad as Lo Han. Tads - cull the heard. Marius - we need to be careful that killing him doesn't make them move Harley. Aswon - maybe use influence to treat Harley better as he's valuable. Kai - maybe we can still flip Wa-Fan. Aswon - that's all on you. Underworld politics for Kai - knows this will be very difficult.
10. Van arrives, small suzuki, separate cab, 30 mins work to disable the transponder or put in a switch.
11. Put up a F6 masking ward on the inside of the rear - 6 successes, 1 week, all successes into time, 1 hour. Marius 30 mins on transponder, Chun reminds them about the boat - agree to drive by to check it out. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1a/1d/26/1a1...a588ddd2ac6.jpg
12. Tads goes back to the island to check the Harley cells, see if he's been put back, and check 2709 to see if Ngun is there. Team has gone to get overalls and supplies, meet back up. Then Tads goes to scout 2709 - spots and sleazes alarm/masking ward in, spots the ancestor spirit - 9 vs 9 on stealth/spot, sleazes back out in nick of time, dogleg back to vehicle. Tads briefs team on astral complication. Aswon - shouldn't be too bad, bound to the apartment, probably guards against astral threats only - Tads estimates its a bit less powerful than Vadim. Plan is to leave Vadim in the van to guard it.
13. Kai - how do we deal with the spirit? Marius - weapon foci. Shimazu - spanner in the works, I'm not keen on actually attacking it. Aswon - can always try diplomacy, probably bound to an item or the house or something. Maybe Tads could try diplomacy, or threaten it with overwhelming force.
14. Kai - do we know of any offerings or anything like that we can use to appease the spirit once we've knocked the people out?
15. Shimazu - rolls on Shinto, probably set to defend, just don't attack.
16. City centre jam crash in the tunnel under the harbour - light traffic out here, good travel
17. Arrive around 12:30, get parked up ok, Hunter leans on case hits the reset button - Str check 27, into the insipid lobby, smells of piss, into the lift up to floor 27.
18. Check the stairs first - dirty, not well travelled, look for the riser cabinet, find it - same locks as downstairs, calls Hunter, pop the case open no problem. Into the utility cupboard - it's a shit tip, all unlabelled. Engineering roll - just a success, find 2709, 10 minutes to get into the HVAC
19. Spot the camera dome on the t-junction, Aswon prepares a gaffa blindfold for the dome. Tads checks the apartment out, gets a layout.
20. Quick scout - spirit is playing with the small child, mom is tidying, the blokes are watching trid. Tads sleazes
21. Aswon filters and listens for movement/people. Marius - we should stick to the plan, just plan for the spirit being more hostile. Aswon - can we fake up a parcel that needs a signature? Marius - just stick to the plan, what's the issue. Aswon - the spirt is almost certainly going to be hostile, it was playing with the kid. Shimazu - I don't want to have to deal with it, I would if it was simple, unthinking. Kai - they're not honourable, think about what they did. We try to keep the kids safe, not the adults, but we don't let the spirit deal with us. Aswon - knock on the door, claim a gas leak, Chemists roll - makes sense. Aswon thinking this is a good plan, depending on what the spirit does it still works. Kai as the medical expert for the gas company, while the team do the maintenance, and cover Tads while she does the business. Check with Shimazu - are you happy. Begrudging...
22. Hunter engineering test, 1+4, RR, still a 1, spend 1GK, starts working. Thumps and child stops yelling - gas is working.
23. Aswon leans around and puts gaffa on the camera
24. Stopping for the night.

[Kren Cooper]

Good evening everyone! I hope people are well, and ready for another dive into the sixth world – this week’s writeup for session 177 is now published, and can be read at the end of https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8cqop2u4ijnjgi/S...ok%206.pdf?dl=0
A somewhat short session this week – we lots Hunter and Shimazu about half an hour before the end of the session when their home internet died completely, so with two people out (and given where we were in terms of the plot) it seemed like a really good place to call if for the night. Along with the assault on the apartment going like clockwork, with no complication, and a fair chunk of plot exposition / dump as they raided the NPCs head with the Mind Probe, it made for simple notes and a short(ish) writeup – only 7611 words this week.
The players have now got pretty much all of the jigsaw pieces in hand – they know why Chun is being blackmailed, by whom, who is helping, and have a broad understanding of the bad guys plans and how to foil them. They just need to get the location of Harley from the mage on the island so they can go stage a rescue, and then it’s time to rain on someone’s parade in a very major way.
Next week will be either a stealth insertion and very tactical takedown of the mage – or someone will get seen and it will go loud and get very messy I feel – a very binary swing. Even if it goes noisy, between Aswon and his sniper rifle, Hunter and his assault rifle and Tads backing them up with Great Form spirits, Shielding and big ass stunballs, I think it will all be over *very* quickly – there would just be a huge amount of forensic evidence left lying around to deal with.
Whichever way they go though, it will start a 2nd clock for the triads to realise that *something* is going on, and to try and work out what is happening – though I’m trying to put myself in their shoes of only seeing fragments / puzzle pieces, and not the whole picture.
The attack on Lo Han was pretty much perfect, leaving no real trace, and he’s not aware that he’s been grobbled. The raid on Ngun Hai was less subtle, but still left very little evidence – when he and his older sons wake up, they’ll only have the explanation of the spirit about the gas leak to go on, so it’s going to take them a while to work out what happened – especially with nothing stolen / taken from the apartment. They will start to investigate, but don’t really have anything to go on to direct their scope. When the mage gets taken down on the island, that will start to draw a line pointing at Harley, but even then it’s not going to be conclusive (probably) – so we’ll have to see just how subtle the players are…

Hopefully though, the players will get the information they need, and set off across the ocean to the fortress, make their assault in a somewhat stealthy fashion and sneak through the environment with a bit of tension, and eventually find Harley’s cell. Unfortunately, they’re not going to find Harley there… that should then kick off a loud and messy segment, eventually leading them to Macau and the sports complex, for a big showdown with the Triads and their big boss, trying to get Harley back to Chun and ending up with a massive fight in the ring. As they’ve now discovered that Chun is a phys-ad who’s managed to self-initiate to grade 5 without ever realising he’s a phys-ad, because everything is related to either masking (including our “advanced masking” metamagics from our house rules) and being absolutely kick-ass in his martial arts, they should have faith enough to sit back and watch Chun go to town on his opponent once he knows that Harley is safe.

So, with that said, as usual, here are the notes from the session:
Saturday 18/9/2060, Location: 22.273, 114.17243, Time 13:30
1. Waiting 2 minutes after turning on the aircon, after hearing thumps, Aswon puts patch on the camera, sends Kai forward. Kai bangs on door, "hello" in mandarin. "Is there anyone here? Someone get me a detector here!" Hunter cleaning in the cupboard with Marius, Aswon moving forward with Kai. Run through spiel, no answer. Kai tries door - Aswon tries the override trick, fails. Door opens on 2nd attempt with combat pool, but breaks and splits in two. Old man appears - are you doctors? Kai - I'm medically trained. In, work the plan. Who is the child? Sung Lang - ask about medical history - gets likes and dislikes described. 4 X triads knocked out, weapons draw. Mom has scalded legs, Aswon treats her. Calls spirit to help - MB check, she is hurt, I must help. Kai - the boy is fine - please watch him. Be careful about being sick, monitor him. Take him to a bedroom please.
2. Mind probe goes off 6 successes, then cleansed, Light stun on the cleanse. Gets all the details for the next part of the chain.
3. Biotech the scalds and then a f1 heal+cleanse
4. Grandpa is singing lullaby, Kai makes excuses and leaves. Call Marius forward to look at the lock, swap it with the one from apartment C. Takes one minute each lock each way. Aswon removes patch on the way out, as last man, back to the lifts. Marius wants to go down the stairs - Aswon, 27 floors? Marius - yeah, lift could get called on any floor. Floor 18, two people shooting up - let them finish, then go past. Down to bottom floor - distraction at north end of the mall, people arguing about a stolen handbag - Aswon - sounds like a distraction to me! Let's go. Down to the path, back to the van.
5. Marius - drives for the boat. Streets are bedlam, traffic jam is cleared, defensive driving. Head to the harbour, to the boat. Rainy and miserable, grey skies, weather steady for the next few hours. Vadim offers to take the van back and keep an eye on the tilt-wing.
6. At boatyard, about 15:00 Gummy fisherman - gives pin-hammer. "for persuading" - check the engine, red tape. Engines belching smoke, noisy, sounds rough, engine not well maintained. Test - tape is over the top of the carbouretter. Marius taps it twice.
7. Marius taking boat out - one success, heads out at about 11 knots.
8. Tads summons new F4 sea spirit, 5 services, for concealment.
9. Kai - plan for taking out enemy spirits with Shimazu/Aswon, everyone else stun the mage. What tricks might they have. Aswon - we think they're wujen, their sea spirit that was chasing Vadim.
10. Go out, hop from traffic to traffic to start, then deep water, heading direct to Eyan Rocky Island. Tads summons 4 F3 watchers, each with 8 hours.
11. Get 4/5 of the way there, engine splutters, hit it with the hammer. int test - works out it's a design flaw, can't be easily fixed. Get boat restarted, heading down to Eyun Rocky island. Hunter computer search for maps, heading for the jetty, use spirit concealment
12. Marius asks Tads to scout, where the water is at least 2.5m deep to go park the boat. She goes, finds 2 spots and the jetty. Decide on the north side of the island in the mini-bay. Handling check to bring the boat in ok on 6s. Fail, RR, 2 successes. Marius stays with boat.
13. Arrive at ridge line at about 18:00, 30 mins to dusk

[Kren Cooper]

Shadowrun cancelled tonight, on account of one family emergency and one dodgy chinese causing another family emergency... someone has apparently failed their toxin test.

But, that did give me a chance to update the last couple of chapters of my Shadowrun narrative, and get them published up to the two story sites - which are now up to date!

@FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
@Achrive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Updates can now go straight onto there, and I'll link to the latest chapters so people can read online if they wish, rather than looking at the updated Book PDF.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 178 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 6: https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8cqop2u4ijnjgi/S...ok%206.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Achrive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week’s run:
Unfortunately we were down a player this week – Hunter’s out of game controller having to work away from home, and being in some pre-historic dinosaur of a hotel without Wi-Fi! The mind boggles…
Still, we could crack and cover the team moving up across the island to the main buildings in the village, making their assault on the mage and getting to a position to mind-probe her and get the location of the fortress base where Harley was being held.
The team spotted the rudimentary sensors that covered the approach from the docks, and made the appropriate efforts to get past it, allowing them to approach the base undetected and strike at a time of their choosing. The players were being very cautious however, moving slowly and spending a lot of time discussing the plan, what they were going to do and how it was going to go down – more than I thought they would.
So, I tried to take a mental step back from the situation and think back to how the information had been presented – trying to see the situation from their fragmentary view point rather than from my “perfect knowledge” GM position. I knew that there was a single uninitiated mage with about 10 goons armed with basic AK assault rifles – absolutely no match for the team at all. They however were viewing it as potentially a very dangerous assault that might lead to the alarm being raised and further bad guys appearing, and were taking steps to avoid that…
So, I gave them a few subtle prods and pokes in places, but otherwise let them run with it, taking their time and planning the ambush – where in a sudden rush of over-excitement Aswon’s player went “all in” on his attack, perhaps forgetting that taser weapons can and will overflow to physical, and that he was probably catching his opponent flat footed and without access to her combat pool. With the advantage of reach on his weapon leading to a low target number, he got 16 net successes on his attack, and the damage easily went straight past deadly stun and through to deadly physical damage. Well, at least they dropped her in one hit, without the alarm being raised!
That changed the nature of the attack suddenly, with frantic attempts to stabilise her before she bled out, and Tads having to mind-probe a potentially dying victim, while they kept guard and then suddenly had the “pressure” of the guard change pushed on them as well. Still, they got the info, and now as soon as they exfiltrate the base, they can start to head back to the boat.

Next week, Marius will get some info to start the session off, spotting a burning boat on the horizon – a result of a pirate attack that will set the scene for some future actions and remind them they’re in dangerous waters, and they can hopefully set off to the fortress and reach the penultimate section of this little arc – breaking into the fortress dungeons to go and rescue Harley, and then head to Macau for the final showdown with the Blue Lotus Triad.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 18/9/2060, Location: 21.90548, 114.05599, Time 18:30
2. Check the area, looking for sensors - Aswon spots a solar panel on the landbridge - about 20m from the path. Thinking ultrasound sensor, covering the path - Aswon suggests crawling down by the water to go around. Examine the vegetation, plan for spirits, Tads suggests getting to old fort and try to get there at dusk, then stop and resummon. Aswon counter suggests, wait until after dusk, summon, then go. Tads sends watcher to go find the device the panel is plugged into. finds, reports, they ask for other side, searches for 5mins then comes back with nothing. Sensor is only 13m from path. Kai asks Marius to keep an ear out for stuff.
3. 18 mins to dusk. Stealth checks. Hunter gets a 5, Aswon tries to aid. RR with combat pool to 10, approach under concealment, get past the ultrasound emitter at 1/2
4. Resummon swarm of small GF mountains and 1 big F5, 2 successes, drained. Aswon asks if they are going to search the old fort - Tads warns about the low force wards on each room. Tads scouts - fresh cargo in one room, but no occupants. Team moves up. Spots sentinel on top of the building, don't get spotted. Tads suggests using influence on him, asks Shimazu for advice on what to influence - he suggests to get out of the drizzle. Tads casts, 6 successes, drains ok. Cleansing signature fails, L drain (ignorable), fails again, drained, try 3 - fails, takes another L, decides to stop. 10 mins for stun.
5. Astral scouting, find the work houses, the guard shack, the moss processing lines, empty floor and the mages quarters - she was reading a magical text.
6. Return to body, rest 50 mins, try cleansing again.
7. Check the building out, windows don't open, no sign of external power, maybe on batteries. Spot the fire escape and entrances to each floor, no roof access.
8. Tads - do I try to cleanse, Iranians haven't found us yet, will the triads? Now inclined to leave it.
9. Discussion about getting up to the guard and neutralising him - Kai wants him out of action. Levitate, climb or fire escape.
10. Trank patch the guard, backup taser - Tads suggests stun ball might work as the influence went off well.
11. Marius tide coming in, constant adjustments on the boat, no sign of other traffic.
12. Rest of team spend an hour working round to the east, approaching the building. 20:00, 35m from building, Tads suggest sleep based on how long they have been going - Aswon does not like, Marius confirms.
13. Tads goes for a scout, spots her doing a survey of the ground floor, palpable aura of fear from the workforce, gets out without being seen.
14. Aswon and Shimazu, under concealment to roof. Tads confirms top level is empty. Shimazu spots fire escape is rusty as all hell. Aswon climbs up gecko, lowers rope, pulls Shimazu up. To doorway and down to floor 3, step wide to avoid footprints in the middle, check fire escape - bricked up. Aswon suggests just using a rope to get all up through the middle. Tads checks the other floors - bricked up too.
15. Guard hears/smells something, is surprised, gets double trank patched and goes down. Rest of team called up to roof. Hunter stays on roof and surveills, rest go down to floor 3. Check the layout, lurk by toilets and wait for Sui to come back.
16. Kais plan - go on a killing spree and wipe out the island guards, get the slaves free and scatter them. Aswon not keen on the plan, no need to kill the guards. Kai - wants to go stealthy, but if it goes wrong, have to suppress to get more time to get to the fortress.
17. Hunter finds guards kit and combat drugs, quick analysis - combat enhancer. The guard doesn't look like a user - reasonable teeth and complexion.
18. Team wait for Sui to come back up - Marius chuntering.
19. 35 mins wait, Aswon and Shimazu hear her coming up the stairs,
20. Taser staff attack - drops her and takes her straight out and overflows to D. Shimazu first aid - stabilise, deadly stun, deadly physical, loss 1 point magic. Hunter calls that a guard is leaving the shack, heading to the main building. Kai and Shimazu go for ambush.
21. Do mind probe, get details of island, Kot, some info on the triads.
22. Aswon - can we alter memory to something like a Yak clan? Leave an obvious trail...

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 179 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 6: https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8cqop2u4ijnjgi/S...ok%206.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Achrive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Picking up from last weeks ambush, the team had to do some biotech rolls to stabilise the mage, deal with the approaching guard and then tidy up the crime scene – deciding what to do. I also seeded the ship on the horizon, with the players wondering about this for a moment, then setting it to one side as they (rightly) realised it wasn’t going to affect them and there wasn’t anything they could do with it – so it was best to concentrate on the situation at hand. The plan they came up with was pretty good, crafting a reasonable story for other people to discover that hid what had actually happened pretty well, and their exfiltration was ok too.
Once back on the boat, they were hit with another “random” engine stoppage, driving home the fact that the boat was unreliable – something that I’m going to probably need later on. With them heading to the fortress, now they have a location for Harley at the end of the breadcrumb trail, there was a fair bit of discussion and spit balling, while they crossed the 70km of open seas to reach the final location for this part of the run.
For a lot of this I was pretty quiet, listening to their plans and trying to work out what they’d remembered or inferred from the various bits of briefing, and what wild schemes they’d come up with that I’d have to deal with as a “plan” – or if they’d spotted any giant loopholes that I hadn’t!
After they’d had a while to discuss things though, it was time to move on, and I triggered the next phase with the speedboat coming out. Gratifyingly, once the first lines of dialogue were delivered, one of the players put 2 and 2 together and realised they were expecting a different boat, and that it was the probably the one they saw got taken out and destroyed by pirates, right at the start of the night – which meant that getting into the Fortress was probably now going to be quite easy, as they were assumed to be a delivery / collection boat. Getting out was likely to be a whole lot trickier though…
Next week we’ll handle the assault on the Fortress – I’m using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middelgrundsfortet as a base for the island, as it lets me get a couple of nice external photos and I can use Google Maps for an overhead view. Added onto this, I’ve snipped the plan into PowerPoint and added an underground “layer” of rooms and passages for the players to explore and stealth through, while looking for detention cell AA-23 (grin) and Harley…
So, there should be some sneaky exploring next week, and a rescue of Harley – then an escape from the island. This is where the boat may suffer a longer term casualty, so I can adjust the timing from them getting away from the fortress and arriving at Macau – where I want them to be arriving just as the fight is starting (assuming I can stage manage this ok!) for the most dramatic timing, and for Chun to play his second-wind card and begin his amazing reversal.
One of the things I am going to have to address is the team splitting up – at the moment they seem to be considering having Kai and Marius stay on the boat while the rest go on the rescue mission. I want them to go as a team, so that I don’t have to deal with a split party (the bane of most GM’s lives) and I can throw in more skill based challenges such as Maglocks for Marius to deal with, and some negotiations for Kai. I’m wondering if it’s best to try and guide them to making that decision themselves, or just have an OOC discussion pre game and say “look, it’s a group quest, and I’m letting you know there’s no downside to leaving the boat unguarded in this instance…” to avoid any straggling.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 18/9/2060, Location: 21.90548, 114.05599, Time 21:45
2. First check - Marius, perception, gunfire, spot burning boat. Good rolls, hears gunfire, spots burning boat 2 mins later. Reports in - Aswon, you what? Clarifies.
3. Back to inside team - guard coming up stairs, unconscious mage. Tads casts treat, 5 successes, min time 1 min.
4. Tads suggest to put her in her room, Kai - quick ask around, general vote to deal with, only Tads dump and run. Aswon prepares to ambush. Stealth roll, max 8+spirit.
5. Guard hears something (16) - assumes it's the mage and apologies. Aswon hits, uses reach to put his number up. Hits for deadly stun overflow to light physical
6. Tads wants to cleanse signature - Aswon suggests waiting until just about to leave in case of drain. Tads - who has an idea about the "story" for alter memory.
7. Kai plans - guard upstairs possible drugs, guard on stairs - anything. Woman - could be anything. Alter memory on the mage and 2nd guard - 2nd guard "saved" the mage from the 1st guard - 1st guard went nuts from the combat drugs. Aswon - can we probe the guard to see if he has any history or feelings / suspicions?
8. Plan to stab the mage carefully (biotech roll) and leave the knife in as an obvious clue, Shimazu+Hunter roll security procedures - ok tests, make out possibly it was an attempted rape fuelled by drugs.
9. Backup guard: mind probe for a story that fits with rooftop guards character and alter memory that after he heard the noise he came round the corner and caught Roof guard standing over mage with a bloody knife. Chased him into toilets, scuffle, he bludgeoned roof guard but got slammed into the wall.
10. Roof guard: beaten with backup guards rifle, in toilets.
11. Her: fake reopening of stab would, lying in corridor.
12. Mind probe - check it wasn't a friendship between two guards
13. Cleansing of everything on backup guard at all costs. Shimazu biotech test, give the guard the inhaler while unconscious, then it's in his system - then beat him to death.
14. Drag him down, alter memory and cleanse, Sterilise, cleanse healing spell (failed, takes stun, HPT), stab the mage, inhaler in guard 1, Shimazu kill guard 1 with rifle bludgeon, plant guard 2 and bloody rifle in area.
15. Marius - fire is dying down, thinks about sending toy drone - too far and night time, does nothing.
16. All back up to the roof, rope down, Aswon comes last with Gecko crawl. Back out the way they came in, using vegetation and long way round. Tads sets watcher spirit on guard on the roof looking for guard alarms, come find her if alarm is raised. 30 mins down to the bottom of the hill, slow walk past the sensor, another 30 mins to get back to the bay and down the ropes, Aswon brings up the rear with the ropes. Big leap to the boat, safe landing.
17. Now nearly 23:00
18. Tads goes to examine boat wreckage - thinks she can find the location from the fuel slick / flotsam, nothing live though, heads back.
19. Aswon - so what's the blag? Kai - can we do a recon flight? Tads yes - I can cover with a vehicle mask, or invisible - but while we can hide physically, we'll glow magically. Kai - just want to know if there's active magical defences, spirits on guard etc.
20. Tads does a recon - perception 10+2X9s, stealth 5 - but doesn't get spotted, 2 F6 fire+1 F6 air elemental.
21. Tads suggests resting - been going all day, might be dangerous to move in now. Risk of them moving Harley,
22. Engine dies on boat, tries to fix - Marius default to rotorcraft B/R - rerolls, fails, tries again, fails. Hunter tries engineering - fails.
23. Tads gets a sea spirit to start pushing the boat towards the fortress, talk about possible defences on the island, 100 guards, lots of people. Might be Wujen on site - but elementals were seen, might be bound for a year. May ALSO be spirits / shamans there, but not seen. Tads - may have spare mages - Aswon, or might be equal opportunities. On a base that size, may have several phys-ads+shamen, based on odds. Could try to kill them, the mage won't necessarily know if they are banished / destroyed. Discuss water breathing potions, have at least a couple.
24. Kai - we need to work out a plan, but also the story, explain how he's gone and work out what they'll do in response. Aswon suggests a phantasm of a fast chopper/VTOL to "escape" noisily, and cover their own slower escape. Kai suggests shark attack. Tads - he needs to survive, so he can appear again later at home. Kai - that's for Chun to decide, we just need to save him.
25. Shimazu - put picture of Mount Fuji, very obviously Japanese, maybe ties to the Yakuza. Tads - suggest Kai stay with Marius on the boat to do blagging.
26. Elementals on perimeter patrols, always in sight of another one, about 50m up - so good lines of sight.
27. Ten minutes of discussion, try engine again, Marius starts her up.
28. Aswon thinks about elementals - likely orders, get Shimazu to help. RR - couple of successes. Probably "report all magical intruders, any physical intruders except in the harbour" Maybe more depending on the nature of the summoner.
29. Aswon expects they will send a boat to inspect us as soon as they get near the fortress. Continue to putter towards the fort. Potential plan to attach to the bottom of any inspection boat and ride in with them...
30. Aswon checks the potions out - magical compounds, worries they may make them ONLY breathe water for the duration, unknown duration.
31. About 12:30, perhaps 10 km short of the island, see a fast boat coming towards them. Aswon+Shimazu drink potions. Hunter on air tank. Tads drops the concealment on the boat. Kai asks for the water spirit to guard the swimmers. Patrol boat closes on them, circle.
32. Searchlight, megaphone "you're late, where have you been". Kai - "engine trouble", Voice - "get to the base, we've got cargo waiting." Circle around. Head back to the fortress. Tads - I guess that was the boat that was on fire - they think we're that boat.
33. 30 mins pass, get to sea wall around harbour, potions just wearing off.
34. Tads - we can fake engine trouble for not leaving on time - just don't hit the "right place"

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 180 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 6: https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8cqop2u4ijnjgi/S...ok%206.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Achrive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Bwhaha. Bwhahahahah. Much grinning and maniacal laughing. But, I’m getting ahead of myself… we’ll come to that bit.
So, picking up from last week, the players were on their boat, just entering the fortress harbour. I think they were feeling a little out of control at this point, as the fortress had “snuck up on them” sooner than expected, and they hadn’t had a great deal of time to plan or prepare – which is exactly where I wanted them to feel. We’ve reached the stage of events where the clock is running in multiple different areas, and the plot is going to progress with our without them – so having that slight feeling of not being entirely in control or seeing the whole picture is exactly what I was aiming for!
Once they’d landed though and made initial contact, the first NPC having mouthed off at them and told them in no uncertain terms that this was not a friendly place to be, they had a chance to do a little recon and plan the assault. It was somewhat amusing to watch them coming up with a number of plans to then immediately shoot them down as they relied on active magical use up on the surface, which would of course trip the magical alarm – forcing them to fall back onto the old fashioned stealth and sneaking skills. Contrasting against that, as soon as they got underground (in air-con tunnels described as being just over 1 Bruce Willis in either dimension…) they got to power up and do an astral recon, quickly providing them with information on the facility – and then of course slapping them with fresh worries when they discovered the warded areas.
Stealthily crawling through tunnels and going for the quiet and safe option, they crept through the base, and I thought they were going to get to the security doors, Marius would work his magic on the lock, and in they’d go…
But no – they decided that finding the boss, slapping a rating 10 tranquiliser patch on him in his sleep, and then mind probing him for information was a MUCH better idea! This at least did give them easy access through the security systems, and also will lead to much confusion on the side of the badguys as they try to work out what is going on!
So, they finally make it into the prison cell area. We’re a little bit beyond our normal finishing time, but everyone is caught up in getting to Harley and getting the rescue done. They’re creeping stealthily forward, deal with the security – and then I describe the massive pool of blood covering the floor at the cell door.
All goes quiet for a moment, and I can see the crestfallen expressions on a couple of faces as they’re thinking “crap, we’re too late”. Then a babble of voices as they all try to work out what’s going on, and what they’re going to do about. Some investigation, and they quickly realise that not only is Harley not dead, but that he’s had the rudeness to bust himself out of prison, rather than waiting politely for the cavalry to turn up!
That’s where we called it for the night – it’s going to be interesting next week to see what happens when the alarm is raised and the base goes on high alert as a result of Harley’s trail of destruction through the base, leaving a bunch of mutilated corpses behind him. I’m especially looking forward to the look on their faces when they manage to make it back to their boat and find Harley there trying to steal it… 😊


And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 18/9/2060, Location: 21.90548, 114.05599, Time 21:45
2. Tads recalls memory of Siu Wong - details of 1st warehouse / factory. Perception check, spot missile batteries and 1-2 guards per battery.
3. Launch weapon checks - combo surface+air missiles, quad shot, short range. Tads starts to mentally prepare trid-phantasm dodging escape route.
4. Check the spirits - ignoring the team boat entirely. SUT rolls, Angels wings
5. Check for boats - tied up on the harbour, 1 speedboat, the one they saw is not there.
6. Tads - Marius, can you take the tape off, marking the spot so we can fake the engine failing? Aswon - will just leave a clean X!
7. Lamp - flashing to Marius to go to the left end of harbour. Single guard at the moment.
8. Aswon - we can launch an assault, kill as we go, take out the SAMs, just deal with it. Or stealth it. Kai - how about we tell them we were followed, pirates out there, hired crew - don't speak Mandarin, going to kill them later. Tads - suggest Russian or Azerbaijani, English is likely to be a 2nd language.
9. Aswon - so are we staying on the boat, or sneaking off. Kai - yeah, just you sneak. Aswon, gets Spear and Purdey and goes over the side.
10. Hailed from the short - you, filthy dog, late, going to kill you, OTT. Senior guard comes out,
11. Kai waves for attention, senior guard comes, explains they were tailed, to the SW. Guards asks for type - a skiff. Ok - will tell the patrols. Another reason was engine troubles, dirty foreigners. Do you have tools? No - you'll have to fix it yourself. Pee over the side, dump oil over the side, What's your name? Xu. Loading 8-9 in the morning.
12. Aswon checks the hut for windows to the north, hut has a latch door. A dozen boats, 3 loading at the moment, standard cargo crates. No warded buildings. Aswon masks all his powers, works across to the hill and starts to dry off in cover. Look, find the 4th elemental, clockwise guards, Kai asks about water elementals, Tads - very likely, and I'll be out of my element, best to assume there is one there. Kai - can we send a magical watcher? Aswon - unlikely to report to summoner if it's on remote service. tads - probably to report to someone local, then deal with it. And they may have an earth elemental inside. Aswon - more likely a hearth, given the nature of the triads.
13. Thinking about sneaking into the fort, gecko crawl on the roof - prompts Tads memory of the inside of the fort, some cover but not good for travelling.
14. Aswon moves up, looking for sensors and systems, spots passive intrusion systems. Does some recon - spots NW tunnel, air con vents, comes back a bit to report.
15. Kai - musing about having a spirit get to another boat and do something to attract attention. Or make a physical distraction. Kai distracts the guards while the rest sneak over. Elementals pass every 2 mins, guards on a 10 min walk back and forth. Tads, watchers to snore, 1 to say in English "we're fixing the boats". Kai - can we set up a smoke grenade booby trap? 15 mins pass, one boat ready to depart, some issue, guards from shack move down.
16. Wait for the right spot in elemental rolls, sneak across stealth scores - Kai 14, Shimazu 10, Hunter 17, Marius 16, Tads 5 - perception check max = 4.
17. All up on the top, undetected. Check HVAC - big enough based on age and passive systems. Marius and Shimazu good rolls for defences, fungi and moulds
18. Get top cover off, HVAC drops 3m then curves to the north. Aswon scouts, tunnel is solid, noise coming from the source rooms. Risk an astral look, all quiet. Tads suggests she goes down to do full astral scout. Aswon filters noises out. Get basic layout of site. Spots 4 phys ads, uninitiated, not astrally perceiving. More recon, getting the rest of the layout mapped out.
19. Tads - can leave a spirit with a physical mask present to cover him being missing. Very cunning plan! Scout out accommodation areas, get the splits.
20. Aswon - tads, can you go, manifest, look physically at doors and assess. Spiral staircase in the middle, guard nook, guards on top smoking a spliff.
21. Come to the conclusion that the secure areas are on separate air-con systems. Thinking about going up the top to recce - remember the spirits, more risky.
22. Now about 3am, Hunter scouts up top, finds 2 X separate air con systems, Tads suggests chemical analysis to detect people inside, does, works well.
23. Suggest that Tads searches the one in the least occupied room to cut that out first. Check out the luxury suites - occupied except for one room. Plan to infiltrate physically, Shimazu as a guard so they can do mind probe. Astral scout, find Kot Siu Wong in his bunk. Check for maglocks - find the different maglock ratings / confinement rooms. Could take spirit in, ask it to materialise and hit the release button on Kot's room.
24. Tads and Shimazu stealth down to Kot's place, 11 each/ Get in ok past the guards, trank him, F2 - where is Harley, what is the code, who else is there. What are the security measures - retinal scan+code 9510357. Codes are stored in the security system in the 3C area.
25. Grab him, take him to the security door, wrapped in a trid phantasm. Casts F6 trid phantasm, 6 successes, cast in a wardrobe.
26. Get down into the security area, spot one door open, pool of blood. Aswon, adjust the camera view, to some doors,
27. Bloody footprint onto the exit, guard down, shattered ribs, definitely dead. Blood is 10-15 mins old. Trace back to main corridor, alert rest of team. Harley has not taken the guards gun - Marius and Hunter spot.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 181 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 6: https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8cqop2u4ijnjgi/S...ok%206.pdf?dl=0
The story at FanFiction: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718688/1/Smu...Shadowrun-Story
The story at Achrive Of Our Own: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26978617?..._full_work=true

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Picking up from the “cliffhanger” last week, the team started chasing down Harley, following the bloody footprints through the base and discovering some of the trail of bodies left behind during his escape. The team approached it just right in my opinion – still moving with stealth and caution, so they didn’t run around a corner into some goons and trigger a massive gunfight that was sure to rouse the whole base. What they didn’t know of course that there was a “clock” running, and that the alarm was going to go up soon regardless – either as the prison guards noticed the cell and bodies, or the guards on patrol in the main corridor was missed… and with every extra body that was left lying around, the odds increased that someone was going to notice something.
Of course when the alarm went off, stealth took a back seat, and they hustled back to the boat – just in time to see Harley attempting to steal their ride, and giving me a nice chuckle at their indignant and outraged responses.
The gun battle was predictably short and very one sided as the only guard that noticed Marius was obliterated, along with his partner before they could report in, and the team then worked out just how much of an offensive they needed to go on to balance their discoverability and chance to escape. With careful use of silenced weapons they managed to clear out the defences that could target them, and then used the trid-phantasm spell to distract everyone and cover their escape.
On that note – the illusion went off about as well as they could have asked. Ali got a big handful of successes – 8 in total – giving them a rock solid display with lots of extra details to sell the narrative, and against the average / pedestrian intelligence stats of the guards, it was thoroughly compelling.
Once they were away I gave them a nice calm journey back without any random encounters, and they were hoping to hand over Harley and be done – before the next twist hit them and they found that the Triads had already taken Chun over to the location for the fight.
So now they’re going to grab a bit of rest and then head over in plenty of time to resolve the issue with Chun and the Triad – or so they think. What’s actually going to happen is that a storm is going to hit the area making sailing / flying all but impossible for a while, running down that “spare” time on the clock, and leaving them with just enough time to get to Macau to arrive at the fight as it’s happening – so they can do a heroic entry scene, prove they have Harley and then watch the resulting fireworks as Chun demonstrates why he’s a martial arts master… or he will do once they’ve applied a bit of biotech and healing to get him back on his feet after the beating he’s been taking because he thinks he has to save his son’s life.
But, that’s to come – so it’s time to go make sure my maps and plans for the sports arena are ready, and the images I’ve repurposed from some UFC / Boxing competitions are ready to use as reference shots for the players, along with some crowd noises and cheers to help set the atmosphere.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 19/9/2060, Location: 21.80191, 113.7303, Time 04:30
2. Following the bloody footprints, through the door, follow footprints to first hab area, perception checks -
3. Shimazu taking Kot Siu Wong with, Kai wants a hostage. Tads thinking he was going to be put back. Marius spots return footprints, points it out to people. Marius thinks it's a decoy trail. Tads mentions using a create water to remove bloodstains - rest of team think bad idea, take too long.
4. Kai - idea, drop spells, go astral, look for him. Manifest, stop him. Tads
5. Find guard at the next corner, battered.
6. Aswon - he's heading out, go, catch up with him, hide him with water breathing potion, just sleaze out..
7. Kai - someone fast run ahead, he's murdering everything in his path, Tads - go astral. Explains to rest, he wants to interrogate the guy for phat loot in the base, or bank accounts etc. Aswon not so keen, but goes along with.
8. Tads finds two fresh bodies on the spiral staircase, but has just missed Harley. When she's back, Kai asks for Kot to be mind-probed as they are leaving the base. Only 2 success on mind probe - basic details only on the warehouse, details of his personal accounts with siphoned funds. Tads relays details to Marius.
9. Alarm goes off, lights turn on, klaxxon sounding. Check weapons. Still keeping the body. Kai - last mindprobe, defence situation - massive violence response. Tads - hide him in a bush up top. Aswon, or leave him on the stairs as a distraction. Kai - take him up and out, stash outside. Aswon - if we find the kid and he wants to kill this guy, do we let him? Kai, don't think we can stop him!
10. Spot the elementals moving at speed, actively searching the perimeter. Look for tracks for Harley. Spot them heading for their own boat. Aswon in normal voice "Harley. Chun sent us, we're here to help"
11. Get to top of the hill, spot two more bodies at the guard shack, and Harley just climbing into their boat.
12. Kai+Shimazu to go and try to stop him. Aswon - try not to kill him Shimazu... Shimazu - it's alright, got plenty of filler.
13. Stealth check to get past guards on the missile battery. Marius RR, RR again, spotted by one guard. Shoots, one success - 9M, soaked.
14. Roll init
15. Shimazu 22 - runs to the shack - spots the guard down with same pattern of damage
16. Aswon 20 - shooting at MP guard. In the face, dead. Then crouches
17. Kai 19 - into the shack, grab the phone, random dials numbers
18. Hunter 18 - spots the missile battery turning towards the team. 60m away. Called shot face, single shot down.
19. Marius 13 - runs for the boat
20. Tads 13 - run for the boat
21. Marius -"Harley, stop fucking with my boat!" Martial arts stance, then looks confused. Marius jumps on to boat and shouts "get out of the way". Spots bloody foot and trainers.
22. Kai on phone to command room - "prisoner on top of island with the boss, get there now! Bang bang, cuts off the phone."
23. Marius starts the engine. - all good.
24. Kai to Aswon, wait 30 seconds for guard reactions, then vtol.
25. Hunter and Aswon, shooting at 2nd missile battery on sea wall, called shots. Both down.
26. Boat down at the end of the quay, mistaken identity, guards riddle the boat, gunfire explodes, spotted by team.
27. Harley "who the fuck are you and what are you doing"? Kai - "friends of your dad, here to rescue you, shush."
28. Hunter slapping grenade launcher on AR, Aswon unpacking the big gun.
29. Shimazu passes helmet to Harley and tells him to keep his head down.
30. Marius course - heading mostly towards the sea wall, but not hugging it as he's not a good pilot. Kai call for trid phantasm on the boat - shot down.
31. Hunter smokes - one to centre of docks, one to centre of island. Middle first, way off target, 2nd on target on the docks, lands near the doors. Big billows of smoke, mental shouting on the docks and more gunfire. Aswon takes out guard #1 on battery 3. Hunter gets big rifle out for Aswon
32. !roll 12d6 t4 !F5 Trid-phantasm of our old helicopter appearing out a ripple in the air, pulling up a Harley on a rope (keeping it all moving so they can't shoot him) and with armoured troopers at the doors with guns pointing out and down and firing, with Mount Fuji symbol on the sides. Prepare for starbursts to put off rockety things, as it'll turn once HArley is on the rope and speed off into the distance, ie, get smaller). Will be 2 D to drain - 8 x 2s. 8 successes Chopper on east side of island
33. Aswon Serious damage on the 2nd guard. Shoots, RR, takes out the 2nd guard.
34. Helicopter bungy guards, angel wings, door gunners, missile shoots, dodges, gaining height.
35. Hunter firing ex-ex grenades onto dock to add to confusion.
36. Speedboat casting off at the far end of the harbour. Aswon aims, counters all but waves, shooting at the speedboat. Takes it out with AV, catches fire, hard kill.
37. Missiles shooting at the chopper, elementals closing in to destroy, Tads tries to make it speed off and then "explode" in mid-air.
38. Marius pilots boat out through middle of channel, Tads manipulates spell to make chopper explode before spell dies.
39. Out and away, island still shooting and alarmed, escaped in the dark. Tads cleanse signature.
40. Harley looking amazed at Aswon/Hunter. Kai asked for story. Drugged in nightclub, trainers stolen. Never saw the boss, escaped
41. Kai - you need to behave, your family is in danger. Kai - they think you're dead, you need to keep quiet so you can surprise them. When did you last eat. Get him food, biotech (bruised foot), assense. Normal human, mundane, essence 6, nothing special. Kai asks Hunter to check for bugs.
42. Shimazu double checks Assense - non magical. Pretty stressed, understanably. Attuned to boots. Talks about swords, shares love of things.
43. Tads goes to sleep against the background noise of rambling about boots.
44. About 5am, about 5km south of the fortress. About 95km back to shek-o, skirting around the fortress visibility. Resummon at dawn, 5 hour journey back to Shek-o, no distractions Tads makes bananas for Harley. Dock back at Shek-o ok.
45. Tads - he shouldn't be "dead" to his family if we can help it, we can mask him. Marius - think Chun should go through with the fight, they can ask for proof of life, won't be able to produce. Aswon approves of Chun knowing.Kai don't want to call Chun - our phones are secure, his might not be.
46. Marius, get Chun into the tilt-wing - we can do encrypted call to the bird ok. Marius - chun has to go through with things to avoid them thinking the raid was to do with harley/chun.
47. Kai - ask Vadim to bring a box to put bad guys sword and Harleys shoes in, to avoid tracking rituals.
48. Tads tells Vadim to get Chun, he's gone to Macau, taken by the triads. Proof of life for Harley to his mom. Get number for Nicola.
49. Kai - let's get accountant to get us to the fight, we have info on the boss skimming money. Aswon concerned about it being a trap. 100km to macau, time to sleep and refuel, can still get there before fight. Shimazu psych - Chun will want proof of life, reassuring to see him. Plan disguise physical.
50. Kai planning to go talk to accountant lady, do betting, reveal dirty laundry. Aswon - absolutely not, don't tie us to Harley. Suggests going simple just want to bet. Leave the dirt as a parting gift. Kai - or try and turn her, Aswon - no, that places us at the scene. Just go and put a bet on him!
51. Vadim comes over with the van, get back, get some sleep, going to head back over in the boat.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 182 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 6: https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8cqop2u4ijnjgi/S...ok%206.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, it was the end of this little story arc – the climactic fight between Chun and the Triad in a packed sports arena under the eyes of millions. I was expecting it to have a bit more detail, but the story just seemed to turn into a monster of a writeup, We only played for the normal session duration, but I think because we were generally doing narrative play, and there was no combat and actually fairly few ability / skill checks, it went fairly quickly – and of course as the GM I was pushing the pace on this one to try and build an air of tension and drama, and because at this points events were taking place to a number of different timetables, some of which the players had very little control over.
With the convenient engine failure, the team arrived at the “nick of time” to the sports arena, and the NPC used their knowledge of big fights and how they were broadcast to shove people down towards the right plot path. I’d prewarned Kai’s player that he would be using his social skills and had to come up with a narrative to delay events, and that I would send him a series of notes with a direction / theme on for him to improv around. That gave him a bit of a chance to flex and really lean into his role, without having him just read from a script. In the notes were several *pause for GM narration* cues, so I knew he wouldn’t go rambling on for too long, and that let me either describe what was happening, or cut away to Hunter’s player to make a quick change on the computer as to what sound or visual effects to fire up from the arena system to tie in and help the story along.
Overall it seemed to work pretty well, and they got the idea that they needed to blind / overwhelm the audience so that nobody would notice the visual cue from the healing spell, and that let them get Chun back on his feet and in a position to win the fight. After the deed was done, it was perception checks all around, and then I slid the picture of Mr Kuro onto the screen that I was sharing. I think only Kai recognised it immediately, and his face was a picture – but the others caught on then, and then they realised they were in a really weird place… they’d cost the Triads a bunch of money and no small amount of prestige – but the Dragon who had given them the job was there, and he restrained the Triads from taking action… at least immediately. They bugged out pretty quickly afterwards, not wanting to risk anything, and by this point of the evening I was happy enough to give them a simple and easy journey back home.
The team made 190K from their gambling efforts, taking them to a total of about 470K in the bank – still well short of the 600K they need to fix the tilt-wing. However, Chun has also been pulling some strings behind the scenes, using his influence to help, and Spook (Aswon’s contact) and her friends have made out like absolute bandits, so he’s got a little bonus pay coming from that. It should be enough to give them the cash to pay for the repairs, and to cover fuel costs for the rest of the journey, but not much else – so they’ll need to be on the lookout for jobs as they carry on with the main Volcano job, just to build up that cash reserve again. Sounds like lots of plot opportunity to me!

We have reached a good point to award Karma, and based on the time since the last award (30 sessions!) and what they've achieved, they're in for a good chunk - everyone is due at least 20 I think, and probably a bit more. They've also got 3-4 days of downtime available while the engine repairs are finished, so there's time to initiate, learn some skills, do some training and even a little shopping. So - expect "training montage" in next weeks story writeup!! I'll also update the character sheets again, and republish those, updating the links on the first post if anyone is interested.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 19/9/2060, Location: 22.22744, 114.24966, Time 11:00
2. Everyone to bed except Aswon, who does some stretches, in the yard near the t-bird. Tads asks about hiring a pilot for the boat, to keep Marius fresh. Aswon thinks it's dangerous, and would cost - pirate infested waters. Owner might blanche / want too much money. Marius goes to sleep in the bird, because he's been away too long... Tads herds everyone through the ward at least once.
3. Kai gets the number for Nicole from Mrs Chun. Kai calls Nicole, says hello, where is the boss, where are you, is it a ticket event, I can get you tickets. How did you get there - mention IDs, come in by boat.
4. Kai asks Tads for an astral flyby for recon. Tads takes Vadim. Dome is warded to F3 in pieces, 2 X F4 air elementals on long term patrol in astral.
5. Rain starts to intensify as time goes on, Aswon gets under cover and starts studyig the map. Checks the weather, tropical storm, 24 hour.
6. Rudi is instructor left behind. Aswon reminds Harley that he needs to lay low or risk bringing danger to people. Harley goes to a quiet dojo to train.
7. Weather kicks off, airport and ferries not open until midday monday - Marius
8. Tads suggest getting over by legitimate means, not taking gear. Aswon not keen, others nodding agreement.
9. Kai contacts Nicole - asking about betting. Where are you, trapped by storm. She has no idea about the betting, look on the matrix? Kai calls, she was waiting, got very wet - sounds pissed. Tell me you've got his lucky black belt? Kai goes to check if he has a lucky black belt. 3 tatty, one posh for grading. Call back, we have the lucky BB, good. Triads are holding Chun in a training area on site. Ask for some details.
10. Aswon asks what force spirit you would need to do a crossing in safety. Tads magic check, 11+8, needs at least F6 great form.
11. Kai asks Harley about betting - go on the matrix, legit IDs needed. Story, Man's fart / dead badger.
12. Aswon thinking about using their corp for the betting, long term IDs, not tied with recent events. Shimazu suggest spreading out over multiple bookies. Law checks - may trigger alerts from using the foundation.
13. Matrix check from Hunter - Chun is fighting, on the cards, fighting Wei Lei, odds are 2:1 and 16:1
14. Discussion about odds, fuel, slush fund, travel expenses. Working out how much they need for the tilt-wing, 600k + needed.
15. Tads - we can't even guarantee he'll win / lose - Chun, personal honour, will fight hard. Shimazu - he has to know, Aswon - not yet, may learn soon from Nicole, but all up in the air. Tads - we can invalidate the fight by revealing he's magic. Aswon - will ruin his rep, and we'd lose the money as he hasn't won.
16. Aswon calls spook, what do you know about the local fight scene. Describe the mix between high and low rollers. Please tell me you haven't fucked it up. Pissing down, but I have to see people. Appreciate a text if the wind is blowing in the right direction. Aswon - Nanosecond buyout, sure...
17. Break out the suits from when they went to see Kolkachev / cable car.
18. Ask Vivian/Harley if Chun can hear ultrasound - they have no idea. Ask for theme music - Enter the Dragon by the Sons of Thunder. Ask Hunter to download the song. Aswon - practice the chorus, to get his attention, getting crowd singing, then display placards.
19. Find the art supplies / t shirt printing. Make stuff up over night. Kai - spray painting skill. RSRT. Tads - chanting. Both successes
20. In the morning, storm is dying down, damage all up and down the coast. Tads finds pharmacy to get travel sickness tablets. Kai talks to Harley - there for one reason, just to convince your dad you're alive. Aswon asks for hair dye for Harley, reading glasses etc.
21. Kai explain to Vadim to stay and look after Vivian / the baby, keep them safe. Then gets Hunter to transcribe the details about Kot and his skimming to a data chip.
22. F5 great form, 3 services.
23. Marius getting out of the harbour on 10s, 1 success after spending 1GH. Kai calls Nicole to advise on the way. Aswon asks to book a harbour berth legit - using Kai's, get Hunter to do paperwork, filled in like a boss.
24. engine dies halfway over, takes about 30 mins to get back in action.
25. As they land, Nicole calls, fight has moved up - gives code phrase to shout out.
26. Aswon taser staff, Kai - no weapons, Marius - pistol, Shimazu - vibroknife, Hunter - pistol+knife, Tads - walking staff. Leave spirit conceal+guard boat. But approaching dusk
27. Outside is busy, Chun is getting battered, looks like he's losing, wearing tutu. Round 3. Distribute placards and credsticks. Spot Nicole, waves the team over. Nicole - need to do wax on, can you do without the light?
28. Kai asks about betting, it's important, get us in. Punches Harley, then turns and runs inside.
29. Points rest of team down to ringside, Hunter and Marius upstairs.
30. Nicole takes out security guard, Hunter grabs lanyard, up to media room. Nicole ready to charge the door - Hunter "stop" - multipass.
31. into the media room, Nicole takes out the 2nd guard.
32. Marius gun out, spots the silent alarm
33. Hunter get to work on the computer.
34. Back to gound team, end of round 5. Harley shouts to Simi, Tads closes to touching range.
35. Kai - son is safe, wife is protected. Rolls Biotech. Chun is on his last legs - won't last another round at this page
36. Aswon rushes off to find Bookie with Shimazu.
37. Kai goes for distraction - climbs up onto ropes, commanding voice, starts the song chant. 11 on Charisma - shout of "Chun Fu" - you all know him, the black dragon!
38. Shimazu, 1 bookies at Up to 50k bet at 2:1 (200k)
39. Aswon, 1 at Up to 30k bet at 3:1 (90k)
40. Tads does full serious heal, 2 success into time, drains ok.
41. Anger from the other side, ref coming over listening to comms, looking angry,
42. Aswon - do we want to get Harley out. Kai - no, let him see his dad win, then get him out.
43. Techy starts to help out Hunter.
44. Kai - spots Mr Kuro, in the vip box. Kai nods subtly, then throws more t-shirts into the crowd.
45. Marius - electronics test. 19m PPV. Going viral. Kai messages team to look for Lo Han / Wa Fan.
46. Aswon pushing out, trying to get Harley out - ok. Lo han gets thrown under the bus, by the old triad guy after Kuro gives a wave.
47. Marius gets Hunter on comms "time to get out" - thanks for help and cooperation, goodnight. Hunter "and that's how you do a show", leave with a flourish. Hunter to kai "where do you want us?" Kai to H - get to Aswon and get the money. Shimazu, get to Chun", shimazu hands bet slip over to Kai.
48. Past Dusk, Tads heads out to get back to boat and do spirits / concealed.
49. Collect on winnings, 190k.
50. Guard just recovering on the way back from the media room, knocked back out. Wipe the pass and put it back on him.
51. Message to Nicole, location of boat, talk about what to do.
52. Agree to take Harley back, meet up back at the academy. Ask Chun if he has number for Wa-Fan. No.
53. Spot a navy corvette on the way back, tail it and avoid pirates. All get back to Academy.
54. Kai heading to Wa Fan to "sell" the information about Kot in exchange for a discount at the repair shop.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 183 is now published, and can be found:-
Added to the end of Book 6: https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8cqop2u4ijnjgi/S...ok%206.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:
With the “Chun Fu” arc done, it was time to award karma for the team. After nearly 30 episodes from the last break, most of them were running low on rerolls, and they’d spent a bit of karma on some successes, so they were starting to feel the pinch. With a few days left over until the engines were ready, it was a good time to stop, take a breath and reflect on events – and get some good training time in.
I think the minimum karma award was 20, with the top end at 24 – so it was a good chunk that was very usable. It also puts everyone into Karma Pool 11, which is not bad going. Shimazu and Tads wanted to initiate, which pretty much tied them up for the duration, while the others had some skills to work on too, so there was a lot of discussion about what they wanted to do and a chunk of housekeeping on the night, with not so much RP (though there was some between Spook and Aswon, and Kai got to have a lovely chat with Wa Fan… I was just hoping he didn’t mess it up and get butchered for wandering into the Lions Den!) so fortunately that made a simple writeup.
They’ve ended up using a fair few days to get through this bit, so they’re under some time pressure now to crack on and get round the rest of the ring of fire and visit the other 10 volcanoes. In game it’s 25/09/60, and they have until 09/10/60 to get the job done – so as long as they can keep going at 1 volcano per day, they should be ok. No pressure at all…
Some of them will be very quick, and should be quite easy – there’s one in Japan in particular where they can land in the car-park and walk 100m up a nice path to get to the “volcano” to plant the token. There’s others though that are going to be a cast iron bitch – when they get to Alaska in the middle of a storm and find the temperature hitting -40, it’s going to be survival tests all round. Should all work out in the end though.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Tuesday 21/9/2060, Location: 22.22744, 114.24966, Time 08:00
2. Landed back at Shek-O about 2am, Kai off to nightclub, rest back to the academy
3. Bouncer lets him in, still smartly dressed, bar + club quiet, asks for Wa Fan, is there a problem? Ask to see her, Kai from the Dojo. Comes back, points to a booths, take a seat. Kai goes to the next booth only. Comes over, good evening, you asked to see me. Just wanted a quick word, busy night. Did you see the fight - yes, interesting. come into some information, you've been straight with us. Have a look at this, she leans in and flirts/mesmarises him - bad perception check. Kai says I'll give you the info, tell you my problems see what you can do. I'll leave this with you - passes stick over. ASks what it is, it's details of embezzelment, for you to deal with quietly. Takes the stick, leans back, smiles. Kai - got any plans? Dinner? No - premature. Bodyguards have turned up and are staring. Kai finishes drink. "Lovely, hope to see you soon." Bows. Flick of the hand, bouncers part, Kai leaves.
4. In the morning, dawn prayers for Tads, then get Vadim to build F1 lodge for them both, takes until lunchtime. Astral quest with Vadim, F1 to reduce learning cost of a spell. Place of Magic (L-S), Knowledge (L-P), Citadel, 3 hour duration, end of day 1.
5. Start of day 2 - initiate. Firm quest idea for protection. 3rd person protection quest for Vadim as he does his quests, guarding against sniping spirits. Takes until the end of day 5
6. Text message from Spook, lunch today? Good night? Yes, for our consortium. Lots less stabby than when he last met her.
7. Harikona - human fixer, some links to the Yakuza, works with a variety of smugglers. Charges 10K.
8. Spook goes to do training. Aswon perception - rubbish roll, only gets "no more problem with those guys then?"
9. Kai calls H, to arrange transport, likely to be in the next few days. Asks Spook about a Talismonger nearby for astral ward materials
10. Weds 22 - no activity, no random encounters. Discussion about making money
11. Thurs 23 - no activity, engine on test overnight
12. Friday 24th - engines done, Chun ready to collect
13. HK Talismonger - Clara Wu Tsai, *.9 warding materials + spells
14. Kai goes to negotiate, Chun has done a deal, bill is only 500k. Aswon confirms to spook leaving in 24 hours.
15. Tads and Shimazu done Friday 24th. Engines arrive friday lunchtime. Engine refitting test, 18 hours, broke down to two shift, to leave saturday night. Check cash - 47.8k, no money for shopping.
16. Tads calls Clara, hellos, magical art stuff, want to visit. In for 1 day, high force ward team, who can vouch, spook, call back 20 mins
17. Group can do 2550 cubic meters in one go. 3 successes @F10
18. Wild magic test - 15, all auras are visible. Minor electronic corp
19. Saturday night, engines are all done, engines are 5% up on economy

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 184 is now published, and can be found:-
The start 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, here we are at the start of another “book” - #6 had gotten to be 265k words, and with only 4 volcanos done, there was no way that was going to work for the rest of the arc. So, with the reasonably major “Chun” arc dealt with, and the two boxes of damage to the aircraft fixed (and 20% of the base value paid), that seemed like a pretty good break point.
Originally they’d said they were going to Taiwan, but changed their minds at the start of the session, heading to Shanghai instead after looking at the map of available routes and distances. That gave me a chance to drop the contact in with the Otaku, and also clue in Kai that one of his IDs was burnt – I’m not sure he’s really rationalised it in though – maybe one of the other team members will poke him when they read through the writeup. Unfortunately his ID had a flaw (using the system in Sprawl Survival Guide) and had hit the expiration date – fortunately it’s not his “good” ID, which is still solid.
Anyway, once they’d worked that out, refuelled and had take a job (just a delivery of a chip with some sensitive code on it that they didn’t want to send over the Matrix to their contact back in Seattle – let’s see if I can get them to drop that off at the arcology!) it was on to volcano #5.
My planning notes for #5 had this:
5. 32.65689, 128.84845: Volcano #5 - Fukue Island, Japan, 240m, steep but shallow, just up the hill from the playground
Arriving on an exceptionally clear day/night, which coincides with an astronomical event means the volcano is heaving with people with telescopes and cameras, and the nearby observatory is fully manned - chances of being spotted are incredibly high. Fukue island is at the perfect position to view the event, and people have travelled hundreds of miles for the optimum viewing experience, bringing in a lot of tourist income. The town has bought into the event and is having a "dark skies" night, with almost the entire area blacked out, to help. They have also rerouted commercial traffic, drones and non-essential air cabs (leaving only emergency services) to further cut down on pollution. As a result, any atmospheric aberrations (such as vehicle stealth, invisibility etc) are much more likely to be spotted. There are approx 400 tourists with high grade telescopes, cameras, video recorders and some astrally sensitive film cameras around to record the event.
So – it was very much a stealth job. They *did* do a search beforehand, but the rolls were not that great, getting only one result near the TN, and only one at that – so they got weather reports and some information about weather sites being heavily hit, but not the reason why. It was only when they got close – close enough to risk being spotted that they worked out what was going on and had to take emergency action. A bit of a scramble and a rework of the plan, and they found a reasonable route in to drop the token off safely.
In retrospect, I think I was probably too generous with giving them 1km from the volcano centre to play with. I should have cut this down by at least 50%, to force them to get closer to the centre and make it easier to throw realistic hurdles in their way – but it’s too late now, and just a lesson to learn for next time. Some of the drops might be quite easy as a result – but that’s ok, they can have a few nice wins. It just means that some of them (I’m thinking the one in Alaska particularly) are going to be a real bitch… The GM giveth, the GM taketh away.
The main thing I have to do now is go and really devour the section in the magic book about background count and mana warps. Their flight plan to the airport is going to take them almost directly over the centre of Nagasaki… I don’t see that as something too likely to happen again, and definitely want to have some element of that present itself, even if it’s just a narrative device.
Suggestions are very welcome on this one – I’m thinking at the moment that unless someone specifically warns Vadim, he may well be astrally perceiving as they fly through, and get a very nasty shock!

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 25/9/2060, Location: 22.22744, 114.24966, Time 21:00
2. Handling test to take off and leave Chun's - 2 successes, smooth takeoff,
3. Marius thoughts - Shanghai, refuel tank+reserve, volcano, volcano, refill from reserve, volcano, last of reserve, to top smuggler stop. Min time in Japan
4. Aswon - good, behind schedule. Heading for Shanghai - 2 hour flight time
5. Marius - will be a long hard day, 9-10 hours min, but then rest at the end. Kai checks with Tads on spirit summoning, dawn and dusk. Tads - can drop the tokens from a hover. Concern over the refuelling. (M) don't have to refuel at the actual volcano, can do it nearby
6. Looking at doing legit filing to get near local regional airport. Tads suggests medical cover as transplant transport. Hunter suggests NOTE flying and just drop it out of the back. Kai asks Shimazu - anything weird and mystical you have to do? S - no, just be respectful of people...
7. Tads - have we checked weather / atmospheric conditions - make sure we don't trash the engines again. Recap from Aswon on what went wrong the first time.
8. Aswon to Kai - can you get Harikona to do us paperwork for legit filing flight plans internal. Tads - Kai, can you contact the smuggler base to advise we are inbound.
9. Call Harikona - heading to Shanghai now, eta 2 hours, arrive Japan 2 hours later.
10. Tads asks for details of large flocking birds native to the area. Aswon confused. Tads - vehicle mask / concealment
11. Kai - bugged by date, checking for religious festivals etc. Check shinto religion and local knowledge - Hunter gets snippet about "snow monsters" in Volcano #6
12. Harikona comes back after 45 mins, "Short notice huh? Whatever..." flight details for Kumamoto airport - short diversion to get to the volcano from that course. Tads makes sure Vadim gets a copy of Harikona's contact details. Tads says to sort out contact for the Twin Peaks base, Aswon agrees, Kai says no - they don't need it. Tads disagrees - cites South African base. Aswon - ok, if that place can't refuel us, what is plan b? Work out they could, just, get back to Vladivostok.
13. Call Shanghai Noodles, get spectrum loading noise, repeats, passes to Marius. Repeats for 3rd time, then disconnects. Kai - Hunter, this one on you. Works out it's an analogue device, needs to write a custom program to communicate. 3 successes. Gets menu. Choose "arrange landing", maintenance y/n? N, Fuel y/n, Y, Enter fuel amount. Tanks+barrels 2600, Chooses JP5 Deluxe. Additional services y/n N. Disconnects.
14. Arriving Shanghai about 11pm. Kai checks weather - clear and quiet. Get astral look - BGC2-3, all built up. Great handling coming in. Split between ports, STOL runway. Analogue call, do you wish to land, y/N, Y, landing lights. Goons with AR on slings saunter towards the bird. Kai gets out, greet in Mandarin. Call out in English - "Designation?" User Kai Newfish registered, welcome to the noodles. Are we good to get out and check our vehicle? No additional services were requested. No, no, check it ourselves... no additional services requested! Fuel up - 13k. Physical check on the bird - all looks fine. Did we bug scan before we left? No, much shaking of heads. Run scans now.
15. Portly lank, greasy, otaku - designation, No additional services. Flying visit - humour detected. Laugh.wav. Menu available? Reputation insufficient for menu. Available for work? Yes... in the right direction. Insufficent rep for missions to that destination... awwww. K-additional information. Possible trip to west coast of UCAS. Query - possible location Seattle? Yes. Possible delivery 1kg, 3-4 weeks maximum. Reimbursement parameters. Payment proposal - 30k. Does this include positive reputation bonus? Pause... affirmative. Agreed! Gets thumb pad.
16. Reels off 2 fake IDs and identifies that Kai's #1 id from Ngo is now invalid.
17. Hunter computer check - thinks possible otaku, tied to Deus...
18. Fuelling finished, disappears back into container park, Otaku heads into office to get optical chip. Hunter warns rest of team.
19. Returns, with chip and package in small case. Aswon - is the package sensitive? Package should be fine in container. team ask for his designation - 25 characters. Aswon - can we call you "the noodles" Designation acceptable. Query - additional information required? Kai - no, we're just waiting on a call to get us to our next destination. Aswon - ask him if he's head of Harikona. Query - context. "electronic paperwork". High likelihood fixer, access to japan - reputation, strong. Kai - query on max time to delay here. 3 hours. From time of landing? Affirmative. Do we need to tell you before we leave - negative. Do we get cash on delivery - affirmative.
20. Getting on for midnight. Harikona calls back 12:45 with flight plan+details. Kai hands over to Hunter+Marius
21. Taking off around 01:00, 7 successes on takeoff, head east, stealth check 8+EDs+spirits - no detection.
22. Checking weather report again - Hunter picks up that there is a lot of traffic from Japan to the weather site. Details of astronomical event, queries from university departments etc.
23. No events on way over, checks. Marius spots the dark area from a way off. Shimazu spots a couple of hundred metahumans over the volcano.
24. Details on the blackout from computer search, looking south west. Marius plans to go past and loop around.
25. Marius stealth check on approach - sucks, reroll, still sucks, spend 1GK, gets a 10. Tads does a F7 vehicle mask - Light stun, 6 successes.
26. *nearly* get spotted - 20 vs 22, Land on the golf course, plant token in a tree.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 185 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:
Got a bit of exposition this week, when I looked at the starting position for the evening, and where they were flying to – and it was *straight* over the middle of Nagasaki. I don’t think they’d looked at the map closely, and it was far too good an opportunity to miss out on. With a F10 ward on the tilt-wing, it wasn’t really going to do anything to them, but it was a good place for a spot of world building and to discuss the impact of things like Nukes. In the course of reading up on the Hiroshima/Nagasaki blasts to try and get some context, I was surprised to find out about “operation meetinghouse” – a firebombing strike on 9/10 March 1945 that actually caused more damage and casualties than either nuclear strike. 279 bombers dropped enough ordnance onto Tokyo to kill an estimated 100,000 people, destroy over a quarter of a million buildings and render more than a million people homeless – making it the most destructive raid in history. Despite doing “World War II” during history at school, I’d never heard of this, which just goes to show how much history is written by the victors and what rose tinted glasses we sometimes wear without knowing about it.
Anyway, eye opening reading of WW2 aside, they got past that with a little stun damage, and headed on to the airport, made a smooth landing and schmoozed their way past customs using the fake details from their contact. For 10K Nuyen I was happy to give them an easy visit, so no hassles forthcoming, and after refuelling they made plans to leave. A lucky spot from the tower controller required a bit of fast talking, but again they got through that with a reasonable story and were soon on their way.
Then of course, we roll for random encounters, and get a hit. Second roll to determine what type of random encounter and we get a “positive/beneficial” one. So, a legit flight they can shadow for ¾ of the journey, giving them smooth sailing and helping them get to volcano #6 just before dawn, without any issues.
Great stuff – they land, and go for a quick drop off, and I roll out the priestess to ask them to stop. They carry on, and just when I was thinking they were going to bug out quickly and we’d go to “plan B”, Shimazu decides to bite on the plot hook, and we do a quick swerve. So, they agree (very grudgingly) to delay for 12 hours while the Shinto priests do their ritual, which means that Shimazu got to meet the swordsmith, and find out a little history on his blade, as well as make a new contact.
Based on the clever sharing with the mind-link, I think the NPC is now much more inclined to let the players go with the sword, despite initially him being written as not wanting that (and there being a potential show down at the shrine with a bit of myfic guidance from the ancestors to persuade him to let Shimazu keep it… the whole thing was designed to be a bit of a push for Tom/Shimazu to see how he’d handle a conflict between loosing his weapon foci and alienating someone he should respect from a skill and cultural POV.)
This is one of the things I try to keep in the back of my mind when I’m writing the plot / adventure segments… that old maxim of “no plot survives first contact with the players intact”. That pesky free will nonsense, and self-determination. Sometimes you can put the players on rails, and take them to the action, and it’s entirely appropriate for the situation. Lofywr lands and tells the party to take a knee or die in a fiery blast, well, you’ve got those two options, and no you can’t sweet talk him out of it, or challenge him to Chess. You should know from his reputation that he’s not going to take any shit from you. But balanced against that is trying not to fall so in love with your plots that you push them through regardless of player actions, rendering them as nothing more than passengers in your creative vehicle, which ultimately sucks.
So, the “confrontation” between Shimazu and Isarroko is probably headed off by his pledge/promise/deed – but that also means that two of the party now have magical deeds hinging on defeating the horror, so that’s a thing that really is now pretty certain to happen. Which is going to be fun, because the horror escaped from the temple, and is actually hunting them, so it’ likely to be a lot sooner than the party realise, and on its terms, and not theirs!
All aboard the plot train. Choo choo, mother-frackers!

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 26/9/2060, Location: 32.67595, 128.87782, Time 02:52
2. 92km to Nagasaki, Kai 1, Aswon+Shimazu=3, feeling of doom. 15mins out from start,
3. Overflying Nagasaki, BGC=6. Aswon tells Shimazu to look astrally, Tads trys to shield, both soak 6L,
4. Magic background checks - Tads background on comet crash / Chernobyl, Shimazu - Nagasaki,
5. Ward being attacked by the BGC, spirits very unhappy and want to leave. Magic light - but some meetings happen. Tads asks about other areas - plot Hiroshima / Fukoshima
6. 11 successes on landing at Kumamoto, single airstrip, directed off at first taxiway, English with J accent. Hunter says he's staying hidden. Kai sculpted to look Japanese
7. 2 buggies approach, 1 police, one fuel bowser. Kai and Shimazu get out. One police, one airport officer, checks ID 1 X 11 vs 3 3s, all ok. Not disembarking cargo? No, ok, no customs inspection required. Back in buggy, head off.
8. Buy 920 litres at 3680.
9. 4am ready to go. 630km to next volcano. Planning illegal internal flights, stealth away from airport. Vehicle stealth=14, Vehicle mask spell, F7, 7 successes. Mask as Mitsuhama cargo chopper.
10. Angry voice - Mitsuhama, you do not have clearance. Marius thinks its a visual spot. Kai delegates to Shimazu. Aswon suggests "we have clearance, check your files". Etiquette test for Shimazu vs 3 - 2 success after RR.
11. Random encounter, yes, positive. Fed-ex chopper heading the right direction. Get in the blind spot, all the way to Osaka.
12. Get to local area, a little after 5am. Tads suggests refuel - generally felt not to be worth it yet.
13. Come in for landing. Handling check on 4s, As Aswon gets out, priestess appears. Aswon "Shimazu problem", heads off. Shimazu gets out, heads towards her. Her costume goes mental in the prop wash
14. "No, please stop, you're ruining everything!" Shimazu asks Marius to power down. He does. Aswon at ornamental flower bed.
15. "Please leave, don’t do anything, ruin the rededication." Aswon does phone tourist thing - in Japanese. Shimazu apologies, very sorry. She looks upset with Shimazu, heads over to the rock.
16. Aswon - it'll still be on the mountain, in the shrine though. Kai - maybe, maybe not, let's not risk it.
17. Swordsmith, 2 hander, 60 years old, out of woodland. Engines start to spool up. Shimazu following priestess. Kai gets out and stands by door observing swordsmith.
18. Priestess is searching the rockery. Shimazu arrives "can I help in any way"
19. "working for weeks, balancing harmony, please, don't. It's out of balance." Marius - get it back and find out how big their area is, find somewhere outside that area. Kai - yeah, try that.
20. Shimazu explains they need to leave it, close, anywhere they can put it. She spots it, Shimazu grabs it. Ask them not to pollute, but at least not until after sunset. Tads - can we give it to her.
21. Sword starts heading over. Ten minutes to dawn. Tads suggests leaving a spirit with it to drop at Dusk.
22. Kai to Shimazu - explain politely, ask her if we can park somewhere for 12 hours. Help with the ceremony? For being understanding.
23. At this point they spot she is not magically active, he is, spot the sword - not a weapon foci, positive emotion virgin telesma.
24. Shimazu heading to the chopper, she chats with sword. Then heads to Shimazu, blown about, Shimazu goes to her. She says "Isarroko says you can park in his workshop for 12 hours." Marius thinks about stealth and sleep, might be worth it.
25. Describes where workshop is, eyes fall to sword, speech tails off. Shimazu sees eyes go wide, psychology, recognises it's important.
26. "you obviously recognise this, let's have a chat afterwards." Sits on edge of doorway, grabs stanchion, Aswon offers a carabiner. Marius takes off, he talks them down to his workshop.
27. Aswon asks about snow beasts. Gets explanation.
28. Land, workshop expo, outside 1km.
29. Invited to join rituals, dawn and dusk mostly for sword. Introductions again.
30. Hunter stays hidden, Aswon helps fuel. Kai and Shimazu introduce.
31. Leaving the token in the bird, Shimazu, Kai, Tads, Vadim go up the hill with Sword. Tads lets spirits expire at dawn, does NOT summon new ones.
32. Tads checks astrally during ritual, centering, fluent with blade. two rounds, tea ceremony, singing and chanting.
33. Kai antiques check, two good rolls. Magical societies - very ritualistic, passed down. Wants to take part in tea ceremony and help out, talk after. Lots of antiques. Long ritual.
34. Refuelling goes ok. Marius and Hunter sleeping. Aswon on guard.
35. Tads, Shimazu and Vadim go with Isarroko into forge. Get background count / aspect.
36. Ask to see sword. Silk cloth, presents hands. Examines, wonder in eyes, where did you get it? "Working in Iran, "salvaged" better in the hands of someone who knows it's value.
37. It must be fate. Heads back to house. This is the little brother. Drop of blood on drawing.
38. Shimazu gets silks, examines. Explains GGGGGGgrandfather. Shimazu bows, lifesaver.
39. Asks to heat the blades. Shimazu asks about the blood. Heat both blades, shows the makers marks, its fate. You must have been bought here by destiny...
40. I need to make you a new weapon, you can't leave this here, a warrior without a weapons.
41. Shimazu - hey no. Absolutely no. Why?
42. Fate, reunite as a set. Shimazu offers to show him the mission. Asks Tads for mind-link. Shimazu's greatest hits - fighting spirits, werewolves, attunement, enchantment, bear, tiger shapeshifters, includes being beaten by the Jewish hit squad. End with the horror. Includes the dragons.
43. "I must think on this". Shimazu promises to get the blade back if he dies, his friends will bring it back. Shimazu offers to declare a deed to slay the horror in the family name of Isarroko.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 186 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

Apologies for the slight delay on this one – I got a call that we had a system down at work at 10am Sunday morning, it all went a bit Pete Tong and I didn’t get home until 2am Monday morning… So I lost most of the Sunday that I normally use to publish and do this post in, and I’m trying to catch up on this and the other stuff before gaming tomorrow. Oh the joys of working with computers…

Anyway, here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
We started off with the team still effectively split into three – a couple sleeping or avoiding the magical shenanigans, a couple with Isarroko in the smithy doing some RP there, and Kai at the top of the hill with Yani doing some RP with her. A slow night for the sleepers to start off with, but I had plans for later that I thought would liven things up a bit, so I didn’t rush through the RP section at the start.
Isarroko still wanted his sword back, but having been in the mind-link with Shimazu it was hard to argue about his needs and experience, so that made the situation far easier for them to deal with there, effectively diffusing a situation entirely. Kai seemed to get quite into the details of the tea ceremony and wanting to know more about Yani and the local priests, and stayed with her for the duration of the day.
By lunchtime I’d got the people awake all back together, doing stuff and taking part in the ceremony to some extent – Shimazu at least didn’t botch his edge weapons roll trying to slice the flame off of a candle, so that was all good. The description of the afternoon picked up pace a little now they were together, and there was less individual focus – but they remained respectful and let them finish their ceremonies, and got permission to plant the token.
With that out of the way they got back and could head up to the top of Japan – a nice long straight run, with loads of cover and concealment. I had a planned encounter in store for them, so didn’t roll for any randoms, just to keep things moving along nicely. At the suitable point there was an unexpected sensor check for Marius, which fortunately he did really well on, meaning he wasn’t entirely surprised with the enemy craft appeared out of nowhere, powering up their systems and going into pursuit. Some fancy flying, magical support and a few re-rolls later, and they were making their escape from the surface ship and it’s helicopter wing, and closing in on the volcano.
Having the ghost samurai appear as Hunter and Aswon were on the way down really emphasised how reliant they were on Tads for support / control, and that she in turn was reliant on Marius to keep her in a good position. All was good though, and the players got down to the car park without incident – ready to meet the ghosts at the start of the next episode. I’m thinking they’re expecting a fight, and hopefully will be pleasantly surprised when it turns into a smooth talky encounter – based on their respect and patience at the previous location.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 26/9/2060, Location: 34.67969, 137.25001, Time 08:15
2. Yani will conduct cleansing rites and rituals around the peak all day, with a tea ceremony between each. Kai goes with, asks about the religion. Details about some tribal culture, walks around totems.
3. Isarroko starts working on a new sword, ASks Shimazu - S or R. Difficult to decide, I would go with R, hold myself accountable. Even though it would bring you less honour. Travelled quite far, short amout of time, greatest honour is what you bring to yourself, protect your friends, rely on your own values. Will you tell me of your clan? Toyahesa clan, people of bodyguards. Hired out as mercenaries, take pride in this. Choice of people to protect is not always what lines up with my ideals. Sometimes less honourable people that don't deserve. Asks for clan symbol, puts sword aside, makes clan symbol. Tads goes to snooze. Vadim asks about blacksmithing 101. Produces a clan symbol in an hour, presents to Shimazu, graciously accepted. After 1.5 hours I heads up the hill, Aswon stays, Tads snoozing with Marius and Hunter. Vadim stays too, takes watch from Aswon.
4. Up the hill, magic check, ritual is mostly intact, magical origins, would do "something" if she had talent. Kai asks what the significance of leaving the token - would mess with the chi, knocking things out of balance. Perception, mountain has been litter picked, all is natural and in balance. Ask Yani how long she's been doing this, 5 years, old priestess, passing down the old ways.
5. Candles, in a pattern, flame cutting, Isarroko asks Shimazu, does an excellent job - 4 successes. Get the BBQ on, then start walking around with local businessmen.
6. Rest of team wake up, get food. All quiet, nothing wrong at the quarry. Aswon downloads an ebook on local cuisine - Japanese dumplings.
7. Dusk, offerings to the ancestors, food+sake offerings. Yani tells Kai he can plant the thing. Kai asks if can come back - Yani says ok, you've been respectful. Kai offers to do deliveries to far away places - or just leave a business card. Yani takes a card, doesn't have any needs. She is outside her comfort zone.
8. Shimazu exchanges contact info with Isarroko, offers services. Thinks about apprenticeship, I tells S he needs to come back with tales of his honour to be considered.
9. Tads stays with Tilt wing but summons spirits. Shimazu puts rock in car park in original place. Say their goodbyes, head back. Take off,
10. Head up, discussion about geography, working the distances, Tads suggests most of the team refuel while the fitter runners go and plant the token.
11. No random encounters on way up.Avoid Toyota plant, thread between cities.
12. Marius gets a twitch on the sensors, not surprised, choppers light up+DDG, Marius drops to the water and screams at Tads - needs cover. Tads does trid phantasm. 7 successes, take an L, just projects "empty space"
13. Driving test - totally evades 1, 2nd just keeps a lock
14. Hunter EW roll, 5 - doesn't hurt. Spends 1 Karma, gets a success.
15. Next round. Lee wins by 2. throws off the DDG, but chopper A reacquires. Now goes for a climb, try to outpace the chopper. Tads offers to use a dragon illusion. Hunter suggests a ram, Tads needs 3 RR to manipulate
16. Fooled by illusion, Chopper B looses lock as he breaks left, DDG fooled. Chopper B locks on and pursues. Tads recalls illusion and tries again with empty sky bearing.
17. Marius radical manuever as he tries to throw lock from B. Chopper A gets a 25 - definitely reaquired. B and DDG still got nothing. Call in the open, stop moving or else.
18. Quick shouted discussion - send the spirits to attack the choppers, do a hard turn. Tads puts spell defence on choppers to go bug the choppers. Spirits scream by choppers, Marius does a corkscrew move. WP tests from everyone - Kai was going for a door gun, Kai flips and up and down, but all is ok. Streak across the ocean.
19. Kai calls twin peaks. do you have a bathroom? Of course, Do you have good for sale? Air or sea - air. Give eta, sign off.
20. Aswon checks astrally, looking for campers etc BGC towards nature.
21. Shimazu requests they land down from his vision, bird heading towards the top, then will go down to land for Shimazu. Hunter and Aswon levitated down. Aswon magical perception check - 6 successes, easily spots the ghosts of a dozen samurai stepping out of the trees. Tads drags them behind the chopper. 20-30 ghost samurai follow Aswon+Hunter. Check terrain, note GPS co-ords and then throw the token back towards the peak. Ghosts still following them down, all get to car park, landing.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 187 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 team were pretty respectful, polite and consider at Volcano #6, so Volcano #7 turned into “easy mode”. All they needed was for Shimazu to prove that he was either Samurai or Ronin, by any means and they got a “free pass” onto the mountain. Once he’d done that, planting the token was easy, and Shimazu even took the time to do some Psychometry on the way down at the shrine to get some idea of what was going on, finding out that it was an ancient battle site, and linked as part of a series of mountains. Unfortunately Hunter didn’t do well on his decking roll, so they didn’t get much more information than that.
Moving on from that, they got to the next smuggler stop, a slightly wonky and haphazard ex-oil rig. This is on the shore of a volcanic island, that has a dirty great big free spirit cabal living underground, ruled over by the Magma Queen. She has “envoys” who keep the oil rig safe and act as an interface to the outside world, collecting stories in a similar way to the Quoll at Volcano #2 – but while the Quoll was generally pretty laid back and wouldn’t actually harm people given a choice, the situation is very different here.
There are only a few metahumans here, and only the lead two characters know about the elementals, otherwise it appears like a normal smuggler base. However, prime quality telesma can be obtained if you have the favour of the local spirits, making it a great place to stock up.
If the players “bite”, and tell some more good stories, they may be able to get onto the island and do a bit of talismongering which would be really good for them cash wise – but I don’t know if they’ll just want to push on. It’s possible they could earn a trip underground, but that would be tough going – but may reward them even more handsomely! I suspect it will be a gas stop, grab a few choice items and then head north again, towards a combat in Yakut.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 26/9/2060, Location: 43.43853, 142.659, Time 21:52
2. Hunter share check - 10% of original value.
3. Hunter and Aswon land, unclip. Shimazu approaches ghosts with hand on sword. Bows. Ghosts come through the gate. Silent, point "away".
4. Rabbit comes, terrified, stone in mouth. Ghost leaves the body, withers and dies.
5. Aswon says "ask for permission". Shimazu does. They point again. Tads tries to look astrally - ghosts, chain, tied to a place/purpose. She assenses, mix of F5+6, 30 in number, even split
6. "We have a duty from our great lord to place this stone and for it not to be disturbed for some time." Listens, scoffs, points off the mountain. Shimazu challenges to a dual. "since neither can agree, must complete tasks, test one another." Adds terms. Ghost shakes head, shows clan symbol. Shakes and points. Shimazu shows his clan symbol. Reaches for him, bitter cold, leeches into his hand. Examines, ghosts split into 2 rows. Clan society roll - ronin and samurai. Shimazu bows, walks one step forward, sword tunnel. Aswon steps forward. Ghosts fade away as Shimazu passes.
7. Hunter shoots up after them - Aswon wary, racial background - but he goes anyway.
8. Aswon suggests all the way to the top unless they find a shrine. Others agree. Aswon finds a light coloured rock on the way up to hide the token under. Up to the top, collapsed dome, find a spot, turn and descend. Another 90mins down, 1am. Go examine the shrine.
9. Kai calls twin peaks, advises they will be light.
10. Psychometry on shrine, old battle, link to a dozen other mountains, including volcano #6 link to older medieval version of quarry. Ask Hunter for research. Poor roll, no real detail. Needs a more dedicated host / site.
11. Tads summons fresh spirits to top up. Marius takes off, stealth roll of 15+spirit+ED - evades japan border no problem
12. Fly up the Kuril Islands. Tads suggests going through the "skins" used in Russia and lock them out, for now.
13. Spot the 4 cones, approach closer, astral scan, worries about ash clouds. Geology rolls - fluffed from both Tads and Hunter. No further info.
14. Spot the platform, washed up by the beach, noticeable slope to it. Kai calls for landing permission, get told either - one big, one small.
15. Handling check landing 7.5 degree slope, Astral checks - half a dozen F4+5 watchers, couple of free spirits one earth, one fire.
16. Rusty, broken, shored up, no safety rails - all used to shore up other bits. Waved to admin block, knock on the door. Wait for the chockers, follow them in. Sign to control room
17. "New fish"? "Yes, I am Aswon. We need fuel for craft and barrels. We have cred, this is good yes?" "Maybe, it depends." Aswon talks about possible jobs to UCAS. "people that own this place like stories" - "are they all ethereal like?" "Oh no!" Aswon looks astral. Spots geode. Tell story here? No - story in a different room, but pay me cred for fuel.
18. total travelled = 2335, 9340 nuyen
19. one bunker room cleared, active hermetic circle, f7. Kanai stomps in, ruined effect, cowled, not masking. "Are you here for the story"? "I'll listen, but I'm not the one you're telling it to." Aswon tells a story about the quoll - moderate details. Contrast difference / similarities between here and the quoll. 15 minute story. Charisma check - 17,9,3
20. "they are happy with your story, you can buy additional things" "oh? Like what?" goes through telesma, magic spells, hermetic, not shamanic, tads on a mission, oh she set the alarm off, yes, sorry about that. No offence meant. "so telesma, from the island?" Yes, very lucky - I'd like to live somewhere like this.
21. Aswon calls for Shimazu, who comes, silent, traceless walk. Surprised, roll for init
22. Shimazu 16, Aswon 23, Kanai 8. "Aswon - wait! Friendly" Shimazu goes into a fighting stance, hand on sword but doesn't engage. Casts spell on Shimazu, levitate, F6, 12 successes, slams Shimazu back into the wall. "You didn't tell me you'd bought one of THEM!"
23. "what, Japanese, or samurai?" Shimazu, not leaving without an apology. Aswon - sorry, didn’t' warn him about friend, apologies with both. Reveals he's an albino oni. Aswon calls for Hunter.
24. Shimazu - your attitude is more likely to cause a problem than your race. Shimazu hand off sword, Hunter arrives. "You travel together." "yes, touch hand to shoulder, we shared rooms and stuff.
25. Apologies to Shimazu, had bad dealings with "our" people. Shimazu - it's ok. Sorry you had to go through that.
26. Tads astral check - 13+12+stuff. All high, Shapeshifter eagles and rocs, volcano buzzards. Gets back, asks Vadim to catch her up. Vadim asks for a combat formula to help kill people.
27. Tads tells vadim if he wants a spell he has to go buy it himself. "I go to shop now." Vadim and Tads come into rig, get lost, Hunter goes to rescue.
28. Go to magic shop and browse. Aswon asks about magic rock, explains why. If you have good stories, we can make arrangements! I am Aswon, I have many good stories.
29. Aswon eying up a sapphire for Germaine... 400Ny

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 188 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, having presented them with the opportunity to purchase cheap telesma, I wanted to see what they’d do – get stuff for the future and hope they didn’t need the cash, or buy some stuff to flip at the next couple of smuggler bases? Turns out they wanted the gold and are looking at Orichalcum, so it certainly seems that Tads has some downtime in mind for some future point…
A quick charisma check later (and Kai does have Charisma 8 as the face character, so he normally does pretty well), and they got an offer to go meet the boss… which generated just enough interest to distract them from just flying out. Off they went to the island, down into the tunnels and down to Molten Core… I mean the volcanic cavern far below. Certainly not an encounter inspired from Vanilla World of Warcraft. No siree. Definitely didn’t use some fan art of Molten core as a visual guide posted in the discord channel. Nope – not me. Ok, totally me… but still, Ali (Tads) didn’t comment in game (she did ask me after) and none of the rest of the team commented – two of them played WoW but casually, so I don’t think they even got the connection.
And then they got *horribly* confused when the free lava elemental inexplicably became hostile and very shouty at them, and called all his buddies, and made it look like we were about to roll initiative. Very confused. Genuine headscratching from the team as they tried to work out what had triggered them. I made a couple of magic background checks, but unfortunately for them they didn’t get the TN required.
So – what happened? Well, the lava queen had “divination” as well as “wealth” as a power, and just didn’t get a great roll. Signs uncertain. Future unclear. Lots of explosions though. And apparently 2+2=5. So while the Pacific Ring of Fire will go all sideways after the mission is done – that’s about a year away in the future, way after they’ve finished and after the dragons have had time to claim their volcanos their minions “won” and have messed about with the mana lines. However it’s a pretty cataclysmic event, so I figured the backwards ripple from something like that should be pretty traumatic to witness. If the players figure it out though, hopefully it will stick in the mind that the NPCs can mess up / get it wrong too though…
It was never meant to devolve into a combat situation though – the players would probably have gotten utterly spanked if they’d started something, so that’s a good thing. But for a few minutes, they *thought* it was all going sideways and that they were going to get into a horrible mess, so there was some tension and excitement as well as some genuine “WTAF?” expressions.
With the situation defused somewhat and the Lava Queen going away to think about what she’d done and realise that maybe things weren’t as clear cut, she had to complete on her deal with Kai for the 2 Karma he’d paid her. For a Force 9 free spirit with spirit energy of 6, that works out at a very healthy 200K+ in a month of precious stuff they can make. So, I figured a bunch of gold should do nicely, and that’s how the players got 8 more units of talismanic gold to cart around. If Tads does get a month or two off to go enchanting crazy, she’s potentially going to end up with a metric ton of Orichalcum, which will be interesting. Hopefully by that point through, we’ll be further through the plot line, they’ll have a few new contacts and the idea of putting level 4 EDs on the tilt wing might occur to them – in which case they’ll need a few million Nuyen!
The magma queen was stated as: F9 SE6 fire elemental with Divination, Wealth, Aura Masking, Human Form backed up by 3 X F7 SE5 fire elementals (Sorcery, Hidden Life), 2 X F6 SP5 Earth elementals (Astral Gateway, Possession),(Astral Gateway, Dispelling, Human Form, Aura Masking, Dispelling, Hidden Life), (Aura Masking, Human Form, Sorcery) , and a bunch of air/water elementals as well. Special effects in her lava chamber / underground layer.
I also dangled the “teleport” mechanic at the end, knowing full well that it would confuse Jez/Aswon – as he knows full well, that I know that in SR there is no teleport magic. I saw the look on his face over the web-cam as he tried to work out what was going on, and then him just decide to leave it – at least for now.
What I have is the two earth elementals form a linked pair, with their astral gateways “in sync”. Mechanically, the players went on an astral quest at Rating 1, where the goal (even though they didn’t consciously know it) was to find the other gateway. As long as both elementals are in Magic X 1000 m of each other, the power works ok. It’s a bit of a work around, but also hopefully a really interesting mechanic that *could* work without breaking the rules of magic design.
Long term, I have plans for the players to return to Twin Peaks, and to be beset by potentially stronger and more numerous enemies – at least until the players can start astral gatewaying their way around the island, behind enemy lines and sow absolute havok upon their foes, hopefully having a really good time in the process. Sort of like the first time you play a shoot em up after finding a cheat code and just wail on the bad guys for shits and giggles…
Anyway, with a bunch of loot, a full tank of gas and a bit of a rest, they’re ready to head towards Yakut and the next volcano, which will include a climb (the peak is above the flight ceiling for the aircraft) and almost certainly a fight with some critters. So, Shadowrun being what it is, expect another writeup coming up that covers about 9 seconds of real time progress in 8000 words / 2 hours of gameplay….

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 26/9/2060, Location: 43.43853, 142.659, Time 22:48
2. In the magic shop, deciding what to buy. Talking about the journey up north - about 3 hours. Tads says not dawn/dusk due to spirits. Aswon - ahh, but neither do they. Kai - night not the best for us, helps the spirits / critters.
3. Look at distances to zebra/battle barge. Aswon - good chance of being magically spotted, so maybe normal stealth, they have low tech, avoid magic concealment. Some talk about mid-air refuelling - too complex.
4. Aiming for 4am departure for a pre-dawn border crossing.
5. Tads raises idea of buying gold, turning into Orich - downtime, 1 month. Maybe front Aslik. Otherwise go for Gems - easier to sell. Or contact Aslick/Germain/Ludmilla and offer to get stuff if they pay. Aswon - Aslik I think, Ludmilla is poisons/toxins, Germaine is antiques.
6. Tads - does Nadia have spare cash? We can adjust cash flow maybe? Marius pipes up - he has 15K. Aswon has 5k Marius checks with Nadia - no spare cash spent on engineering workshops, radar reflectors and other base upgrades.
7. 20k+food offers for supplies, negotiation roll, net of 2 - offers 2 X raw gold(7500), 8 X precious gems (3000), 4 X silver (900) - or with only 4 gems and 0 silver, but an introduction to the elemental queen. Kai goes for the introduction. Marius in bed, all the rest going for the meeting.
8. Kanai gives supplies to Tads, ushers out of room and melts the door closed. Tads asks about metal fatigue.
9. Down into the depths, into a leg, out into the air 25m above the water, arcane chanting - Japanese rolls, Shimazu gets some idea of ancient Japanese offshoot. Air elemental drift down towards island. Twin peaks description, view of lava tube / vent.
10. Kanai takes to lava tube, sends team down, take turns towards brighter light.
11. Kai texts Marius "door code is 4422 if we don't come back"
12. Heat, light, roaring, 0.5km underground, 20mins in - keep going down, into lava chamber.
13. Disembodied voice "who dares entered hallowed hall". BGC=1 (elemental). This is Kai, meeting with boss, team new fish. Lava Elemental appears
14. LE "What do you want". K "we are people of trading, wish to speak to boss about making money".
15. LE "so that is what you want, money?" "In general yes, I'm in it for the adventure, but they like money", general grumblings from rest of team. Aswon - not just the money, we like the telesma, like the oni, he said we should speak to you. Kai - we also like the money though.
16. Spirit manifests, laughs, what can we call you, laugh stops - names have power. Give me a respectful name, "forge". Help the people outside and bring them stuff, we can trade with things from here. And we do like stories. Tads - need to introduce you to something. Kai - is there anything you want? Give me some of your essence, I'll give you shiny rocks.
17. Tads tries conjuring test to improve ratio - fails, no RR. Takes 2 karma from Kai via story - quick recap about meeting in Chechen camp.
18. Wealth roll for spirit 6d6 roll = 23. All kicks off - "what will you do, harbinger of destruction" "random chaos, do bad stuff to bad people, good stuff to good people" "what are you doing to have such fate wrapped around you?" "working for a few dragons" Elementals close in around you. Shimazu explains about ghosts from last volcano, just in case.
19. Aswon steps in front of Kai - angry voice, recites all the good stuff they have done - horror, ranch, - hand near the face, soak 2M - takes an L, blistered nose. Kai - what's offending you so badly. Aswon - plus, stopped a fight, Kunai was going to attack Shimazu, would have gone bad.
20. "the task you are on, will bring great destruction - you must tell us what you are doing." confusion about Which tasks - elemental says visions of destruction. Aswon explains about game tokens, one moon. Clarifies time scale and start time.
21. "You're doing this because you're being paid, not because you want to." "Technically, made it clear we couldn't refuse, but then yeah, being paid" Aswon circles back to warlord, rules of the team, no trafficking. Professional.
22. Elemental comes back up, "what form of payment do you want?", Gold?Gold is good? Charisma roll off, Kai wins by 2.
23. vomits up 8 units of gold
24. Kai - if we come back to tell you how the story is that good. Tads asks if she can talk to Forge. 2 questions, will pay you for 1 of the, We're going to kill a horror. Offers karma for help. Magic weapons, but not Aswon - that's better used elsewhere. 2nd question - can I levitate the gold if it's too hot.
25. "you should leave now, we have preparations to make", earth elemental astral gateway - Aswon no no no, where does that take us. To the metal thing. Ok, Aswon going first. Kai thanks Forge. "Ok, go now." Double tunnel back, on the rig, 23:30
26. 8 more units of raw gold.
27. Go find Chiaki, Tads creates food. List of construction equipment / spares / parts given.
28. Resting until 4am.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 189 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, here we are at volcano number 8 of 14 – over the half-way point, but also with more than half the mission time elapsed, and the team quite low on funds after getting the engines fixed. Still, we should be good to ending on track, and depending on what I hit them with, we may have a little tension towards the end. I *must* remember to shift the date forward as they head east across the Aleutian islands though, as they cross the international date line, and see if that worries them (it won’t make a difference, the time limit is all mythical in it’s reasoning, and based on the lunar cycle – they *think* that’s the case, but they don’t *know* that’s the case…)
Volcano 8 is a “fight challenge”, and was going to throw some more Yakut shapeshifters at them to try and cause some issues. However, rolling on the weather chart saw them hitting a big storm, and that cut down perception tests on both sides, and it ended up with them slipping by the Yakut forces, with neither side being any the wiser. I thought about having them turn up, but in the end went with just the natural critters present on the mountains instead, which still gave them a combat – even if it wasn’t that dangerous. Good job really, as they decided to split the party again…
The first creature they encountered were “Snow Thumpers” – or as the team christened them “Thunder-bunnies”. I’d given them their sonic thunderclap ability as a defensive measure, throwing up a smoke screen in effect to allow them to escape a predator, and to provide some potential alarm with avalanches. I wanted the players to see the ability first off, then be aware of what could happen for when they encountered more.
Snow Thumpers: Large arctic hares with a drum-hoof paracritter ability. When fleeing from predators they can leap into the air and slam their back legs together to make a sonic attack, that can also cause avalanches. Make a to hit using Reaction, vs TN4, number of successes = the Strength of the sonic attack. Sonic attack ignores Ballistic/impact armour, starts at L damage.
B2, Q5*4, S2, I1/3,W2, C2, R4, Init 1D6+4, Claw attack 2L, Sonic attack #L
Next up was their predators – a nice slinky, snow leopard. To make these guys a threat I used a fairly generic big-cat profile with some wickedly sharp claws, but then gave them a first-round-only combat bonus, a massive +3 reach bonus in the first attack as they “pounce” on their prey super-fast. It certainly caught Aswon off guard, who normally enjoys the reach advantage with his spear. Once they’d got past that though, they were not that tough or hard to defeat.
Snow Leopards: Pounce attack - counts as Reach 3 on charge turn
B4, Q6 *4, S4, I2/4, W2, C2, R5, Init 2D6+5, Claw attack 7M half impact armour

The next attack was some Volcano Buzzards – designed to be able to swoop in from whatever direction they were most vulnerable in, and cause some hassle with their fire-breath attack. Part of this was also showing Aswon his new ability unlocked with his last investment of Karma into his magical spear – fire protection. The buzzards also had a nasty disease that while not being *that* likely to kill directly, would stop natural healing until the disease was purged, which makes anything else that happens much more deadly – especially if it stretches out over a week or so while they are struggling to fight off the pathogen.
Volcano Buzzards: Have a flame breath attack they use when they charge - as part of the charge attack they trigger a 6M flame attack on reaction, against TN4 just before the combat is resolved.
B3, Q4 *3, S3, I1/3, W3, C1, R4, Init 1D6+4, Claw attack 6M, then beak attack 4M with a disease check (affects on a 5+, causes necrosis - Natural body test each dawn re 6, needing > 5 total success or inflict L damage. No natural healing while necrotic plague infected)
I also had Rocs and Shapeshifter Eagles specced up, with the Eagle using control spells to send the Rocs in using tactics and co-ordination – but as said above, they ended up just not seeing the team due to situational modifiers on the perception check. Hey – even the bad guys have off days….
Regarding the magical spear – Aswon has now unlocked the 2nd “level” of his item, after hitting two milestones and investing two lots of 5 karam. His spear now grants him shielding 2, and also reduces the power of fire attacks by 6 before factoring in armour. He’s still got 3 further unlocks to go, each one granting an additional power (and the bonuses are tied to the level, so by level 5 he’ll have shielding 5 and -15 power to fire attacks: it was designed as a weapon to allow Immortal elves to hunt dragons, so that should make a little sense.)
Kai also has his “campaign special” – the purple crystal shard which sank into his body up in the Yakut tundra has enhanced his commanding voice style power, allowing him to dominate a person with a much lower willpower than himself – though I don’t think he’s realised yet, and I’ve not pushed the point… waiting for a few more of the team to get their goodies.
Next up is Marius and Shimazu to get their shiny toys… Marius will get a lead to follow up on first, that will hopefully intrigue him but also represent some risk for the team as well, while Shimazu has a big set piece coming up at the end of the Volcano mission that I’m *hoping* will give him some epic roleplay. When they’re done, then Hunter and Tads will get their bits next, when they get back to see Aden. Hopefully. I mean who knows… the team might decide to go somewhere else…

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Monday 27/9/60, Location:45.80892, 149.91525, Time 04:00
2. Handling check take off at 4am, all good. Random encounter check = 1. Aswon spots BGC2 ahead storm. Aswon gets Tads to check it out - common sense. Aswon puts shielding on via spear, Tads uses Resistance.
3. Kai puts on wetsuit and parachute, gets quickness modifier. Looking for landing point
4. Marius flying above NOTE level due to weather - Aswon suggests going higher, into the clouds due to the BGC as masking.
5. Sensor check - finds some moorland at the top of a watershed just south of the lake, check for magic stuff. Check magic area on landing.
6. Aswon, Shimazu and Hunter on guard, Tads on overwatch. Kai and Vadim go to refuel. Kai takes off the wetsuit on landing. Survival roll - Aswon gets a good roll+warning. 20 mins to refuel. Now about 6:30, almost as dawn.
7. Tads and Aswon do a gear check on everyone to make sure layers are present. Tads waits for dawn to summon spirits.
8. Check for Aswons burnt nose - full 24 hours to heal. Lolz...
9. check topography, look at landing on SW from Aswons side - away from wind, keep engines clean. Marius favours #1, easier to land sheltered by the wind. Marius heading for #2 and doing scouting. Visibility dropped to 100-150m
10. Athletics (climbing) / survival rolls - bad weather, nobody professional will be out.
11. Plan to bring tilt-wing in to blow snow away from from ground to expose bare rock, Tads to use shape earth to flatten the area. 1 success on cast due to BGC of 2, slow cast but ok. Handling check from Marius - 4 success, all fine.
12. Landed, looking at about 2km horizontally, 600m climb. Decide who is going - Hunter, Shimazu and Aswon. Tads planning to go with astrally - Aswon warns about risk. Kai staying, getting door guns ready, Vadim on optics.
13. Aswon first, checking depth of snow, looking out for fissures / lava crusts etc. Marius checks for electronics noise - dead. Tads cleanses quickly, then projects out and around, dog leg to come in from overhead to scout. Magical perception - spots nothing (bunch of 3s), heads back, follows team.
14. Perception tests - spot the pair of thumpers running across path from R to L, then another comes, slam - hunter reaction check and dodges, others all saw it. Goes for Aswon, puts his TN up. Aswon has init. Beats aswon by 1 - soaked, knockdown test passed. Angry kitty
15. Kitty 15, Aswon 22, Shimazu 21, Hunter 19, Tads 33
16. Shimazu goes first - beheads with 15 successes. Tads checks for more astrally - sees lots of thumpers.
17. Hunter shoots burst, 5 successes, hits for 14D, it gets 1, buys 1, 2nd burst. Kills it. Rabbits kick off thunderclaps
18. Aswon covers the blood stains from the bullet ridden one, drags under a thorn bush/ covers in snow. Move on...
19. Tads spots 3 X Volcano Buzzards, heading in. Tads manifests and warns. 1 heads to carcasses, 2 head to group.
20. Aswon 17, Hunter 13, Shimazu 23, Tads 43, Buzzards 20 - Shimazu hold action, Tads holding,
21. One swoops towards Aswon/Hunter, goes for Aswon. One for Shimazu/Tads, one for buffet. Aswon gets fireballed, dodges most of it. Fire shield up - soaks 2m, snow flashes to steam around him. Aswon beats it by 4,
22. One hits Shimazu, 1 on dodge, 7m hit half impact, soaked. Shimazu beheads it as it comes in.
23. Hunter - burst on the wounded one, takes it down. 3rd one tries to take the prey. Team moves on.
24. Sound of explosions rolls down the hill to the tilt wing, Marius calls to check, Aswon "exploding rabbits, fire breathing birds, we're all fine here."
25. 40 mins, athletics test ok, climbers cairn, get token planted, turn and head back. Back to the tilt wing for about 08:30. Corpses had gone.
26. Heading east to the battle barge, no change in weather conditions.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 190 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 week done, another smuggler base discovered. This one is based off of a snippet I found on Wikipedia, detailing the mass graves for Japanese troops on the Attu Island, one of the few “attacks on American soil” during WWII. Combined with that, I’d read a post about how downed submarines are referred to as “on patrol” rather than “lost at sea”. So, the idea was to combine the two into a weird magical ghost shanty town. An old Russian naval commander was leading a salvage operation to recover loot from an old cruiser that sunk after ramming a civilian vessel during a storm. Ghosts from the nearby island were making that all kinds of difficult, and were feeding on his crew. Just as all looked lost, the Captain decided to go down with dignity and style, and was defending his bridge in his old dress uniform, decked out in his hero medals. Throwing a snappy salute at the ghosts as they closed in, the sole survivor accepted his fate and paid his respects to the ghosts of the naval officers coming to eat his soul… but they realised that he was “one of them” and spared his life. He took over the ship, and turned it into a shrine for those “on patrol”, giving them a place to be remembered, and started collecting scraps from other wrecks, bringing them back to his base and drawing more and more ghosts to the site, slowly warping astral space. In exchange they protected the wrecks, guarding his operation and helping him survive, and then prosper.
With that background, I did a bit of digging and found a bunch of naval superstitions (mostly just wanting to wind the team up – you should have seen the looks on their faces when during the session I pointed at Tads and said “well, you’re going to be a problem obviously” – I think they were read to kick off over the perceived “insult”. But with some strangeness there, lots of ghosts from all kinds of navies through more than a century of war and peace to show them, hopefully it was going to be a “memorable” place.
And I don’t know why, but it seemed to really get to them – so they didn’t split the party, not even once, and did a very quick visit before bailing out, not picking up on pretty much any of the back story! Players…. Pah!. Well, I’m sure they’ll be back at some point, and maybe we can reveal some more of the story then. One of the things I might do is drop in an “artefact” – a bit of salvage dug up from another wreck somewhere, that has a ghost chained to it, and see if they make the connection – or maybe make a reference to something like that happening on Shadowland for Hunter to discover. We shall see…
Still, they got on well with the base, have earnt a little rep with their delivery of 10 kilos of magically created sirloin steak, and are on the way to the next volcano – which incidentally will take them straight over the Rat Islands, where they’re going to come across another horrible mana warp site – the site of the Cannikin underground nuclear test – the US largest underground nuke detonation which took place on 6/11/1971 – with an equivalent power of 5Mt of TNT, 400 times more powerful than Hiroshima. The blast caused a 7.0 earthquake after detonation in the 1800m deep shaft!
There you go… now you have a “thing I learnt” for today too… 😊

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Monday 27/9/60, Location:55.81334, 160.37626, Time 08:50
2. 900km to Battle barge. Weather crap, and worsening. 1 hour 40 minutes at cruising speed. Aswon maintaining Shielding, centering / meditating on what happened with the spear.
3. Tads - negotiate with Kai over gold, wants to commission new spells, don't have Nuyen, but do have gold. Kai - it's my soul gold! How much do you need? Tads, don't know yet, it's the people back home, going to take a while, but wanted to get you thinking about it. Maybe 10k per spell at the top end, F8 treat spell for instance, mind of the pack. Kai looking at timing for getting back - 2-3 weeks. Hopefully getting paid when job finishes. Hunter - don't think we need to get back to Japan?
4. Kai gets in touch with battle barge.
5. Marius notes poorer performance. Weather getting worse (awful roll from Kai).Marius tells Kai about needs for insulation stuff, Kai contacts Battle bArge for space heaters / additives. Told the market is open when they arrive. Aswon - visions of hands thrust into fire, working blades, deflecting fireballs, scales glowing brightly. Not black hands - all slender and pointy.
6. Arrive 10:30. Kai spots equally strong but different BGC. Marius doesn't notice much, just gets weird wave patterns. Call, get told to land in the opening when you see it. Marius spots the bridge, pre-crash. Marius complains about not having a normal landing spot - test for landing. Into the hanger, 32m wide, 60m long. Only craft there. Voice - landing officer will come to you, wait on the ship." Kai opens back doors. Marius spots poor state of repair of hanger.
7. "Permission to come aboard", strides up, salutes, Lt Rakonovich. Can I meet your captain and see your crew. Captain - maybe Marius? If you are the team leader, you are the captain. Frowns at Tads, gets names. I am Aswon! Looks at Tads, obviously you're a problem. Passes over fake beard. Some confusion. Tads casts physical mask. Rules, no women on board - Aswon, superstition or rule. Yes! When the bells toll, pay respects. Don't start fights.
8. How do we pay respects? You'll understand, just be respectful. Explains layout, contamination warning. Contamination with what? Radiation. Is garlic allowed? Confused yes.
9. Aswon asks - is this a ship? Yes, bulk tanker. Kai asks for fuelling. Sorts out, 5k. Hunter asks about guns - fine to carry, don't damage the ship. Aswon whispers in Kai's ears - can we "uninvite" him. Salute and leaves. Kai checks astrally, guy is essence 4, run down - but spots half a dozen ghosts in/out of the bulkhead. Checks with the LT., Ghosts everywhere, just don't break the rules.
10. Team heading to the market - all going, staying together. Through into rear compartment, people doing work, racks, tools, doing small work. 3 guys, put work aside, Marius walks up and asks for cold weather supplies. In luck, there is some gear. Hunter spots small equipment being fixed. Find some heaters, some chemical additives. Hunter suggests trading for fresh food. Interested in trade for food when steak is mentioned. Bell chimes, Nangalla-402, bell chimes, carry on. Market seller from other side asks if they want porn / drugs.
11. Shimazu and Kai go over to look at drugs. Some hospital supplies / drug manufacturing. Some anti-venom, non refrigerated. How much? 1 box - 2k. Nah...
12. Tads asks for magic supplies, gets directed to guy #3. expendable foci, fetishes and warding materials. Look for guns/ammo - yes, last guy has that.
13. Spot two groups of ghosts having a punch up. Aswon can see two different uniforms, not sure what is what. Get close, see half the ghosts are Japanese. Make sure weapon foci are turned off... squeeze past.
14. Back to tilt wing, make some steaks, fruit, fresh veg, milk. Head back to negotiate for kit - offers 1K Nuyen value for a box of food. Call for the Captains. Salutes and introductions. Kai checks with "pantry manager" if they have more. Kai offers more food, and water - asks how many decalitres. Tads offers to decant water if they have a portable container. Shimazu psych - bulk buyers/sellers. Kai smuggler check - nexus spot.
15. Tads goes to make food, sack cart and plastic container turns up for water.
16. Aswon checks for rifle ammo - in 50 cal, normal only. In assault rifle they have standard, ex-ex and HP.
17. Ex-Ex 100 per 10, in a box of 5000 - too much. Pays 2k for 2 boxes of 500 50 cal rounds.
18. Planning on leaving again.
19. Fox islands, 1200 km, then 1400km to Anchorage.
20. Takeoff clearance, Kai asks Shimazu to check for ghosts. Spot the cook, whistling, pursued by interested ghosts.
21. Handling check for takeoff. 10, all good.

[Kren Cooper]

Two players couldn't make it tonight, so the game was cancelled - so no writeup / BTS post this week. Hopefully we'll be back next week with Episode 191 and the arrival of the team at "Ivan's Bay" on the Fox Islands.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 191 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:
Investigating the village before doing the drop-off was a good call - not that the players know it. It gave them a really good nights rest, and a chance to make some good contacts, which should do well for them in the future. It’s also provided them with some special ammo – and the knowledge that there is another team in the area, on the volcano they want to visit, and that they also have mages and a sniper with a BFG.
The “enemy” team are a bunch of Shadowrunners sent to the island to talismonger and pick up some rare items for their boss. They’re typical Seattle punks though – without any wilderness survival skills, trying to get through this on brute force and ignorance, and throwing Nuyen at problems in the hope they’ll go away – so they have “all the gear and no idea”. The team may be able to use that to their advantage, if they put 2 and 2 together.
I’m waiting for the Smuggler team to realise who they’re up against, at which point I’m no doubt going to get some abuse as well, and possibly some sprained eyeballs… the team is built on a bunch of our “Pink Mohawk” characters from our Friday night games!
The enemy team is made up of:
Dak, a Wakayambi elf mage (who was the one Aswon was mistaken for) – who constantly used his magic to try and influence and control those around him. A badly min-maxed caster (Body and Strength of 1 – they’re going to take their toll in the cold!) he managed to make it to Grade 5 before he got gunned down for pissing off too many people. He doesn’t have any really offensive spells – it was all about the influence, control thoughts, mind probe and alter memory style magic with him, but he does have Invoking and a full stable of great form elementals to do his bidding.
Boris, a Russian Dwarf. Aligned with the Vory, Boris is an assassin, highly skilled with his sniper rifle (The Ex-Wife) and his pistol (Baby), sturdy, tough and quiet. Armed with his own 50 cal rifle and a mag of 10 APFSDS rounds, he represents a very serious through to the tilt-wing.
Nicole, a Canadian lumberjack rigger, she’s a hard-drinking, hard-fighting, hard-partying kinda girl, armoured and resilient with a whole bunch of defensive Cyber and Bioware, and a mean right hook. She’s driving the team about on a big skidoo, and has some drones for scouting and force multiplication.
Jawa, an Indonesian Boar Shaman with the catchphrase “Go big or go home”, he’s the main magical firepower for the team, with reasonable force Powerballs, Fireballs and Manaballs, along with a bunch of other combat / elemental manipulation spells, as well as Bullet Barriers and Levitate spells on a sustaining foci. He tends to shoot first, and cast at Deadly by default, so he’s likely to kick off straight away – though hitting a force 10 ward is likely going to slow him down a bit. A grade 3 mage with Invoking and Channelling, he’s also got some spirits to throw into the mix.
And last of all is Ursula, a UCAS Bear Shaman – who was run by Ali, currently playing Tads. A somewhat pacifist healer / support, she also made it to Grade 5, and will be providing a lot of defence to the runner team with her shielding. She lacks direct offensive spells, but with high force Shape Earth, Trid Phantasm, Improved Invisibility and Healing spells, she’s no pushover either. She’s also going to have at least one powerful spirit with her.
So, the smugger team slightly outnumber the runners – they both have some hefty weapons and potent mojo. Fortunately, the runner team have some handicaps based on how they are going to be played (which is how they were played in the Pink Mohawk game - often with their dicks, not their brains), and it’s entirely possible that they’ll make some stupid mistakes. Either that, or I’ll be looking to continue the campaign with some *very* different characters!
It’ll be fine. Honest.
On the subject of the “APFSDS ammo” – this is one of the house rules we’ve added to our 3.5 system. We reworked the ammo and damage system a little to smooth out the power curve – it has made things more complex, but allows greater granularity and threat ranges though.
In the base 3rd edition rules, you had normal ammo which was countered by ballistic armour. Then you moved up to APDS – which only counted half the armour. Once you were in a vehicle though, all damage was halved and staged down one level against gunfire. The answer to that was AV ammo – which ignored the halving/staging rule – but also only counted half of the vehicles armour too. As it was generally the more powerful guns that people got AV ammo for, that meant that unless you were in something *seriously* armoured, the armour was pretty much irrelevant, and shooting at stuff with AV just killed expensive vehicles very dead. Great for the players shooting NPCs, devastating for the player riggers when being shot at!

So, we reworked the damage charts and types a little:
Normal ammo – reduced by ballistic armour as normal
APDS – reduced by ballistic armour at half rating, as normal.
“SABOT” and “Super-Sabot” rounds – reduced the value of ballistic armour by a modifier first, then act like normal ammo. This only really comes into effect when shooting against hardened / milspec armour, but can alter what rounds automatically bounce off, and what needs to be soaked – but without degrading the armour entirely.
AV rounds – the anti-vehicle rounds ignore the staging and halfing of power when shooting at drones and vehicles, but targets get their *full* armour now against these rounds, meaning that a shot against a lone star cruiser doesn’t just auto-kill it. It’s still likely to cripple it, but it’s no longer a sure thing, and if the players vehicles get hit, they’ve got a chance to try and evade and bug out with serious damage.
APFSDS – the real military top end stuff, this now does what AV used to – penetrate armour and make big booms (but has a street index and availability target number to match) Getting hold of this was a “big deal” for Aswon and gives him some really massive firepower – but only ten shots, so I feel that he’s going to horde it and be very careful about when and how it’s used.
Overall, the slight increase in complexity seems to work for us (after all, 3rd is quite crunchy anyway, and we have a nice, coloured chart that shows the breakdown of all the rounds and covers the rules, and gave us room for additional things like “magna-explosive rounds” – for when Ex-Ex just isn’t boom enough…

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Monday 27/9/60, Location:55.81334, 160.37626, Time 12:25
2. Spot boomer surfacing next to superstructure, cranes deploying to offload cargo - Lt Rakonovich asks if they want to reland to look at the latest cargo?
3. If they do - saviour kits and medpack resupply at 75% book no SI, auto-surgery unit, supplies for doc-wagon/crash cart... all from Catco branded boxes.
4. Kai asks if we should stop - Marius, no money, no space, no time.
5. Quick discussion - agree to go over the islands. Computer check for Hunter re Ivans bay. Basic details.
6. See large pod of killer whales hunting. Lead one has enhanced senses - assense and analyse
7. Fly over spike, Marius doesn't feel anything, all others do to at least a certain extent.
8. 430km to Rat islands and the blast zone - 47mins
9. 850km to Fox islands and next stop - 94mins
10. No other vehicle traffic visible in the area, do a stol landing to conserve fuel. Park right in the corner, good handling check
11. Tads asks about crew rest, based on how long they've been going. Marius says he'll powernap while they do the
12. Aswon - does anyone know anything about Athabaskan council.
13. Tads - should we go do volcano first, then rest. Aswon - will look sus now we've landed I think. Aswon merc check - nothing happening here. Magic background - NAN stuff.
14. Tads - can barter food for accomodation? 300m walk to the village. Everyone head to village. Tads - no, let me go scout first, magical perception check, spots F2-3 wards with rune inscribed. comes back to team. Reports - "be polite",
15. 2nd house, door open, who are you, native first, then english, Tads greeted in Nenet, looking for fuel and accommodation, directed down to store / blue roof / on the bay.
16. Tads deliberate assense of the wards. Hunter not prey, carnivore
17. Reaction check on 6s - Aswon 3, Hunter 1, Shimazu 1, Tads 1, Marius 2, Kai 1.
18. Store = 4, all surprised. Hits, wins by 3, does a 7S hit, 1 soak, RR, 5, take a light. "oh god, so sorry"
19. Sword drawn, inch from nose - ok, I started that, but take that out of my face please, sword away.
20. Got a beer? On the house, is the other person a dick, chance of 2 X 2m tall black people very low.
21. Magic users - check, tn4, get all the successes - all info.
22. Anyone got an issue with dogs? Reveals wolf. "other than not being kicked in the face, what do you need?" "fuel, rest / accom please". Tads - food stuff. Looks at tads, what totem. Elk+Wolverine. Clarifies magic food, explains why. Phone call, fuel in a few hours. What kind of sleeping accomod - basic. Hunter - will there be a shower? Yep.
23. Look around the store - news about the other team, local shamen - polar bear. Meet at neutral turf,
24. Other team turned up yesterday, didnt get the warning about burial sites. Get info about mesmer.
25. Offers extra services, leads to the back, wolf out of the way - Hunter, "wanna play with the puppy". Sends hunter over with jerky
26. Works through list of hot gear. Aswon buys the gyrojet ammo, rifle super-sabot
27. Work through list, work out that other team have a rifle+bought one box already.
28. Team purchase AV+APFSDS from team funds.
29. Kai says "what can we do for you?" Asks for med supplies, can get ammo no problem, also need electronics. Ask what type of meds. - Cold / slashing injuries / infections.
30. Taken to a house, recent death of family, still lived in. Drop magic to get in.
31. Doctors do hearts and minds and minor surgeries, Aswon and Hunter listen for languages. Marius gets some info on fuel deliveres and weather. Confirms if the team wants to meet the shaman, do you have something specific to discuss, they can be crotchety.
32. Tads - just being polite.
33. Team sleep, hot showers, eat properly.
34. Aswon does stretches with team, compulsory.
35. Weds 29th, work out they are over the international date line.
36. Visit the store, swap contact details,
37. See polar bear shaman, respectful nods, nods back and bows. Head for tilt-wing. Get in the air, check as they get near volcano for Marius and Shimazu.
38. Team get spotted, spirits coming, spotted the skiddo and team concealed with magic.