3rd edition smuggler campaign writeup, Narrative write up of games - feedback welcome. Options

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 265 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
This week we had a new wrinkle added to their life, as *another* great dragon came and stuck their nose into the teams business, giving them a little mission to do. The players had already had a discussion wondering if Phoss and Ury worked for a great, and wondering which one it was – with Hestaby and Arleesh being the best odds (and there was some discussion about which of those was best – or “least worst” from their point of view). So, it was no surprise to find Hestaby pulling the strings, and when she casually dropped into conversation that the team were going to do the job for her free of charge, because it was better to be owed a favour than have her as an enemy, several of the players leant back in their chairs with “I fucking knew it – we’re being stiffed again!” kinds of expressions.
But, this brings them out of the jungle and back to the city, and *should* be the final little mission in this part of the campaign arc. Wrapping this up successfully will throw Novatech Nigeria into disarray and infighting and stop the project, and counts as a major personal goal for Aswon (though he doesn’t know it yet).

Long term, there are going to be several of these kinds of missions, with each one getting a faction / people “behind” one of the runners, seeing them as their champion and protectors, for some of the stuff coming later. The team are now at the power level where they really can affect the fates of entire regions and peoples, and they’re going to be given the chance to do so – and I hope they do – because the payoff later will hopefully make it all worthwhile. Hunter and Marius are going to hate it of course – it’s a main course of ‘myffic’, with a side order of the same, all covered in myffic sauce.

But, if they can get this done, then their job in Nigeria is over. Maybe they’ll go back to Aswon’s village and do a vision quest, maybe they won’t. But they should end up back at the ranch, and then they’ll be some downtime for a bit hopefully. Tads wants to learn spells, and they should get enough karma to initiate or skill up in something meaningful – and Marius is going to find some interesting deliveries from Ares waiting for him – a whole bunch of textbooks and training manuals on Nuclear Reactor Maintenance 101, which won’t give him a sinking feeling AT ALL. Oh no…
But before that of course, they do need to break into a fairly secure compound and then an even more secure office building, and then a very secure office and server room, to plant some of the finest quality Fakidence™ cooked up by Hestaby’s Otaku, and hopefully do so without tipping off any of the security forces that are now based there. Or things are going to go very, very loud….

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Tuesday 29/3/2061, Location: 7.13385, 11.76792, Time 06:09
2. Hestaby: Need a well rounded team, P&U can support, but not enough skills
3. K - like to think of ourselves as a team that can do attitude
4. Most of the stuff has come in via port harcourt, yes. Need you to go strike at Desiree. Fit in there better than P&U
5. Aswon subvocalises - tell her about the family ties? Kai - subvocal, just ask
6. Hestaby - you're competent, you can get in I'm sure
7. Kai - kill, cause trouble, what. H - trouble
8. Kai - well like what. H - enough trouble to land her in bother, it may lead to her death, not by our hands
9. Aswon - do you have leads? H - we'll supply leads
10. Kai - timescale? H - soon as possible.
11. K - pay? H my eternal gratitude of course. K raise eyebrows. So do other people K - obviously that's valuable, but we can't fly on gratitude. H - you don't have a nest egg to rely on. Aswon - we're on personal reserves as it is. Tads - can I trade gratitude for taking on a horror. H - a horror? Hmm, that's interesting. K - I'm sure she'll be happy to tell you all about it...
12. K - can you help us get home, smuggler stops? H - not really , not my thing. Tells Tads to project, then mind probes - all the horror memories.
13. Then to Tads "What did you do..." like a bad puppy.
14. You have enough money, wouldn't you much rather have a friend than an enemy.
15. H explains about bad bribes. Aswon explains about UCAS novatech angle.
16. A - can get get the items shipped to port harcourt. H - yes, to the airport, privacy and secrecy.
17. A to P&U, don't get the locals involved. H to Aswon - what about operation human shield? Aswon - out loud "you're right" - team warn about assets in, Hestaby please - easier to investigate. Hestaby - will send a media unit to expose the plight of the locals. Must go, time is valuable, tell p&u any more info, stuff arrives by tomorrow dusk. TAds - what name - Mrs Orange. Kai - take care.
18. Aswon - we should be careful about going to my tribe now - maybe an astral quest, we're on the clock now.
19. Hunter check on map, 580km. Kai - can we do a legal flight. Aswon - can we get maintenance for the bird, to help Marius. Hunter - I think we shouldn't land legally, puts us here officially.
20. P&U we have to go, will take us longer to get there. Aswon - you're coming. P - boss suggests we go, we go.
21. Marius clarifies position, looks at location. Plan to fly to airport near village, refuel, then legal internal flight down to Port Harcourt. Aswon, can we come in not from our direction, make it look like we've come from elsewhere. Marius - sure, elliptic pattern.
22. P&U disappear off, team get bird ready to go, Marius stealth takeoff - 11. Check on the area. Doesn't hit sig 10 for the condors, reroll, spots them all over bases and villages. Marius makes sure EDs are on, just above stall spirit. Marius - they have enough power to remain indefinitely.
23. Shimazu checks drones astrally - they are warded at F3, and one of them has a watcher checking it out - looks to be F4. Shimazu aware that this means a competent summoner, throwing resources about.
24. Aswon - so we need control animals, and a woodpecker... Annoyed tads - need to stop long enough to learn the bloody thing! Marius thinks the sensors are at least twice as good as a Condor.
25. Aswon - does that mean ECM / ECCM or just better sensors. M - more likely to be full spectrum sensors, not complex electronics.
26. Journey up to Zaria, uneventful, 90mins, arrive around 8:00.
27. No manned tower, map has a phone number. Don't call, just land, find a spot on the apron - Tads drops concealment. There are lots of small planes here, in various repairs. People in hangers stop to lust/jealous look at them. Aswon, Shimazu and Kai go to interact. Aswon to Kai - might be rude to you. "Got a corper here, need fuel. Ask about the slitty eyes - after rhino horn. No, just fuel. Go buy 1500km of fuel - 9k nuyen Hooks up and fuels.
28. Hunter gets flight plan sorted from Zaria to Port Harcourt. 680km flight down to Port Harcourt
29. Examine the map, Marius - should be able to do some maintenance there. 23km north of the city. Get booked in for 2 days at least, try to do some maintenance, got to wait for the dossier to turn up.
30. Aswon - make sure we're not engines apart if we need to bug out. Some discussion about that.
31. Quick look at the map, guess at drone traffic. Marius - maybe send drone out to do "deliveries" and get side scans.
32. Aswon - what do we know about Novatech, re menial work - are they likely to bring stuff in. We know the workers on the railroad are bought in - what about more permanent. Kai - really good MCP roll, Novatech starved of blue collar.
33. Aswon - only 3 entrances, find someone, take them out, face melding, sleeze in as them. Covers Aswon and Kai, need to work on the others.
34. Marius spots high wall from shadow cast on ground. Big wall = deep foundations say Tads, will affect tunnelling. Aswon - wonder about sewers.Might be a way in. Aswon wonders if the walls are clean, anal retentive. Tads - do drone deliveries go in over the wall - takeaway meals?
35. Aswon - what is out to the north west they would want to leave on foot? Hmmm....
36. Hunter tries to do some matrix research - finds the "sales brochure". Run through floors, Shimazu thinks about security on floor 0.
37. Kai - what about services - probably hidden / landscaped. Think about 3 entrances, check sizes. Aswon - maybe find out how busy that is, easily blocked - maybe affect them badly.

So - a bit more gumf this week, fellow GM's - please feel free to pitch in!

I found a nice area of the city on google maps to base the Novatech enclave on – a visually distinct area that is very noticeable on the map – though the real-life walled enclave is not quite as formidable https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/V22X%2B...#33;4d7.0489375

This is how I’m currently stating / building the HQ. From a GM POV, how do you rate this, and do you have any suggestions / improvements / comments? Do you think it’s too tough, or not tough enough?

Novatech HQ is currently "under siege" by motivated green campaigners / terra first, who are demonstrating just outside the corporate compound and creating a bit of a media circus. The players may be able to make use of this somehow.
HQ is a plot 2k X 1km, with lots of housing in landscaped areas / quite pleasant, along with a small office tower holding all the HQ functions - 10 story, with gym facilities, some underground parking, helipad to get to the airport. The area is background count 0 thanks to all the landscaping and greenery, and that all the employees here are actually treated fairly well, by corporate standards.


The compound is surrounded by an 8m high plasteel wall with concrete piers on the inside - smooth exterior. Inside is then planted with the same trees used to divide up the housing plots to disguise the wall and make it less oppresive for the residents. There are three entrances - the main entrance to the south onto the main road, designed for heavy traffic, a smaller car only entrance to the east onto a collector, and then one entrance for pedestrians / motorbikes only on the NW corner.
All are manned by rotating guard squads, and have R6 sensor coverage and R5 ID scanners. The wall has 45 degree outward leaning posts with capacitance wire running along in 4 rows, spaced 25cm apart. There are also R5 cameras and sensors running along the top of the wall, spaced about every 30m apart.

The office block holds about 300 staff, nearly all of which live in the compound. There are maintenance staff that come in each day on the bus, but all have been screened and have implanted RF tags (which are transferable with a Biotech 5 test) which function as screamers around the office and govern access.

The outer walls are guarded by a pair of F6 air elementals who run regular patrols with instructions to report in to the security office if they see anything suspicious.
Angel Desiree, the director of operations, has an office on the tenth floor, this level is restricted access to VP / director level staff and their agents only.
Floor
-2 Sewage, water treatment, maintenance
-1 Vehicle bays
0 Reception, security, public meeting rooms (guest network only, physically segregated), induction - swipe access on *every* door up and down from level 0, but seeing non-novatech visitors is not that rare. There is a lift with a rating 3 security to the roof, rating 5 to floors 1-7 and rating 6 AT2 to floors 8-10
1 General admin
2 legal services, hr, tech support
3 natural resources division - mining, drilling
4 software and hardware - sales of hosts, devices, subscriptions to services
5 media, marketing and agricorp
6 cavalier arms, cyberspace-systems
7 aero design, security services
8 secure meeting rooms, strategy rooms, r&d
9 server room, section managers, general board room
10 directors, vip catering, private gym
Roof Helipad rated to 10 tons, lift down to 0 (open access), secure lift to floors 1-7 (Rating 5, with Rating 6 camera coverage)

The mission is to gain access to Angels office, and plant incriminating physical evidence (which she will supply), then get into the server room and plant electronic evidence of bribe taking and corruption that cuts out her fellow directors (which will cause them to turn on her)

On the tenth floor, I'm looking at having swipe access doors on all the offices, keyed for the directors (R5 AT2), pressure pads in the corridor floors and good sensor coverage of lifts / stairwells, along with patrolling defensive drones outside working hours, accompanied by a patrol elemental (another air elemental probably) to cover the magical side of things.

On standby near the HQ now are some Novatech elite security teams - 4 man squads, Colt M22A2, Light security armour, Thermo goggles with above average skills and professional threat / competence, along with the ritual team: 3 Grade 1 initiated hermetic mages, detection / illusion / manipulation based spell set+elementals. 1 X Grade 3 initiated leader, + magical supplies, lodge materials, expendable fetishes etc. If the team don't get the job done in the first few days, then this will be supplanted by a team of higher grade initiates that are more combat focussed that are currently enroute from the London HQ.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 266 is now published, and added onto book 9 – and marks a completely arbitrary milestone that doesn’t actually mean anything in particular – but with this episode we’re just edging past 2,000,000 wordcount. Some of them are even good words! But, for any one that’s sticking with it so far, I hope you’re still enjoying!

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Well, we arrived in Nigeria, and I spent a good chunk of time describing on the trip down just how much of a “third world shithole” vibe they should be getting here, along with teasing at undercurrents of something more. The population is on edge, the police are out in force, and everyone is looking for an angle or their next big score – a situation rife for a match to be thrown into the dry tinder. And here the players are stuck in the middle…

Still, they got to do a walk around the Novatech compound, and got to case out all three entrances and get a feel for security. A hidden chemistry check for Aswon revealed the Plasteel-7 section, giving them a potentially easy way into the facility – or an equally good way out if they need it.

On top of that, they got to see the protests in full swing, and both the Novatech and police responses to it. I don’t know if any of the players specifically recall the “Hestaby - will send a media unit to expose the plight of the locals” line and have put two and two together, but this is all her doing as well, distracting and confusing Novatech HQ with stuff right outside their front door and reminding them that the world is watching and that they need to be careful.

Of course, none of this happens in a vacuum, and Novatech are already on with their plans to change the narrative. A team of low-end runners have been hired to disrupt the marches and kick things up, and they’re planning on some wet-work against the journalists – which the team may well find out about if they get involved in the local shadow scene. It’s then going to be an interesting decision to see if they get involved to stop it, or let it happen and try to turn it to their advantage!

On top of that of course, they still need to get a plan together to get into the Novatech tower and break into Angel Desiree’s office to plant the ‘evidence’ and then get Hunter into the computer room to handle the electronic side of things, and get themselves out without being caught.
We have a game this week coming, but then no session for at least the week after, while some of the players are on holiday, selling their souls to the big Mouse in Paris, so they’ll be a bit of a break in posting week after next.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Tuesday 29/3/2061, Location: 5.00206, 6.94688, Time 10:30
2. Land - get to hanger, pay couple of hundred Nuyen for hanger, locks are stupidly cheap
3. Leave Hunter in the hanger with 1 spirit to secure the place, and do matrix searches, then head into town. Marius shows Hunter how to rack up the flux on the comms system to do an emergency signal
4. Chat while waiting for the bus.
5. Aswon - drop tribe a text, we're going to be delayed, doing more on the mission, the spirits will approve
6. Team discussion - don't know much about the tower layout - assuming she will have corner top office.
7. Marius - thinking rooftop insertion, Aswon agrees - minimum transit through tower. Marius check the airspace. Assess - to narrow a bearing as airport out of city - may need to take condor in closer. Think we should be able to get into the enclave, lots of travel in and out - the tower will be the difficult bit. No idea on security level, scans, lockdown of lifts etc
8. Aswon - they're a tech company, lots of anti-tamper, high level passive stuff. Think we should aim at the people side. The roof is a good thing, but we need to look at the local people.
9. Marius - if they're contractors, probably the main entrance. Aswon - and once you're in, you're probably ok. Marius - but the tower is a different matter. Aswon - maybe do a day of surveillance, absorbing info.
10. Aswon - maybe get Kai to look for contacts in the area, shadow talent.
11. Marius - find the mood of the area, thoughts about the corp. Aswon - yes, influence, politics, feelings, chance of hiding. Marius - Kai, need human intelligence, eyes on the ground.
12. Shimazu - I can maybe look at the sewer side. Tads - and I need to go shopping for food, might be good for bribes then. And I can make you home style food after that... Aswon - you had me at nefarious bribes..
13. Marius - stay and do maintenance, and also send in the condor.
14. Aswon - not better to do recon as a team, taxi into town, get initial eyes on, pick up the package later
15. Tads - might be worth checking talismongers, if we have cash - no idea how much we have. Aswon - we should keep an eye out for bargains, sure...
16. Aswon - look for hotels near the entrance, if not b+b or rentals.
17. Onto the bus, no seats, max capacity. Bus driver like a taxi driver, talking with Aswon. Bus quiet otherwise, 2 local businessmen coming home, playing music
18. Coming down main road, layout, despair, building state, many churches. Drops off in the centre of town, half a dozen people heading in take their place. Journey takes an hour, arrive at 11:30
19. Some drone traffic, but not much. Would be easy to track if noticed, but shouldn't draw attention unless it does something suspicious
20. Tads - could I put a spirit on top of the drone? discussion about concealment, how to detect if being tracked, magically obvious
21. Drone traffic is generally small stuff
22. Police - might be contracted or run as government service, not that much difference.
23. Kai - face sculpt to take on more of a native like appearance, talk to the locals, 25+ a couple of 4s.
24. Despair, willingness to deal, ignorance of the Novatech compound, fear of the police, high watchfulness, happiness skin deep.
25. Pancake vendor, sisters ex-husband, good school, conversation with wife, tell them whatever they want to hear, don't feed the kids, arrange for dinner with Kai at 19:00
26. Storm canal, tunnel - but no roof. Since HQ built, used to have a lake, water going elsewhere. Spot rear section with Plasteel-7
27. Round the front, checking IDs and vehicles every 3-5, wanded + visual checks.
28. Midday, green protesters turn up, gates are closed, security ramps up. Team ask the locals about what is going on, get basic info.
29. Novatech forces come out from the hq to the main gate, then police turn up. Shimazu psychology - police are raring to go, demonstrators being kept back, police are riot police. F6 air elementals watching from Novatech. Crowd genuine believers.
30. Aswon starts spreading rumours about Novatech - slavery, sending riches to space.
31. Team back together, Aswon mentions plasteel-7, start discussing catalyst.
32. Spot the Terra-First activist - Aswon, we need to watch those!

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 267 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
More recon this week, with the team slowly exploring the area, finding out some details and getting some recon done, all while trying to keep a low profile. They went for dinner with the street vendor, knowing that he was full of BS, but still managed to find some useful information. Otherwise it was general recon and planning, and a bit of a slow night as they gathered more information to actually work out how best to break in – unsurprisingly, the team are trying to stack the odds in their favour as far as possible and are wary about poking a corp the size of Novatech without doing as much deck-stacking as possible!

Many years ago, I used to work for BT, down in central London, in a building right next to St. Pauls tube station. During the day it was massively crowded, full of traffic, with a thousand suits wandering the roads, filling the wine bars and queueing at the sandwich bars. Just after kicking out time the place was thronged with business folk relaxing with a bottle of plonk, filling every bar and plaza to the limit. It was a buzzing social scene – until some weird arbitrary time – and then the place emptied like rats leaving a sinking ship. Maybe around 7:30-8pm, people would call it a day, jump on the tube and head back to the suburbs. In very short order all the wine bars would close, and the place would turn into a ghost town. Traffic didn’t just die down, it just seemed to stop. There would be nobody on the streets – it wasn’t on the way too or from anywhere. The tube stations would turn into the dictionary definition of “desolate”. I worked in IT, so I sometimes had patching or maintenance to do, and would probably be one of a dozen people in the block that was still there – and it never ceased to amaze me how utterly different the place looked after the cut-off time.

That was pretty much the inspiration for night time in Port Harcourt – the sudden emptying of the streets and turning into a ghost town to make everything feel really odd and out of place. In this case though, it’s because there’s an unofficial curfew and the local police are corporate funded pricks, who make life exceptionally difficult for people, and are heading well towards the “secret police” style of operation, with people just disappearing or being arrested for complete nonsense. The players have seen the effect of this so far, but have only hints at the reasons – but I’m sure they’re going to find out!

Hopefully this week coming they’ll find someone they can either influence and turn into their unsuspecting drone, or capture someone so they can start doing some biotech and stealing their screamer tags so they can infiltrate into the tower, and get things moving along!

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Tuesday 29/3/2061, Location: 4.84925, 7.05151, Time 12:10
2. Team does a quick recap of the walls, top wire, water table, culvert, sensor positions etc
3. Shimazu - bribe the activists to stage a distraction for us? Tads - we need to know what our next step is first, it could escalate into a riot, and perhaps get people killed. So we need to have the whole plan in place, as that might be a one shot use. Kai - no, thinking of approaching them now and finding out how we're viewed, can we get into the organisation.
4. Professionally organised rally, wise to shady shit from the corps.
5. Elementals only arrived when the alert was sounded. Tads - probably mage watching with optical binos from inside the tower, elementals keeping close to the tower.
6. Aswon - if the protests gets violent once, that's the last time probably - will never kick off again, because Novatech/police will stop them. That's the time to go through the rear wall.
7. Team leave to go somewhere quiet, set up the condor and Marius does drones. Look for junkies - none. Untreated water - lots of people drinking alcohol. No sign of casual street violence. Police draw lots of fearful looks from the residents. Shimazu - we could call in some crimes to assess the local police. Aswon - don't like, could lead to over-reaction.
8. Kai - what do we need to get the job done. Hunter must go in, for the computers. Marius for the maglocks. Tads for magical cover.
9. Aswon - need to learn more about local security, screamer tags etc
10. Check for media interviews, view from her office.
11. Kai - infiltrate via either security staff, workers, visitors. Novatech likely to have their own security, farm out the maintenance workers. Aswon start with the maintenance staff, find out if they have tags they have to wear?
12. Aswon - she probably lives on site, but not in the tower. Tads, ex government - might have a mansion elsewhere, probably not - but maybe.
13. Marius gets drone up and view tower, hvac and lifts, check distance - 275m from front wall. Discussion about parachuting, elementals, using levitate to help the jump. Most defences looking down. Check the building in thermo, no hotspots. Tads - check the hvac. It's all working, not that hard, even use all sides.
14. Marius spots the demo leaving, 58 minutes later.
15. Check dragon knowledge - Hestaby eco aware, works with Greenpeace, Sierra inc, other eco groups. Aswon infiltrates and gets on a bus, without drawing attention.
16. Aswon gets disappointed looks re the spear, told to be careful, don't disappoint Dr Kiyana Obruka. Passes name to Hunter. Group leader starts speech at the front of the bus. Our sponsors have paid for more days, please join us,
17. rousing speech. Aswon doesn’t spot any terra first on his bus. Checks the crowd. Media coverage is a new thing. Aswon rides the full route and gets back later - not a tour bus.
18. Tads gets food samples. Marius finds a quiet place to keep surveillance up, Tads leaves a spirit with him.
19. Restaurant, 25 friends and family, 500 Nuyen. 90-95% bullshit. Get the worker talking, med procedure hurt the 2nd time, implanted screamer tag.
20. Aswon - pedestrian entrance might get you close enough to scan people and build up intel.
21. Hunter does get the catalyst formula from the matrix. Kai etiquette test to get the chemicals, 2 successes, 3 days to procure.
22. Aswon - tanker crash into the wall, melt the whole lot, distract the security.
23. Very little magical security in the city at all, very low levels of magical activity overall.
24. Get a hotel nearby and crash in there, near dawn.

Somehow I managed to mess up my notetaking, and split this information off, and it wasn’t included in the writeup. None of it is vital, and it won’t really change the narrative in a meaningful way – and I’ve only found it after Tads had already proofed and returned the writeup to me, so it’s going to stay out – but I’ll include here for completeness!

1. Do some night time walk around. ped entrance still live all night. Marius indicates he can build some electronic scanners and plant them outside the ped entrance to scan. Aswon - or follow someone to a bar and cosy up to them on the next stool.
2. Do some night time surveillance, spot the evening shift coming out. Tads follows the shift bus and gets drop off points. Shifts are 6-12, 12-8, 8-6. Some metas, but 98% are black. Estimate about 20-30 per shift.
3. Aswon - scan people getting on/off the bus to get ID tags. Tads - and check their clothing, to try and categorise people to jobs.
4. No sign of security leaving the compound - must be lodging internally. Traffic slows overnight, but doesn't stop.
5. Kai - if we had to fight to get Hunter out could we. Shimazu - probably, mix of weapons. 6-8 outer gate, 12 inner gate, doubled on alert.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 268 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Time to throw a spanner in the works this week, and give the players a very quick decision to make. They’d not done anything specific that had tipped off the local police – there was no massive clanger dropped, but it was a combination of factors, some of which they’ve worked out with appropriate in-game rolls against skills. So, they did have visa documentation worked up by Hunter, but without knowing the city and how corp-dominated it was, they weren’t the “correct” type to pass without notice. Then, splashing the cash about while Kai was schmoosing vendors also triggered a contact report from an informant (with the team not noticing the special attention paid to them). Next they were noticed at the crowd watching the demonstration, even though they managed to avoid the media attention, just because of how they were dressed and what they did. And last of all, they triggered some attention with the very generous and expensive (by local standards) meal for the family.

Enough clues dropped together to make them “persons of interest”, and for a collection marker to be put out for them, with a local unit to be sent to bring them in for questioning. And that in turn triggered Mr Musa after he got a tip off from his man inside the police force.

The players were (understandably) very paranoid about this guy who just turned up unannounced to “save” them. The theory for the first half of the session was that he was the one that tipped off the police, and then got to exploit the situation. That softened by the end of the session once they’re realised that other than being willing to buy or sell absolutely anything, he was just working as a fixer in the city.

It did give them a different part of the city to look at (https://www.google.com/maps/@4.8332517,7.04...i6656?entry=ttu) and the bullet holes and general description of the area were taken from the street view – it certainly looks like the rougher side of the city, and a new smuggler stop location – even if this one is only really suitable for small watercraft. But, it’s info and might be worth something to someone else, so it’s all good.

It also let me drip feed a tiny bit of special ammo to them for their choice of guns, giving them some options later. One of the things we’ve (or rather I’ve) done is to overhaul the SR3 ammo system a little. As per the books, it goes normal > APDS > AV. Normal ammo is stopped by standard body armour to a certain extent. APDS makes armour only half as effective, but has the same damage as standard ammo against vehicles. AV is the anti-vehicle ammo, and not only doesn’t suffer the modifiers for hitting vehicles, but it also halves the vehicle armour.

I’ve never liked this, as it seemed to skip a step of being anti-personnel normal, anti-personnel armour piercing, *anti-vehicle normal*, anti-vehicle armour piercing. If you’re shooting at a vehicle, with the standard ammo types, you tended to either spang off harmlessly or wreck the vehicle because you were firing AV, and even security vehicles got ripped apart because their armour was irrelevant.

So we expanded the ammo types out a little, and made AV ammo affect vehicles without any modifiers – but they got their full armour value against the attack. Only when you move up to APFSDS anti-vehicle rounds does the vehicle only get half armour against the attack. This smooths out the damage curve a lot, and makes lighter armed security vehicles still a match for the average team, even if they’re packing AV – and of course it makes a new top end ammo with even higher cost and availability fit into the world, giving them something even harder to chase.

We also added some mid-tier stuff – the magna explosive rounds and SABOT. Magna explosive are to Ex-Ex, what Ex-Ex is to normal – but there is a teeny tiny tincy chance of exploding in the gun. It’s barely worth factoring. Honest.  And SABOT rounds take a flat modifier off armour values *before* doing other calculations – such as if hardened armour can spang an attack. So it’s a good way to give corp defence forces a bit of special ammo that makes the players assault a bit riskier, without having to give away the really good stuff when the players get to loot the bodies.

But, now they have a bit of gear bought, they also have chance for Marius to make his bugs, and an alternative source of getting hold of the RFID chips – now it’s up to the players to see how much trouble and how much violence they’re willing to use to get the job done!

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Wednesday 30/3/2061, Location: 4.84863, 7.03922, Time 06:00
2. Hunter research comes in: Angel Desirees office, 10th floor, SW corner, Briefing room / press conferences, 9th floor, SW corner, Formula for Plasteel-7 catalyst obtained and chemicals ordered, will be available 3rd April.
3. Tads - astral recon, Tads follows the shift bus and gets drop off points. Shifts are 6-12, 12-8, 8-6. Some metas, but 98% are black. Estimate about 20-30 per shift.But, also spots the F6 air elemental on patrol on the inside edge of the compound.
4. knock on door for Kai/Shimazu (Tads, Marius and Aswon in other room). Kai checks with Shimazu, Shimazu grabs knife and answers door. Police are coming for you, I can get you out.
5. Kai to door, who are you. Mr Musa, I can get you out, but not cheap. Shimazu gets sword and assenses Musa. Appears to be telling the truth, sense of urgency. Kai - you get the rest of the team.
6. Mr Musa - you get out via the fire exit, don't take the front. K - can I get your number? Musa - no.
7. Team start to bail out. Aswon and Shimazu free fall, rest climb / dangle. All ok. Get to corner, Mr Musa leans out of black minivan "get in". Head out. Mr Musa - my fee, 2k, take you to a safe place in the city. Tads goes out of body, looks at the van, and then darts to Hunter to give him a fresh spirit and a very brief update, then back to the van before it gets out of sight.
8. Kai - so, tell me about yourself. Musa - no, you are a strange man! Kai - how did you know? Musa - contact in the police. K - but why looking for us. M - 5 visitors tourists in the city, seen at demo. Aswon asks why - tourist visas, but in international area. Kai - border procedure, maybe not business travellers, but industrial area.
9. Kai - asks what he knows about the demo. M - hmm, lots of money. Maybe cover for action against Novatech. Are you the action plan against Novatech? K - oooh, no. We're a completely different plan. Need info about the police and the city. You are... in business? K - yeah, transport and special interests. Do you have special skills? M - I arrange things. K - we're available for getting stuff out, without paperwork. He's driving randomly. K - can you get us a random place to stay? M - yes, I can get you a house. K - what can you tell me about novatech. M - depends what you want, but it will cost you. Aswon sniggers. K - after information about getting into the compound without being spotted. M - maybe I can help with that. do you have guns, weapons? K - yes, we're covered, but always on the lookout. Aswon - we're after codes, papers, security details...
10. M pulls over, turns to team, you want to get in. Aswon/Kai -yes, delivery specialists, no violence. Offers hand to shake, gives full name. I can be your friend. Get you guns, drugs, chips - Aswon, what about skill chips. Shrug, can get, but don't have. Aswon - how much for info on the police? M - take a long time, very expensive. Cred-reader, 1k. Driving with purpose, heading for somewhere specific.
11. Musa describes the corps owning the police, unofficial council, the corps rule the town, secret police, Aswon asked for some names to drop in the shit if they get picked up. Negotiation test - gets one captain, 2 lts, all disliked generally. Corruption and bribery is par for the course. Very violent, high crime clean up rates, lots of people wounded trying to escape custody.
12. Turn into side street, electronics shop, knock 3, pause, 3, tell them Musa sent you. Marius, Shimazu. Tads takes advantage to dive back and brief Hunter more. Marius knocks, gets offered the components for 1000 Nuyen including writers. Aswon - can we hot mike jam it? Marius, possible - depends on the settings. Musa - what gun do you have. Aswon - throwing knife into the roof. What gun - it's not here. Need special ammo. We can do business.
13. Get back into van and move off, after Kai gets the electronics shop number. Ok, we go back to my place, we see some things.
14. Heads to Dominion Tower Ministry, backs in, under cover. Leads down into crypt. Hi tech scanners and security on heavy duty door, subtle cameras. Spot the contraband graveyard.
15. Offered Super-sabot, Aswon offers 500. Musa counters 2k, Aswon comes back with 750, maybe 1k. Musa comes back with 1750. Tries with Kai - what kind of gun do you have? Kai - tasers mainly. Arrows? What? No... Get big D shells, tie to the front, big boom? 1k for box of 10 - Aswon, ok. Shows the team Magna explosive, offers 500 Nuyen for 10. Team purchases 2 for 1k.
16. Musa shows them his variety of designer drugs, doses from 100-150 Ny per. No grenades, no tranq patches. Kai takes Marius to one side to see about possible smuggling routes. Nigeria>Egypt>Home, because of fuel stops.
17. Musa shows them the dock, also does passenger transport. Back in and shows Aswon 50cal rounds, black tip with silver lines. 1000Ny for 5 rounds of APFSDS. Decline on the drugs and chips generally. Mong - fractal universe collapse, 100Nyh per does, 6 hour. Happy clown, 5 doses of each, another 1k.
18. Offers to help the team on, extract workers, get a surgeon, just scan onto the bus. Aswon - don't want to kill them. Musa - will cost more if we have to store the bodies. 1.5k per head. 2k to keep them alive. Aswon - how much notice. M - couple of hours. If you want someone from a secure area, more money - maybe another couple of thousand? Marius given access to tools and workbench for 250 Nuyen, with lights. Proper merc - everything has a cost.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 269 is now published, and added onto book 9.
Late posting this week as we were in the Netherlands for the weekend, so writing up the episode was supposed to be done in the airport after check-in, while waiting for the flights. However Microsoft kindly froze my one-drive and it took ages to sort out, which pushed everything back.
So yeah, hunting around and reinstalling office onto the laptop and not trusting the webversion for a while…
Also – unfortunately we’re two players down for this weeks session, so we’ve had to cancel – so no writeup this weekend, and hopefully we’ll be back to play on the 27th, with the next update out around the 2nd July.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
A bit of a slow week, with the team having lots of discussions and plans, and not a huge amount of action. I’m not sure if this is nerves about breaking into an arcology / AAA facility, if everyone had just had a tough few days at work, or if someone was waiting for someone else to drive the story forward. In the grand scheme of things that’s ok, though I don’t want to encourage quite *this* level of planning and preparation.

Still – that’s what Phos and Ury are for! They’re due in soon, and will be used to shove the players along and propel them into action if they don’t get on with things soon, and to make sure they’re not going to let Hestaby down.

In the meantime, they’ve started to gather the RFID data they will need to duplicate / spoof IDs if that’s what they do to get into the tower, so there’s some progress there. They’ve also collected the package from the airport, so they have the worm with electronic data and the forged documents – so they can actually make a start on the job now as well.

One of the big discussions was about Musa, and the ethics, risks and rewards of using Influence on him to make him more aligned with the team. Tads was the one to suggest this, and normally she’s the one on the team that can be most relied upon to be ethical/moral, and the least likely to abuse someone – and looking at her face as she broached the subject, I could tell that *she* really wasn’t sure what the impact and effects would be. The team did take a certain amount of time to consider this, including working out some contingencies and possible outcomes, and even made sure that it was Shimazu that did the assenssing before-hand to try and make sure that if Musa did discover it, and decided to kick off about it, he was going up against the specialist melee combatant AND that they hadn’t revealed Tads’ magical nature.

Anyone would think that two decades experience playing Shadowrun has made some of them paranoid…
They also had a fairly involved discussion about the arcology security system, and trying to work out the likelihood of it being a decked or rigged system, and how they could work around the various security measures. Marius was quick to point out that he just doesn’t have the right gear to hack a full CCSS system – though the team DOES have the funds to resolve that at the moment, I think they’re not looking to make that kind of investment into his rigger deck right now.

Still, hopefully next session they’ll have the RFID data, can arrange for some kidnappings if that’s the way they want to go, and we can move onto the tower assault!


And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Wednesday 30/3/2061, Location: 4.84863, 7.03922, Time 12:00
2. Marius - has assembled 2 low profile RFID scanners with fixings to go near the bridge / pedestrian exit, and one much smaller one to attach near a coach door and scan people on the way in / out of the door, and 1 X hot mike jammer.
3. Aswon reiterate - doing the job by influence. Marius - weak sauce explaining to Hestaby. Aswon - can always mind probe afterwards. Or backup plan via the roof, once we have RFID scans - then its a technical effort. Tads - may be magical defences up there - they have the elemental on the ground, would make sense to have one on the tower as well. Marius - could be different philosophies on the security - hard outer shell, softer inside. Aswon - anyone know much about Novatech. Shimazu - would seem right, maybe over-reliance on the RFID, don't cross verify. Aswon - should be looking at decent locks and cameras and stuff up there, but they could have rigger/decker access for pilots or execs up there, maybe in a secure terminal. Team talking in mix of Russian, Azerbaijani and Japanese around Musa.
4. Kai confirms that Shimazu can dice any one of the elementals no problem. Kai - magic banishing? Tads, one at a time, not great skill, but I can do it. It also ties them up exclusively. Aswon - and hard to tell in combat if it's bound or unbound elementals, on remote or direct service. Magic support likely to be in the main building, behind polarised glass.
5. Marius - Novatech is new, who built this building? Is it a Fuchi legacy? Maybe schematics - get Hunter to search.
6. Ask Musa to arrange planting the bugs - 500 Nuyen for all 3. Aswon asks about AOD trackers, he has R5 at 3.5k X5. Get 3 X trackers and 500 Nuyen more to collect next day. 11.5k total.
7. Tads - can offer to tidy up his tunnel, but does reveal our magical capability. Or some food. Kai think about smuggling - can go back to the bird and "get stuff out the freezer" - Aswon, but does reveal the bird to him. Marius - double edged sword, see the bird, realise he's dealing with a higher end team, might rat us out to the locals, or he might go this is a pro team, I don't want to ruin my rep. Could go either way. Tads - possibly use an influence spell to tip the odds in our favour.
8. Team head to airport with Musa. Musa sends schoolkids to plant the bugs.
9. Shimazu assenses - no masking to pierce, plenty of cyberware, tells team all good. Tads influence, 2 net success - positive inclination to the team, serious people, shouldn't screw them over. Trip to the airport, he heads for main building, team redirect to private side, team take him into hanger. Whistles on seeing the bird, "dat is a nice machine" big grins. Arrive by 2pm. Kai explains might have stuff for trade. Tads says "will have to dig out of the freezer, be a minute", makes some luxury foods. Does not understand what truffles are, think they are poos. Hunter pulls up demo of what truffles are. Musa tries truffle, tastes like poo too. Spits out. Offers 80/20 split on selling stuff. Tads says to call if he can sell and she will "unload" the stuff. Team agree. Kai - if you can get freezer space, we can get you some bulk supplies.
10. Aswon goes for a walk around the airport to scope out the police presence. Transport police aren't looking for them, no APB, heavily armed, probably a primo job to be here. Send Musa off to sell the gear, return with devices tomorrow and detail the stuff sold.
11. Discussion between Aswon and Marius about how they might be flagged / who tagged them / what the pickup option is - is it related to the demonstrations, well dress foreigners, looks suspicious.
12. Look at local dress, Hijab/Niqab is possible but not super common. Otherwise team will still stand out a bit. Suits for the corporate type. Get team through wards, relax a bit, get containers for future steak shipments.
13. Kai and Shimazu go to main terminal to left luggage office. Large guy - Gary Anthony Williams, how can I help you. Get the package, leatherette satchel, asks for 50 nuyen, gets given 100 by kai, blessings of god. Back to the tilt-wing, bug scan, check over, check contents.
14. 1 X optical chip with a 40 Mp set of data files and a worm
15. 1 X physical package, 27 documents, variety of flash paper, written in code. Documents look like good quality forgeries. Team look at chip, try to work out analysis - air gap system, worried about auto-execute payloads. Hunter gets amazing roll and works out what the chip is. No further instructions on where to plant the physical stuff, team discuss and plan to put somewhere discreet and hidden to make them look sus.
16. Aswon suggests - put people onto the roof, when the demo kicks off tomorrow at midday. Get Hunter and Marius onto the roof to look at the defences. Get data to/from Marius via sat-phone. Aswon remembers Phos and Ury are due in sometime - but they have no contact details.
17. Tads - can we contact the organiser of the march? Kai - maybe ask Musa. Aswon - careful how we ask, make sure he doesn't get kidnapped.
18. Kai - do the physical plant first. If we do the data chip, it may start a clock, might trip things off.
19. Hunter looking for building plans - finds the compound is only about 14 months old. Hunter looks for other similar Novatech locations to see if it's a common design. Aswon - suggest a run against city hall for contracts for the building.
20. Aswon - thinking about location of tech services, probably in HR / tech support, only the 2nd floor?
21. Hunter - results on searches, The compound runs almost like an arcology. Water is recycled from all buildings on site to a massive treatment plant under the swimming pool and a large recycling tank / treatment system - so there are a number of tunnels and pipes laid across the facility to feed all the residences and facilities, going down up to thirty metres in the central areas, ten at the perimeter. Underground it's like a game of Ker-plunk, with multiple service ducts criss crossing at different heights and directions. All buildings have solar panel rooves, supplying the vast majority of the sites power and making them mostly self-sufficient. There is a waste facility also buried under the front field with a methane decomposition chamber - the methane is cracked on site and purified and used for vehicle power, and the waste product is shipped out at periodic intervals in a large convoy to dump elsewhere.
22. Tads wondering about wards - nothing visible from outside so far.
23. Aswon posits that the DC is in the R&D floor for security / size / space. Thinks they need to get to floor 2 where it's likely to generate the passes / allow screamer tags for certain floors.
24. Back and forth amongst team - get ID from floor 2, then go in through the roof. Marius - splitting the team weakens us, but might allow one part of the pincer to get on if the other is rumbled.
25. Marius - think it's likely to be a CCSS, run in captains chair with teams. Aswon - Leaning towards going in super carefully in the roof, get into her suite, use her desk to jack in and try to get access into the system. Get Marius and Hunter in to work together. Marius - don't have the emulation kit to hack a CCSS, likely to be around 100k
26. Working plan is either roof down, or ground up, whole team together, using data from RFID grabs.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 270 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Bleugh. This one is far later out than I intended, as a consequence of a weekend away with the in-laws being sociable, and then coming down with Peruvian Death Flu and a hacking cough that left me sounding like Darth Vader. Still, life goes on, so here we are…
The team were still very unsure about taking on Novatech with the info they had, so they wanted to do some more recon and preparation. They obviously don’t feel confident in either what they know or their skills, and are looking to try and get every advantage they can – which is fair enough.

It’s an interesting situation in some ways – they are obviously not aware of what I have planned for them, or the level of opposition, and they’re “honouring” the threat level they perceive that they face, and are treating it with a degree of caution and respect. That’s exactly what they should be doing, especially in a full consequence Black Trenchcoat style campaign. If this was Pink Mohawk, they’d have been ramming their way into the building by now I’m sure and letting rip with the flamethrowers – but it’s very much not that style of game!

On the other hand, after 6 and a bit years of playing with the same group, I’m pretty confident in both their skills and approach, and in terms of the game style certainly am not looking to try and present them with a challenge they can’t face or any insta-gib kind of situations. Not only would that really mess with the story, but it’s also very much not my style, and not something I would enjoy doing.

There are some nasty situations waiting for them, and some things they’ll need to think about, but nothing they can’t overcome, and hopefully when they look at the traps / situations / opponents it will all make sense.
So, to try and bolster their confidence a little, they got to see the milspec armed strike team heading out towards the mountain, and then a little while later the battered remains of their encounter with the mountain spirit limping back to base. Somewhat unexpectedly they decided to intervene here and use a spirit with its accident power on the chopper that was hovering one box off deadly damage already – so they got to see a crash and burn that would further complicate things for Novatech.

Then, Mousa delivered all of their data without issue and with an excellent set of computer rolls, Hunter managed to decrypt the data and get a handle on what was needed to make up their own chips.
And finally, I added Phoss and Ury to the mix, having them come in and “be ready” to assist the team with their efforts. Hopefully this put a little bit of subtle pressure on them to start the mission, now that Hestaby’s agents are there and watching them.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Wednesday 30/3/2061, Location: 5.00206, 6.94688, Time 21:00
2. Team all together in the hanger, they have the worm on the chip, and the physical document to plant
3. Call Abegunde Musa, looking for R8 dataline tap - R8 for 12k in 8 days, or R6 in 4 days for 9k
4. Aswon - ahh, too long, we need to do the job, and need to be quicker. Kai - maybe barter for a job? Aswon - wah wah, fuel costs. Team think - what about magical services, reveal capabilities, maybe put wards up. Team decide not to do it...
5. Aswon, when we break in, try to avoid killing. Marius - you don't say. Aswon, going into AAA home, kicking off - nah. Hunter - may have done that in the jungle a bit. Aswon - yeah, but that's the jungle. Hunter - besides, they just need to start asking dragons where we are, we've met most of em! Aswon - no, still plenty. Gods - imagine introducing a dragon to Germain. Tads - suggests Perianwyr and Songbird would be interesting.
6. 30 mins for Condor to get to site, decent pilot and stealth rolls. Tads goes astral, 21 on a scout roll.
7. About ten PM for drone on station, see troop chopper and half a dozen light milspec troops get in, along with 3 X F6 fire elementals, heading to top of mountain. Tads goes to warn Pebble. Tads checks for any of the troops carrying swords - none visible. Team generally chill for a bit. Tads checks out Mousas smuggling hole on the way back.
8. About 00:30, chopper comes back in a "state", held together with good wishes, - starboard wing ripped off, door gone, 40mm holes, Tads thinks the holes are from Pebbles spear attack. Kai makes the call, use Accident on the chopper as it comes in. Tads and spirit come in from the mountain side, orders to evade afterwards.
9. Chopper gets to close to the building, then accident, tail comes off, nearly slices the building, rotates down the back, slams into a building and catches fire, spreads to 2nd building before under control. Eventually get the fire under control - 3rd FF vehicle, get the pilot and co-pilot out badly burnt, when they are getting into the back, only 2 milspec bodies come out.
10. Tads - the door is missing, maybe the troops got pulled / sucked out? Aswon - possible, given the holes in the side of the chopper. But they're still down a bunch of people, and I think it's clear the mountain can look after itself now...
11. Hunter analyses footage, thinks they have Wires 2 at a min, probably smartlink-2, eyes etc. Aswon: represtents a noticeable amount of the force loaded up from Europe. Possibly then also wants to get revenge. Tads - goes to tell Pebble about possible mage support and the level / number.
12. Tads - where did the chopper come from. Aswon the FOB, came in to pick them up, then probably bringing the wounded back to hospital.
13. Hunter finds info from media, another protest, much the same, but now with 150+ locals coming to watch, more pressure on security forces, very difficult to stop news getting out - no real chance of a media clampdown.
14. Aswon - powder keg? Civil unrest? Kai - possibly, they don't like the local police as it is. Maybe link to the chopper crash, if that gets out. But the protests is very well managed, so I don't think they would kick off from that. Aswon checks footage, probably not enough to kick off.
15. Marius - what if we used mind control to make a copper kick off without provocation? Hunter - not something Elk would like! Aswon, I agree - but also don't want to get innocents killed in that kind of number.
16. Aswon - depends on the RFID info then, but maybe we can use that for the exfiltration, instead of infiltration.
17. Team stand down and rest, cycle through wards, wait until Thursday evening.
18. Abegunde comes back up to airport Thurs tea time, Aswon on hanger roof checking for tails. Parks up and bangs on door, let Mr Mousa in. Mousa reports a clean op, no issues. Team check over the sensors in case there is a second AOD tracker or other signals - find nothing.
19. Mousa "What are you planning on doing? Are you breaking into the tower, Mousa can help?" Kai - can you get in there then? M - anything is possible for the right cash. Helicopter in over the wall - though you have one. Steal a RFID transmitter, or smuggle you in with supplies. *shrugs*.
20. Aswon - what supplies. M - not much food, some supplies in and out. A - novatech trucks? M - no, often local supplies. M - call me if you need something, otherwise, I go...
21. Friday morning, analysis complete, got 150+ RFID scans from the bus. Just an ID, no encoded door access. Get dates from the chips showing last week to 2 years ago.
22. 20 novatech scans from the ped gate - but probably lower ranking people.
23. Marius - if we can get into server room, we might be able to lift scans from the doors to get senior RFID codes that way.
24. Aswon - we need to get into exec office first as the easiest, maybe use the jackpoint there to get to us to the server room?
25. Tads - will the worm thing let us out before it crashes the computer. Aswon - yeah, it's going into offline storage. Tads gets clarification on what that means.
26. Aswon, now we know it's IDs only, we only need to get close to scan someone, then we can pirate their code. Kai - we don't want to leave bodies lying around. Aswon - sure, we want to do it subtly. Marius - we can scan people from the other side of the door if we know they're there. Tads - bottle of alcohol to dose people? Team remember they bought the drugs from Mousa.
27. Friday 10:00, call from Phoss, they're arriving in the city, by car, from the east. Team tell them to come to the airport in their jalopy. Ury, take the next right, and try not to hit another cow! Hangs up...
28. Aswon - can we get novatech overalls / armour, for running bluffs? Kai calls mousa, about uniforms. Negotiation 7, Mousa gets good availability rolls. Can get overalls for Novatech by that evening at 500 Nuyen per set. Team order for Hunter, Marius, Shimazu,Aswon, Phoss, Ury, Tads = 7, 3.5k. Kai gets his suit out.
29. Phoss and Ury arrive at midday, what can we do to help. Get bought up to speed, watch footage, have popcorn.
30. Catalyst chemicals turn up - rolls for Aswon and Hunter to make stuff. Get the catalyst made up, but have difficulty with the delivery method - maybe crushing into the wall is the best idea after all. Maybe use Phoss and Ury to do that with a decoy mission. Discussion about jamming, comms signals, co-ordination. Maybe use watcher spirits.
31. Ask Marius about CCSS monitoring - mostly logged, for later analysis. Maybe work out tactical code for encrypted tactical movement. Use tactical codes for half a dozen likely plans.
32. Mousa will rock up with tool boxes to disguise shotguns / big tools, and overalls by 18:00

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 271 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
So, another update – this one thankfully out on time after last weeks issues. I don’t know – does this make this one feel like a “bonus issue?”

Anyway, here we go. We started off the session in the hanger with one last round of “are we actually going to do this” conversations, but thankfully they all got their asses in gear and got ready to go. As we’ve taken a fair while to get to this point, I was more than happy to provide them with a taxi driver who didn’t ask questions, or any issues getting a vehicle big enough for them to all fit in, even with all their gear – I just didn’t want to derail whatever impetus we had!

Back into town they got some shopping, disguised their gear and then headed into the security checkpoint. When I suddenly called out “stop right there!” I could see several of the expressions change on the players faces, wondering what had given them away – before they gave me evil stares as it became clear that the guard just wanted a birthday polaroid. <evil grin>

But, this was one I was quite happy was going to go their way. Even with a suspicious guard, the chances of him overcoming Kai in a negotiation were fairly slim. Sure on one side we have a guard, with good professional training, alert and with consequences for not doing his job right. On the other though we have a social adept with a Charisma of 8, Negotiation and Etiquette of 7 each as well, Kinsesics, Empathic sense, Empathic reading, facial sculpt, melanin and facial control giving him a huge social leg up, along with RFID tags that match the security database and a convincing physical disguise and situation. So once they got over their little scare, and *very* quickly worked out how to avoid having their mug shots taken, they were into the grounds and through the outer layer of security.

There were additional sensor rolls inside to try and detect the team, but nothing came close to their stealth scores, so they got up onto the roof area for the next pair of little surprises. Some good perception tests spotted the parapet guard beams, so they were very quickly able to avoid those without triggering anything, leading onto the second surprise.

Here I threw something of a passive defence at them, as they’d not cottoned on to never having seen magical activity on the roof yet – but again they made a great perception roll and managed to avoid triggering the trap. The roof was seeded with a clover/watercress style plant, a genetech modified version of FAB. When exposed to magical activity, hairs on the plant vibrate, making it “sing”, and the specific pitch is listened for by microphones that then trigger an alarm for the mundane guards / riggers.

The team made sure to not let anything with active magic get within a metre of the floor, so this didn’t go off, and they so far remain undetected. That let Marius get up to the control box, and then get through it, using one re-roll each on the build/repair test for the case, and then the electronics inside, getting 6 and then 5 successes respectively. So, they’re in through the secure doors and hiding in the lift shaft, ready to start their descent into the office building – which is where we’ll pick up on Tuesday.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 01/04//2061, Location: 5.00206, 6.94688, Time 18:00
2. Team all together in the hanger, they have the worm on the chip, and the physical document to plant. They have tool boxes to hide weapons, overalls, RFID codes.
3. Kai - everyone happy we have enough info to go? Aswon, yeah, not likely to get much more in time. Make sure Hunter has enough storage on his deck for looping footage. Kai - what time - stupid o clock? Aswon, we have shift patterns, we can work around them. Or go in at the same time to get lost in the clutter.
4. Aswon - how are we getting in exactly? Kai - levitate i think - between Tads and Phoss. Discussion about casting one very difficult target number due to weight, but multiple people attached to the target of the spell.
5. Team look at the map, assess take off point, lean towards the rear, working out where to go in. Marius reminds them about the RFID data to get through the turnstile at the ped entrance. He suggests Tads goes in and messes with the head of the guard and get in.
6. Tads - doesn't like it because casting close to the tower risks being spotted by the onsite mages. Aswon - less likely to be active in the middle of the night, special magical troops, likely to be planning an assault, not guard missions.
7. Kai - asking about dropping like a halo and casting the spell at the last moment. Aswon - quick flash back to previous drop with the mafia in TCL, dropping to vehicle from sniping. Bit more discussion, Marius more happy with tech approach.
8. Tads - do we have enough tags for one each - yes. Shimazu sec procedures, probably will work fine even if people are noted as being in already.
9. Marius and Hunter make RFIDs that match entries in the database and would use the ped exit.
10. Kai thinks - birthday party - disguise tools as birthday pressies. Loose fitting clothes over the maintenance overalls.
11. Phoss and Ury to get a tanker for ramming the back wall, and have codes for various scenarios.
12. Prepare second set of chips with maintenance IDs. Planning to go with form-fit only, to fit under maintenance gear. Aswon wraps his shotgun ammo in sealed bags, in case of chem-sniffers.
13. Call minibus style taxi to transfer to the city for both teams. Get clothes shopping and birthday stuff, Phoss and Ury head off with chemicals.
14. discussion about going in during a shift change, to get lost in a mass of signals from the shift change at the main gate / main entrance. Marius thinks just on the tail end of a shift change
15. Going in just after midnight. Tads+Aswon, Kai+Shimazu, Hunter+Marius, 20 second intervals.
16. Into the tunnel, glass has a diamond pattern, Aswon recognises heavy security measures.
17. "hold it there, who's having the birthday? They point to Kai. Lets Tads and Aswon through, tells K+S to face the window, they do - flash of light. Then gets whole group together for a group photo - they do, but try to look down. Spirit to use accident power on the camera. Nametag of Darryl, not a local - Anglo. Camera spits out all the remaining shots with barely developed images.
18. K - you're a legend, we love you really. give him a bottle. Oh, I shouldn't - but ok then. "For when you're off shift, obviously..." Team heads in. Aswon looks out for spirits, but spots none. Positive background count, nice suburbs
19. Spot the concealed maintenance hatches all over. Hunter reckons linked by firewall. Some big enough for team to hide in at a pinch.
20. Fifteen minutes to get towards centre office. Get to corner of Akuwkwa Street and Olobiri Road.
21. Team are about 600kg combined, TN9 - 2 successes, go up onto the roof, avoid sensors - not a sniff. Marius spots the perimeter beam on the outer parapet. Roof does look a little unusual. Team checks closer, moss like growth on the roof - but not on the helipad. natural FAB growing through grills Tads -do the cameras cover the roof of the lift shaft? No. No moss there either. No room for machinery room at the top.
22. Marius - can try to interfere with the camera, or use it as an access point to attack or mess with the rigger. Aswon - Tads can cast an illusion in front of the cameras to take those out. Maybe do that, then assess the situation.
23. Land, detach, assess the cameras. Marius - are they anti-tamper up here, no surroundings. Shimazu - probably a standard security lay out, same as other cities. Marius - they will detect a down node, but not with an alarm. But not an emergency. Tads casts the spell. May successes.
24. Marius electronics B/R5, 4 successes, RR - 6. Defeat the AT3, 20 seconds. Electronics 5, 1 RR 5 into the lift shaft, car is at floor 5, ladder on one side. Team pass Tads in so she doesn't touch the roof, all in, then drop the spell and all in the lift shaft, close the doors.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 272 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Welcome back everyone, back into the swing of things hopefully. This week we picked up from the team being just inside the building, making their way into the very top of the lift shaft and then working their way down.
With some absolute killer perception tests, they picked up on two of the three sensors in the lift shaft, spotting both the beams on the side – but not getting the one in the middle. Marius went forward to check it out, and once he had a closer look, managed to work out what it was – but not before it had sent an alarm signal.
This surprised me – I sent him a DM on discord after he made his roll, so that he, and only he had the information, to see how quickly and effectively he could handle it.

It's a magnetometer - and it's probably been set off by the amount of metal you're carrying already. It's probably set to detect the lift going by, which should also trigger both other sensors as well...
My thinking here was that they put an unusual sensor on the ladder, one that would pick up on metal coming past – because even if you had ceramic guns, you’re still likely to have other metal on you or in you. But, if the magnetometer goes off at the same time as the two other beams, that is because it’s the lift going past, so no alarm is raised. So, in this case, if after Marius had set off the magnetometer, they also dangled something (or someone!) in the other beams, it would have been ok, and not triggered an alarm. But instead, he just hacked the device.
I threw them a small bone here, and didn’t trigger an instant red alert – especially as Marius came up with the plan of putting the device into an “error” condition, as if it was broken, rather than just disabled – so that would make some amount of sense to anyone in the rigger network or watching the alarms. But, it’s definitely triggered something!

Once down at the top floor exit, they carefully opened the lift doors and spotted the alarm ward, which instantly makes their life more difficult in terms of getting out while under invisibility or stealth. After a little thinking, they got a couple of spirits through the “metaplanar shortcut” method out into the lobby, and could use those for concealment against the cameras, and got Tads to just nuke the poor guard. Next hurdle overcome.

Into the lobby and a bit of info gathering, and I fed them the map detail – partly to make it easier to communicate with the players and have a common, shared understanding of the world. Partly I also wanted them to think “why are there paper maps?” and to realise that this is to help the magical / non technological people find their way around, and to remind staff that there are rooms now “off limits” because there’s weird mumbo jumbo stuff going on in them.

Once through the first set of security doors, they made it to a corridor, and get some good perception rolls again – but not quite good enough to be certain about what was there. So I dropped a hint and then just grinned at them. And there was a full on discussion about what *might* be in the corridor, what was reasonable, what was unreasonable, and just how mean I might be. And then Marius reminding Aswon that this was all his fault, as he was the one who’d said ‘there had better not be bumblebee hives in the lift shaft’ at the end of the previous week, and I’d clearly taken this as a challenge…
After a good five minutes of frothing, they got additional perception checks, and this time managed to spot the pressure pads, and could then work out how to get past them. Again, they somewhat surprised me with their way of fixing the issue, but it seemed totally legit and quite cinematic, so I rolled with it.
With that out of the way they finally made it to the office, and that’s where it all went wrong. Marius went to get through the lock, failed to get a single 5 (the rating of the lock and his base TN), but did get 5 1’s. Not quite a complete botch, but very, VERY bad. The really unfortunate news was that he only had one re-roll left, which he really needed to use on this roll, but that means he’s now locked out of using his hand-of-god roll, so if something bad happens to him, he’s really got nothing to fall back on. That leaves him feeling very nervous, to say the least!

But, thankfully after the re-roll, they made it into the office, and planted the evidence. A bit of playing around with the computer and I gave them some info on the next floor down, along with a bit of paydata they might be able to fence off if they get out of here in one piece!
Kai also got a very quick encounter with the mage, but absolutely owned it from a RP point of view, totally feeding into the guys ego and responding ultra-quickly, so that pretty much smoothed all ruffled feathers before it became an issue, and turned it into a non-event.
After that, there was just enough time to get the team all back together at the central reception area, and next week we can head downstairs to the server room, to plant the data in the offline storage. And, as far as the players are concerned, they’re all still good and running in stealth mode.

That’s going to change about 8 seconds into next week’s session, when they realise that the guards know that *something* is going on, and they’re now really up against the clock!

In terms of game planning, I’d at least partially fleshed out the magical security normally on site – enough to give me a framework to riff on, and make some notes on for any additional descriptors:
Magical guards Grade 0-2=Green, Grade 3-5=Blue, Grade 6-8=Red
• Grade 0 = 7 Humans, green robes with a very thin blue pipe.
• Grade 1 = 4 Garik, Ork, Male, early teens, black hair, v.loud. Green robe with blue sash
• Grade 2 = 1 Tyler, Elf, Female, Black hair, one eye+eye patch, green robe fading to blue, Power foci 1 (Gold ring, little finger).
• Grade 3 = 1 (Alfonso), Dwarf, Male, Thor Ragnarok hair, Blue robes with a green trim

I’ve also put in basic details for the “Shadowbringers”, the elite group bought in from Europe:
1. Macabre (leader), Black Carrib, facial tattoo of a skull, Human, 30, black hair, slender. Power foci 4 bone dagger
2. Quincy, Human, female, british, late 30s, dry sense of humour, illusion foci 5
3. Daygolath, 4 armed indian elf, 23, ritually scarred, quad-dextrous, 2 X weapon foci 2 kris, 2 X Novatech slammer heavy pistols with capsule rounds
4. Medusa, Elf, female, Australian, max charisma, seductress, transform manip foci 6
Shadowguards = 4 guards with med milspec B9 S7 Q5 C3 I5 W4, R5(11), Init 4d6+9, FN-Black (8m, smartlink-2, RC 2) each with 3 mags of APDS, 1 X Tangle grenade (sticky web, str 6 test, 4 successes to break entirely free, 25% movement/quickness per success, 3m splash zone) , Novatech medium milspec with helmets (8/8), Radio, Biomonitors

If they can find the Shadowbringers one by one they should be able to deal with the mage (especially if Tads has her shielding up) and their guard ok. If they bump into two at once, that might get tricky. If they hit all 4 (or 8 with the guards) at once, then they’re going to be in trouble. But if they do manage to engage and take them down, potentially there’s some nice and expensive loot they can get – as long as they don’t take too many lumps from them.
Otherwise, they’re going to have the standard building guards crawling all over them fairly soon, looking for ‘rats in the vents’…

Floors 6-9
Elite Patrol force security 4 X B5 S5 Q5 C4 I5 W5, R5, Init 3d6+9, Colt M22A2 (8m, smartlink-2, RC 2), 1 X Tangle grenade (sticky web, str 6 test, 4 successes to break entirely free, 25% movement/quickness per success, 3m splash zone) , Novatech heavy security vest (5/3), Radio, Biomonitors

Floor 10
Elite Patrol force security 4 X B5 S5 Q5 C4 I5 W5, R5, Init 3d6+9, Colt M22A2 (8m, smartlink-2, RC 2), 1 X Tangle grenade (sticky web, str 6 test, 4 successes to break entirely free, 25% movement/quickness per success, 3m splash zone) , Novatech heavy security vest (5/3), Radio, Biomonitors
F6 Fire elemental with group, following instructions of squad leader.

So, depending on how things go, it’s going to be either some tense, ninja stealth sneaking stuff going on, or someone is going to be seen, it’s going to go loud, and next weeks session will suddenly only cover about 12 seconds of elapsed in game time as we get into multiple rolling combats as waves of guards and elementals turn up and do their best to take them out.
And that of course will also call in the helicopter gunships located on the airbase twenty miles to the east of town, but that will definitely be a problem for a few weeks time!

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 02/04//2061, Location: 4.85071, 7.04835, Time 00:42
2. Lift shaft, hanging on ladder perception checks - absolute monty haul rolls. Marius and Hunter swap places to allow Marius to look at sensors. Hunter needs a RR to avoid falling. Marius gets closer and gets good rolls on electronics. Whisper to Marius player "It's a magentometer - and it's probably been set off by the amount of metal you're carrying already. It's probably set to detect the lift going by, which should also trigger both other sensors as well..."
3. "We've got a problem, magnet, prob already detected." Take no action. " Work out that the beams should be cut as well, but doesn't... Hunter grabs Marius to secure him. Marius breaks in, 2 RR 3, buys 1. Case off ok, quick analysis, put it into error state.
4. Tads asks about the rigger slumping vs slumping. Marius explains quickly. Move down to floor 10. Check astral in the lift shaft, spot ward around floor 6/7
5. Tads drops trid, levitates Marius across to sensors. Also gives him stealth and invisibility.
6. Crack door open, spot luxury room, subdued lighting, reception desk.
7. F2 Alarm ward outside lift doors. Aswon hears frothy noise from coffee machine, past reception desk. After 60 secs guard comes back and starts checking feeds.
8. Kai suggests stunball, then alter memory to recall having a bad nights sleep the night before. Aswon - probably won't set off his biomonitor, while drugs and stuff would. Marius spots doors from reception to east, south, north, +cameras covering lift. Team look at options - most are lethal, and /or obvious. Bring Marius back and drop all the spells, then stunball the guard after a drink, cast trid phantasm over the lift doors. Spirit outside in the reception to conceal, Hunter to ferry over. Leave doors open a crack. Marius loops the cameras. M checks the scanner on the south door, with RFID disabled and concealed. Hunter finds floorplans with handwritten notes. Spot ork (Garik/Mage) working out in gym, no ware visible. Tads says she can mind probe him safely enough now. Get the guards gear. Marius checks door to south. Detectors on close target, then RFID, then possible alert. Shimazu security procedures. Tads mind probes, guard is not allowed to floor walk, VIP security are, they are on western edge. Tads also gets his home address. He knows who the mage ork is in the gym. Call in at 4am for status update.
9. Marius bypasses security on the south door, then checks out the corridors. Shiamzu spots humming moss in the corridor. Marius can't see anything but gets a dodgy feeling.
10. Aswon - rule out cameras, ultrasound, air-pressure. Maybe microphones or pressure plates. Much discussion and frustration, Shimazu gets the freeze spray, very faint hum, but dead.
11. To angel’s office, Marius gets 5 1s and no success, last re-roll, gets through ok.
12. Ork comes in to reception with towel, hey, no sanitiser, kai - get that fixed sir. Feathers smoothed.
13. Hunter check her tortoise, plugged into red socket, blue and grey empty. Tads checks under the keyboard - no password.
14. Check the room for items with her thumbprint - Hunter finds a wooden carving, Aswon finds glass beads. Shimazu gets a good lift, gets into her system. Hunter gets on.
15. Aswon looking around room, spots artefacts, but leaves them. No wait - security, find office, find hidden docs.
16. Get exact floor plan / layout. Pull all her emails on the spaceport / mountain. Get local documents. 2d6 roll of 8 for paydata. Tads suggests looking for retirement plans...
17. Server room is under the gym. Marius thought - social engineer her RFID. Aswon - suggest not, too much chance of being exposed.
18. Back to reception and meet with Kai, ready to move out towards the gym.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 273 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Time to step things up a notch!

The first thing I did this week was to grab each of the players as they came online and double check what they were wearing, what they were carrying and what they had to hand in toolboxes of belts, making sure that my understanding of how they were dressed and armed matched theirs – just to avoid any misunderstandings as we wandered through the building. With that done, we could get on with the session!

Last week, as they were coming down the lift-shaft, they didn’t disarm the sensor trap “properly”, which generated an alarm. They did put the sensor in an error state, so I gave them some slack and let the system have a heightened status, rather than triggering an actual alarm – but it was certainly noticed.
Then, in Angel’s office, they also went with downloading classified data on her terminal – things that she might have had technical access to, but wouldn’t normally have searched for. That gave them another “half point of security tally”, thanks to the behavioural analysis of the arcology host. It’s not quite Deus, but it’s certainly smart. That was enough to hit the threshold I’d set – and as they got back to the reception desk, I had the guards send out their warning message, indicating that they had strong suspicions that something was wrong – and of course putting the team on notice…

As we’re talking about a AAA corp in their major HQ, I could certainly have had all the guards having a cyber-linked radio, on encrypted comms. Maybe then Marius might have picked up the transmissions, and managed to decrypt them to let them know… but certainly here I wanted to make sure that the team KNEW the alert was out, so it was time to drop in the good old fashioned radio hanging on the guards belt.

As soon as the call went out, all the players went a bit quiet, and shared looks over their webcams, then one of them piped up and went “well, that can’t be a good sign…” That opened the floodgates to a bit of babble, and then of course Tads was poked until she mind-probed the guard again, looking for the specific information. At that point I gave them an abstract brief of “you have all the code phrases and numbers to evaluate various different levels of alert for the facility. That way rather than having to give them all kinds of different info, and then making them do a lookup, I still had room for improve along the way, in case they came up with something really left field.

No GM plan ever survives first contact with their players – and I don’t think mine are any worse than anyone elses, but they do sometimes come up with the weirdest plans, or pick up on the strangest clues and draw really bizarre conclusions. So, keeping some degree of flexibility in the information you give them is always a good idea in my view – lets you roll with the punches and adapt to a changing situation, without making it clear that the plot has jumped the rails!
From here though, with the radio call out, I had a timer running for the security forces, as they investigated their systems and started to poke around. With that in mind, I kept a time count on their progress as they worked through each security door leading to the stairwell and down to the 9th floor, making sure to tell them along the way how long it had been since the first alert call.

As Marius was out of re-rolls, he was unable to do anything about how many successes he got. He was pretty certain to get the required number to get through the locks, based on his skills and tools – but whether he got multiple successes to reduce the base time was another matter. And when he only got 1 or maybe 2, then the minutes started to add up. Of course the players didn’t know what the threshold was for the next alarm step/stage, but as the elapsed time increased, they started to get really nervous!
All good. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Down on the ninth floor, the guards in the security booth were on alert following the call, and when Marius eased out of the stairwell, one of the guards got a 14 on his perception check – certainly enough to spot “something”, even if he didn’t know what it was. Out he came to check it out – fortunately his and his friends follow up rolls were nowhere near as good, and they lost the contact, allowing the team to get into position to take them out. But now with two more guards down, there were more security personnel not responding properly, along with two more guards with bio-monitor readings that were abnormal, for the security system to take into account.

Now in spitting distance of the IT room, they had another couple of pressure pads to deal with – but no magic moss this time, making the response a little easier to plan and execute – letting them get into range finally of the system they needed to access!
And of course for me to play my next “Mean GM” card, and stop this being an easy job.
Most of the plotlines for this whole shindig are of course made up, inspired by other media or just flat out stolen from elsewhere because I know a good story when I see it and I also know when someone invents a better wheel! But stuff like this – well, this is flat out inspired by “work”. The number of times I’ve been frustrated by some IT system that demands a particular version of Java running on IE6 to access a certain host because the company just *refuses* to upgrade from server 2003… *cue grinding of teeth*. Well, if I had to suffer, so does someone else!

So, now aware that there was some hoop jumping to do, the players cracked on with solving this little hurdle, having *another* door to open, adding another 2 minutes to the clock, before they could start the upload! That of course gave time for the players back in the security booth to spot more guards coming out of their rooms and going on patrol, and for the tension to ratchet up higher.

It was also here where Kai made some really weird calls – saying he was going to radio in that he’d heard people moving around on the floor above, which made everyone do a face palm – because of course he was on the top floor! Not sure if this was legit Kai sowing chaos, or the player not paying attention to what was going on, or being very confused, we had to have a brief OOC moment to check, and then he modified what he was saying. It still didn’t make a lot of sense, and that report then ratcheted the security tally even higher, causing a higher alert level and raising the stakes even more.
It was only after the session, when I got chance to message the player to find out what was going on – he’d seemed distracted and disengaged during the session, and had made a number of weird calls. I wondered if he had some issues going on in RL that were an issue, or if there was something wrong with the game.
Found out that he’d actually hurt himself at work that day, possibly broken his finger and the pain was really distracting him – but he’d not said anything, because he didn’t want to disrupt the game session…. *le sigh*

I think next Tuesday, I’m going to have a quick chat with everyone to remind them that it’s only a game, we’re all friends, and if stuff like that happens, just tell everyone you might not be at your best. Certainly I can’t see anyone being annoyed with a player for making a dumb decision with something like that, and everyone would cut them a bit more slack and be a lot more supportive.

Certainly my own experience of working through a long-term health condition and spending a chunk of time on morphine gives me a fair experience of just how debilitating that kind of thing can be, and I would certainly not have made the calls I did on the night, had I been aware up front of what was going on. Important lesson I suppose – when one of your players is acting a little weird, don’t be afraid to pause the game, send folks for a toilet/snack/smoke break, and have a chat with the person to find out what’s going on, and see if it’s something that needs to be sorted out. It’s disruptive to the game flow, but might be a better resolution to the rest of the night and stop longer term consequences…

But, I know now, so there’s a certain amount of re-write / leniency in what’s going to happen to give the team a chance to dig themselves out of the situation they’re in – certainly I don’t want to “punish” the team for one player making some sub-optimal decisions made while he can’t concentrate properly due to being in fairly severe pain! But, neither do I want giant eagles to swoop down and carry them away to safety.

Fucking eagles…

So, a big shootout to come, and some magical duels probably. The ork mage Garick is going to show up and try to get funky, and I’m looking forward to describing the range of emotions as he goes from gleeful as he casts a powerball at the team expecting to red-mist someone, to being very disappointed as he runs into Tad’s shielding!

Longer term though, once they’re out of Port Harcourt, then this job is pretty much over, and the team should be heading back to the ranch and their home base – for a nice big fat karma award and a break. They’ll have the opportunity for some downtime, some skill-ups and training, to order new gear etc, before they get their next job. That should bring book 9 to a nice close, and then we’re onto a new “season arc” as they head off to Tad’s homeland to see if they can sort out her visions of the forest burning down, and get into some major plot stuff from the Year of the Comet – it’s time for them to get their hands on a whole shit-pot of Orichalcum, and see what kind of magical toys they can make from it to boost themselves up.
I expect them to be joyful about this. And then at some point, one of them is going to realise that there’s only one reason I’m being so nice to them. It’s like starting that level in doom where the very first room has ammo for every single type of weapon, health packs, super-armour boosts… you just *KNOW* that there is something really powerful, evil and fanatical on the other side of that door…

And I’d hate to disappoint them!


And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 02/04//2061, Location: 4.85071, 7.04835, Time 01:38
2. In reception, heading to north side to head down one level. Status check
3. Tads: Maintenance overalls, staff in hand
4. Hunter: Maintenance overalls, Colt M22A2 AR from the lobby guard, own gun in toolbox, silenced pistol in toolbox APDS+Gel
5. Kai: In a suit, unarmed
6. Marius: Maintenance overalls, Silenced heavy pistol and tools in toolbox?
7. Shimazu: Suit with hidden scabbard, Sword sheathed/hidden
8. Aswon: Maintenance overalls, Shotgun in toolbox, extendable taser staff hidden, throwing knives hidden
9. Hunter goes to lobby desk and puts rifle back.
10. Over the guards radio, "Code Gazelle-7, repeat code Gazelle-7"
11. Tads mind probes again, shares codes with others. Kai stopping at desk. Lobby on 10th is "station 19", no encoded response.
12. Marius - we need to get a move on. Heads to door leading to stairwell, 2 mins for case, 2 mins for door.
13. Tads asks Aswon to watch for wards, she does a phantasm around the group. Aswon makes good perception checks.
14. To stairwell, case off in 30, lock bypassed in 1 min, into the stairwell. Barren stairwell, ward 2-3 floors down.
15. Out on floor 9, case off in 30, lock bypassed in 1 min, does have cached IDs, only has 2, not ones the team have. Out into floor 9, nighttime lighting, spirit concealment up and Tads's spell
16. Guards get a 14 on perception. Marius - we need to get through there. Kai heres "station 23, possible rhino, possible rhino
17. Marius case off in 15 seconds, door in 1 min, 6:45 elapsed total. Marius hears "I'm gonna go check it out, I'll report back in 2 mins". Marius relays to team and moves to the side. Guard comes out ready for combat. Aswon SUT, +1 reaction. Tads stunballs at D, just takes him down. Aswon spots reflexes, radio, and grenade - large/liquid. Assumes Neurostun, passes Marius some slap patches. Uses security controls to open the airlock. Tads cleanses and recovers, Marius loops the cameras
18. 8:45 perception down the hallway. spot pressure pads outside each doors. Go to IT 1. "server operations room, authorised entry only" , Shimazu to door 2 "backup server room"
19. Tads - that guard said he would report in inside 2 mins - do we need to do that. Marius - reports in "station 23, no rhino, false alarm". Pause, Gets back "Station 23, say again your situation" A- " all clear, nothing there now, want us to do a sweep?" "Station 23, what's your employee ID.
20. Kai - station 19, to 23 do you need support. Tads quick mind probe, gets ID, relays to Aswon. "station 23, that checks out, just got a spike on one of your biomonitors. "yeah, thought we were getting some action."
21. Door to IT 2, case off 30, 1 min for the lock. 10:15
22. to kai "station 19 report?" "possible sounds of footsteps floor below". "Copy that 19" "apologies, that's station 23 team, we just waved at each other."
23. Tads levitates hunter down, Marius goes through door. All lights come on. Marius hears deadbolt from doorframe, but locked open now. Hunter levitates down, spots the offline host and cables, links to IT 1, Marius tries the door, Hunter to bodge, marius gets in soonest, Hunter goes through to plant the data and free the worm.
24. Tads sees guard appearing outside sec booth.
25. Garick appears to kai, "what's going on, I just got woken up." clicks fingers, fire elemental. "if you need anything, just shout sir". Kai sends text to Phoss and Ury to trigger the distraction. Text back "with cheese!", they are activating.
26. Aswon to all "remember, we're stealing information if we get caught" Guards are approaching booth, Tads drops sustained spell, thinks about influence, not enough time, does trid phantasm of noise to south. Guards all double time to the south. Memory chip has uploaded. Back into IT#2, cables out, and then back out. Shimazu ferries them out, one after another and back. Tads cleanses spell sig. Marius pushes deadbolt, stuck. Ask hunter to try, 21 - yeah, that works. Shimazu manages to carry Hunter out ok. Tads sends watcher spirit down to lower floor to lure guards Tads calls "30 seconds, wait"
27. Kai sees 2 sets of guards and shadowbringer, calls in "station 19, contact, gym!" throws grenade, fires rounds, runs to the lift.
28. 9th floor team go, see another bunch of guards from sec office to the nw.
29. Kai gets to liftshaft, doesn't try the jump, hangs off the inside of the doors.
30. Aswon first out, gecko to ceiling, not spotted by guards. Guards charging in to lobby. Aswon throws his splat grenade to corridor south to cut off shadowbringer.
31. Kai athletics test in lift shaft, starts to slip with greasy fingers, wipes off and is ok. End session on a "lift-hanger". Oh, ho ho...

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 274 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
We picked up the game at pace, with some rapid fire action. Rather than rolling for initiative, and moving people a few metres at a time, and doing free/simple/complex action stuff, I worked around the group getting their intentions and then describing what they could get done in a “slice” of time. I’ve found that keeps the game moving along at a reasonable pace, without bogging down into exact measuring and fraction of a second stuff, but also lets the players know that there are bad guys in the area, and that seconds count, and to be ready.

Unless the bad guys got some serious fire-power in position, it’s also not going to really affect them that much – Tads had made a deliberate effort to keep shielding up on the group, reserving her spell pool to be defensive. That meant that an awful lot of spells were going to be cast at +7s for the bad guys, making them very inefficient and considerably less scary, but also far reducing the threat to the team due to their extra soak dice. In turn that meant the greatest threat to them was almost certainly the three dudes in medium milspec – but they were bodyguards to the mages, and their primary mission was to keep the mages safe and secure, not to go launch an assault. Of course the players didn’t know that, so they expected a major assault pretty imminently.
They managed to get the lobby somewhat secure with the tangle grenades, without getting caught in any themselves, and then bugged out quickly enough, covering the trail behind them. They were less careful of the moss on the way out (though the alarm was well and truly raised by this time!) so they got to hear the effects, but then got up onto the roof ok.

From there they could see the chopper coming in, and also see the distraction that Phoss and Ury were staging on the north side. Phoss and Ury aren’t in the same league as the team, but they are pretty resourceful and very dedicated to Hestaby, so as she’s commanded them to help, that’s exactly what they’re doing. Both are drakes and full casters, so they had a busy afternoon rounding up some help and influencing them to be ready to support the assault, with offers of looting and revenge on the corporate drones that are keeping them poor – so they have a bunch of hapless locals running around trying to steal anything not nailed down, and engaging with security.

The team were very lucky with the chopper – two rounds in a row the pilot and gunner managed to *almost* see them through the concealment and darkness, avoiding the target number by 1, each time! That made their escape far easier than it would otherwise have been, to say the least.
I really did think a whole flock of elementals might slow them down more than it did – I even had Shimazu having to use his reach to counter the “flying through the air” modifiers I’d assigned to them, but between the weapon foci, his skill and the friendly spirits helping even the odds, they managed to cut through them very quickly.

So – fair’s fair! They’ve managed to get away, reach the wall, and are out into the city. Novatech are properly pissed off now, and will be waking up everyone in the city they can, so there’s going to be police crawling all over the place, along with astral pursuit as the mages get themselves organised back in the tower and work out what’s going on.

I’ve no doubt at this point that they’ll make it back to the airport – but it’s just going to be interesting to see if I can give them a couple of scares or anxious moments along the way!

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Saturday 02/04//2061, Location: 4.85071, 7.04835, Time 01:52
2. Tads drops all other spells, uses fibre optic cable to cast stunball into the lobby. Aswon hands rifle with APDS to Hunter.
3. Tads casting stunball at D. 2, RR, 3. They get 1. All go down. Garrick appears around corner, 20m away, team not surprised. Shimazu closes and distance strikes, Garick dodges
4. Fireball to the east side, milspec comes around, Hunter drills full auto with APDS, gets 0, RR, gets 1, buys 3, gets nothing after multiple RR, dies, falls in burning web.
5. K has got 2 grenades, explains to throw grenades at the Mage,
6. M - has got 2 guys cuffed out of 4, keeps going.
7. A - "what mage?" some pointing, throws grenade to NW at Garrik
8. T - starts cleansing
9. S+H into room
10. Milspec dude equipment starts to cook-off. Large explosions from that direction.
11. Aswon swaps to big D shells, shoots at Garik web, first doesn't catch fire, 2nd does.
12. S+M move south, cuff last 4 to the South. Aswon starts setting booby trap webs. Tads herding Hunter to lift to levitate.
13. East door blown open, fire starts, sprinklers go off. Aswon blasts shotgun in that general direction.
14. Shadowmage fires powerball, splats off Tads shielding. Aswon returns fire with dragons breath, Macabre takes an M.
15. Shimazu spots 2 X F6 air elementals entering room from E, distance strike 1. Kai drops a tangle grenade down the lift.
16. Air elemental closes on Aswon, he goes for a quickdraw on the taser staff. It wins, starts to noxious breath.
17. Shimazu moves to rescue, butchers the elemental. Aswon throws splat out into E corridor, Shimazu into the lift and over to the ladder. Aswon heading for the door, starts to Gecko crawl up the shift. Hunter closes door. Aswon sets last tangle grenade on doors. Then loads AV into shotgun.
18. Heading up. 2 elementals appear but Shimazu deals with them. Hunter ferrying over at the top.
19. Hunter grabs Marius on the way up. Start pushing out of the top. Marius hears inbound chopper. Moss sings as spirit concealment trips it. Kai and Marius climb to roof of lift shaft. Get Tads and Aswon out. All on roof. Chopper is 500m out.
20. Tads sends Watcher spirit to dance on the chopper windscreen. Kai gives splat grenade to spirit to take to chopper. Hunter attaching harnesses together.
21. Chopper 250m away. Miniguns start to spin up - Hunter hears over engine sound and full autos.
22. Tads gets levitate off - 1 success. Hunter fires bursts at the chopper at where he thinks the gunner will be. Sees the watcher spirit go bleurgh! Distract the gunner just enough to avoid a lock. Hunters rounds distract further.
23. Tads levitating group to the south, closest way out of view, heading for street.
24. 6 fire elementals, 4 earth, 3 air, 2 water burst of lift shaft.
25. Spot half a dozen houses on fire at the north side of the compound. People running around with Molotov cocktails. Gunner narrowly misses a lock again.
26. Phoss casts fireball at the chopper as a distraction, gets 4 success. 8-9 m fireball, sets the web alight. Chopper pilot gets a spook and pulls away
27. Marius - shall I call the bird in? Tads - will take too long, this will be over one way or another, by the time it gets here. Nova pilots evades.
28. 3 fire elementals close in, +2 air. Tads tries to stunball S as they come in on 8s. Non-effective, no damage.
29. Shimazu distance strike, blows 1 fire elemental apart. They close into combat, Tads spirit flock distracts. Shimazu kills another fire elemental straight off. Aswon wins combat, disrupts 3rd elemental somewhat. Airs come in, both target Shimazu, he kills both.
30. Team don't get spotted by guards on the ground, just, fly down.
31. 220m to south wall. 17 combat rounds. One mage makes it up in time, powerball group, bounces off shield. Hunter aims, misses, no fire. 11S with 2nd burst. Bullet barrier goes up, but he takes an L, just as team cross the south wall. Marius tries with pistol, firing for effect. Rounds go past.
32. Drop over the outer wall, out of line of sight. Aswon suggest to Kai to send bug out message to Phoss and Ury.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 275 is now published, and added onto book 9.



Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:

One of the things I try to keep in mind when I’m running adventures is that the bad guys don’t have “perfect knowledge” of what is going on – unlike me as a GM (or as close to perfect as is reasonable, really). I try very hard not to have the bad guys “just happen” to make the right decision if they come to a t-junction chasing the players for instance. They either stop to look for clues such as footprints or fibres of clothes caught in a rough wall, or they split up to cover both sides, weakening their forces.

Likewise, one of the things I’ve found happening in numerous occasions working in the IT sector is that there’s a world of difference between what people think will happen when an emergency happens, and what actually happens – at least for 99% of companies. Although many people *think* they have a plan, I know most of them have just thought up a process, but haven’t tested it – because it’s hard, disruptive, costly or requires effort. Thus when you actually get hit with something like ransomware, it’s a lot of running around with hands in the air shouting wub-wub-wub, massive disorganisation and conflicting orders.

Not that I’ve had to deal with that multiple times you understand…

So, in this case, I had a think, and took a step back, to work out what the bad guys *knew* and what they only *suspected*, then tried to come up with a reasonable plan from that.

1. Communications on the 10th floor was off protocol – raised mild suspicion, but not conclusive.
2. Server alert due to sudden rise of competence of user, type of queries and time of access – raised security posture to indicate a potential cyber-breach, system admins start to investigate. Issue alert to all units to raise security monitoring and alert levels (which the team heard, as detailed in the last chapter)
3. 9th floor post reports a “possible” contact, but then say nothing. Security posture now has hard suspicions that there is activity on the 9th floor. Security teams start to armour and gear up, and get ready to deploy. Building goes on increased alert, riggers go fully active and start checking through systems looking for anomalies.
4. As the security teams move in on the stairwell, closing in on the teams position, the team have to use a spirit to create a decoy, drawing the security away and raising the full alarm. Server room doors and other sensitive areas go on lockdown, general alert to all security staff to go active. But, they have only a single sighting, moving from north to south on the 9th floor to pursue. That sends the security heading that way as the only solid lead.
5. Riggers detect that the lift door has been over-ridden, and start to vector security teams in on the 10th floor – Kai fires fully auto and throws a grenade, confirming hostile activity on the 10th floor. General alarm raised to the normal mage team, and the visiting magical contingent to advise that there is hostile activity on both 9 and 10.
6. Then we have the firefight kicking off at the north edge of the compound, with multiple fires reported in various buildings. Security now look to be facing a multi-pronged attack, and feel that the intruders are trying to exfiltrate, and this is their cover – so they start to vector ground troops to the north of the tower. But, the situation is still very fluid – teams inside the building are chasing reports or very brief sightings, with nothing confirmed. The only confirmed activity is all on the north side of the compound.
7. Next we get the teams on 10 all going dark at the same time as Tads dropped her stunball. Now security can see the biomonitors for two entire teams go ‘quiet’ – not dead, but not performing any activity. This is a definite breach on the 10th floor, so they feed the info to the mages that are up, and the heavily armed bodyguards.
8. Next there is a brief panic alarm signal from Garrack the ork mage as he gets assaulted, webbed and then set on fire. Security can’t raise him, and as a mage with no cyber, they’ve not got remote access to his vitals. All they know is that a magical asset has gone offline.
9. Finally as the visiting mages and bodyguards advance down the corridor to the east they get astral/physical visual reports of the players, with a rough headcount, and find out that they are magically resilient. When one of the bodyguards flatlines, they also realise that the team have the capacity to punch through military grade armour.
10. At this point they know where the team are, and that they’re a bit spicy, so there’s a general alert to converge on the 10th floor with all available assets. With the lift being open and only one floor below the roof, they also call in air-assets, and a chopper scrambles from the airbase to the east
The team have a head start getting up onto the roof of course thanks to the grenades, and with the death of one of the elite bodyguards, they’re understandably cautious about poking their heads around corners. That gives the team vital seconds to be on the way, and heading south.

The mages send the flock of elementals up to the roof blind, with orders to attack / delay – they are after all expendable assets and can be replaced easily enough – and they don’t have to pay the bills. The mages can feel their elementals getting popped fairly quickly, which as they’re all force 6 and went out in good numbers makes them even more cautious about being the first ones into line of sight. They are important people after all!

The team manage to do a number on the chopper as it arrives, making the pilot fear for his life – he can hear the Novatech radio channels, where powerful mages are swearing as their assets are destroyed, and picks up that ‘elite special force bodyguards’ have already been killed, despite their heavy armour. So he’s nervous as hell when the spirits appear on his windscreen and he starts taking fire… and then when the tangle grenade goes off and creates an effect he has no experience of or idea what it is, that’s enough to really spook him. Setting it on fire finishes the job, and he pulls back to get a safe distance, letting the team get away – still sight unseen from him and the gunner.

At this point the team have broken contact – nothing is reporting back with sightings, but they’re assumed to still be on the roof. Reinforcements coming up the main lift shaft get stuck when the lift hits the tangle grenades, so troops have to redeploy to other lifts and make their way up alternative routes, delaying them further.

So, at this point it seemed reasonable that the elite mages and bodyguards would mingle in with the security forces, and start a sweep of the roof, trying to find where the team are hiding – as nobody has reported a sighting of them leaving the tower. One of the mages makes it up onto the roof earlier, and does spot the team, but then takes fire from Hunter – and a moderate wound, so he immediately hunkers down and starts screaming for medical attention. A quick willpower test and he it turns out is much more interested in not being shot at than giving helpful and precise directions for where the team are – at least for thirty seconds until his boss can tell him to STFU and get a grip!

Now the team are out of the compound, Novatech security realise the fires to the north are very much a decoy/distraction rather than an exit route, and the team actually fled south into the city. The chopper pilot is reporting damage to his bird from the tangle fire, and it turns out there’s no more choppers ready to fly – not after the hammering the team have given their assets previously.

At this point Novatech have to go loud, launching all their drones, calling in the city police and getting ready to deploy assets out into the slums but they know they’re behind, so there’s pressure and immediate demands from the brass at the top to “do things”, that probably over-ride the playbook they have. People need to be seen to be doing things, and making reports, and by now they’re aware they’ve been hit with unknown consequences, so several people are starting to engage in CYA mentality and looking for people to blame…

But, as someone starts to exert control inside, they realise they have a tangible link from the coffee cup, and get all their magical assets into the ritual room to start a tracking ritual. With the high level mages present, they have a ferocious number of dice to throw in here, and get a ridiculous number of successes, taking very little time to get a lock on Kai (we’re talking <20 minutes here!)

Shimazu spots this of course, and that sends the team into panic mode – and they realise trying to get to the airport past an entire city of police as well as Novatech drones and ground forces is going to be tough. So they find a place to hole up, set an ambush for the spotter and then call the bird to them.

That triggers an alarm at the airport, which is reported to the police, which is then Chinese-whispered to Novatech, giving them a third threat axis to consider, and they try to work out what to do. Meanwhile Marius is covering the 20km from the airport at about 350km/h, so they’ve got very little time to work with. The chopper pilot is still winging about magical attacks, so they have to escalate and trigger an alert for the fighter jets – not the ideal platform for dealing with a low level threat in an urban environment, but it’s all they really have at this point.

Looking at the timings, I can see the tilt-wing will get to the team about the same time as the spotter, and that gives a lovely bit of narrative confusion and action. Shimazu is out of re-rolls and has only 1 good karma left, so is really feeling the strain! He of course obliterates the spotter the moment they arrive in the surprise round, and as we roll for initiative properly now, uses his quickstrike to go first – and then declares attacks against all three earth elmentals, to try and narrow the odds. Unfortunately the rising +2 for the 2nd and 3rd targets make his target numbers soar, and by the 3rd fight, he takes a savage hit, putting him on a serious wound – though he at least remembers he has some pain resistance to help there!

With the rest of the team pitching in, particularly Tads with a stunball that does S damage to every remaining elemental in the room, they manage to equalise and then turn the odds, make it to the tilt wing, and then evade the drones, with Maverick doing some of that “fancy piloting shit”. I mean Marius – yes, that’s what I meant. Definitely Marius.

With that done, they’re out of the city, and just starting to think they’ve got away with it, when the fighter jet turns up with a honking great handful of dice for it’s very advanced sensor suite, high intelligence pilot and ECCMs… so it’s brown alert again! More violent moves, more tense evasions, and they finally manage to break lock and sneak away, just before backup arrives.

They don’t know of course, but having evaded the fighters, they’re now away and out of imminent danger, and should make it back to the village ok, where I’ve got a nice astral quest lined up for them to go and do some mystic stuff – which Marius and Hunter are going to love of course! But, hopefully it’s a nice bit of flavour/fluff to finish on, and then the team are probably going to be heading home, back to the ranch to look for a karma award and some rerolls to regenerate.

Getting the tribal cultures of Nigeria “on their side” is a major campaign milestone, and will form a key part of later plots, which is one of the reasons for the metaplane quest – I want them to get a hint at their actions having far-reaching consequences – and then let that drop away into the background and not mention it again for a while… Checkov’s tribes?

But, that will bring us to the end of book 9, and I think it’s likely we’ll have some downtime – Tads certainly has a long list of spells she wants to learn, and they may also try to cram some enchanting in there as well. That will take us a good chunk later through the year, and towards the main events of “Year of the Comet” – which suits me just fine! <evil grin>



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

1. Saturday 02/04//2061, Location: 4.85071, 7.04835, Time 02:01
2. Drop down over the wall to the south, fly over the main road. Go over the first road of houses, drop down into the side road. Land and look for security cameras, none, start to detatch. Tads to call Phoss and Ury, tell them to get out.Kai to call fixer and arrange to hide.
3. Team split up into groups. Hunter+Tads, Shimazu+Kai, Marius+Aswon. Team put everything in toolboxes or under clothing, hide what they can, do the "late shift shuffle." Tads cleanses levitate signature, send spirits back to home plane - all go mundane. Start listening in on police channels, looking for drones. Novatech are utterly disorganised, take 19 mins to get sorted out. Kai calls Mr Musa - he's not happy to have the team, will cost them a lot. Tads - get the airport bus instead, get on at different stops? Team head into city centre to do that.
4. Shimazu spots Kai is being tracked, calls in to the rest of the team. They all start to converge.
5. Marius flashback - Kai drinking the coffee, left DNA on the mug. Marius - can we hide in white noise, magically that is. Team agree to the basic concept. Shimazu and Tads realises that the team is quite powerful.
6. Shimazu wants to go into the sewers. Hunter engineering test - too shallow / close to the water table. Need to get indoors. Tads - idea, send spirits to the hanger to open the door, so Marius can remote fly the bird down to collect us. Marius and Aswon pause to get remote link, wait in an alleyway, then captains chair it down.
7. Other 4 meet up and keep moving, heading south, actual tracking will take 22.5ms
8. Shimazu - security procedures, go for a church. "Jehovah the King, Holy Sabbath Mission". Defeating the lock takes Marius 30 seconds, in off the street.
9. 15mins, drones out, fanning out around the city. Hunter spots the larger house to the north of the church. Church interior is very primitive. Find the storage room with ping pong tables and old plasma tv on a rolling stand. Get Kai buried in the middle. Link is fully formed, spotter must be on the way. Shimazu in for close support, Tads one layer out.
10. Marius brings the bird in on remote - good pilot roll. spots spiral outward pattern. Marius flying in above current drone height.
11. 3 earth, 4 water, all F6, 1 mage arrive. Mage dies instantly, elementals roll init.
12. Shimazu vs Earth first with quickstrike, attacks 3.
13. First one dies, 2nd base hit takes an M, third beats Shimazu by 4. Does 8D down to 4D from mystic armour, takes an S.
14. Tads next, Stunball at S, with shielding on group, all elementals take S stun.
15. Moderate earth attacks, gets butchered. Other earth goes down. All earth down, water 1 gets an M, soaked. Second wins by 1, but soaked, third base hit, but soaked.
16. Aswon dives in to parry, Hunter joins in as well.
17. Back to top of round. Shimazu kills 1 water. One swaps to aswon, it gets disrupted by the taser. Shimazu then kills it.
18. Team DDM to the bird, Tads coming last sterilising blood from the church and cleansing spell sig, then Marius goes VTOL at speed.
19. Tads shouts - head for Pebble and the mountain. Drone gets a sniff, they start to steer in, manage somehow to get a lock.
20. ECMs go on, Tads does a trid phantasm (3 successes) - flock of imperial eagles. Marius pulls crazy turn, kills speed, they lose lock and the team can make it away.
21. Fighter gets a single ping, but not enough to lock. Marius thinks about white noise+massive flux, just jam. Tads suggests just landing and going dark for a bit. Marius not enthused by that. Marius continues to dodge, violent manoeuvres, Crazy Ivan’s, Marius breaks lock and away. Then go dark / NOTE and fly north, head most of the way to pebble just in case, before swinging north towards Aswon. Get kai to advise P+U to get properly out, as the team is out of the city. Kai does doctoring, gets Shimazu down to a Moderate wound.
22. Turn and head to Aswon's village.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 276 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:

Well – what a week. First of all, a general note – Tuesday I headed into hospital for a quick appointment to get something checked out (which went well) but also led to a bit of a stress. By the time I got home I was definitely feeling “under the weather”, but I put this down to having had a ‘bit of a day’. Soon as we started I warned the players I was not firing on all cylinders, sorry, please cut me some slack – and I appreciate anything that they can do to help keep the session moving smoothly. Then we played – and I realised I really was struggling a lot, tripping over words, reaching for descriptions, circling back to points several times, and having difficulties with my note taking.

By the end of the night, symptoms had progressed far enough that I realised I wasn’t stressed – it was a kidney infection (have had them before) – and *that’s* why I was feeling like shit, and that I needed to get onto the out of hours doctor and get that shit sorted!

A course of antibiotics later, and several days of rehydration and we’re back on form – but oh my god, reading through my notes when I was doing this weeks writeup… I can TELL I was not well. That shit is all over the place. I was going to tidy it up, but decided to leave it so you can see how up my own arse I was for this week!



With that covered – this week was of course also very much NOT the week I would have picked to be ill in, given what I was doing. Because a good chunk of that was getting the magic rules, putting them on a nice little cushion and then putting them way the hell over there, in the corner along with all the other “guidelines”…



• It’s the end of the campaign arc for the Novatech segment, and I wanted a bit of a set-piece to signify that.
• I also had some plot and foreshadowing to get over to the team, and an astral quest let me do that nicely.
• However, I absolutely didn’t want the two mundane characters not included in this.
• Neither did I want to do a “by the numbers” astral quest, sticking to the formula from the book. That’s fine for spell learning, astral obscurement or other stuff, but I wanted a strongly themed quest here.
With that in mind it was time to strap on the big-GM pants and decide I had enough experience to know when to put the rules aside and just run across the pitch with my hair on fire shouting “awooga”, and hope to hell it made narrative sense to the players.

First trick of course was getting everyone into the astral quest, as normally only Tads would be eligible. The ‘standard’ way of doing that would be a spirit with Astral Gateway to provide the mechanism. I decided to go for something a little more flavourful and hopefully “risky” feeling, with the venom of the Rainbow Scorpion. I’ve already made this super-rare in my head cannon, so the players aren’t going to bump into another one without a lot of work, so it’s “safe” from breaking the game world, and does the job nicely.

The next thing was to make sure the two mundanes don’t feel left out.

For anyone not a 3rd edition player, in an astral quest you normally go from one “place” to another, and there’s a different type of test in each one, and at the heart of it, it’s a series of damage resistance tests to overcome as you “fight” your way to the citadel to get the phat loot. There’s a method for quickly dicing it out with minimal RP to cover downtime quests or background stuff, but it recommends using fully RP-d quests for higher force quests. At each place there is a test, and the player gets to roll their skill against the force of the quest – but here’s the clincher, they get to use their “astral pool” as it’s a magical test in the astral realm. So if Tads is in the place of Fear, and needs to make a willpower test to overcome the dread and fight through – not only does she get to make a Willpower 7 test (that’s her prime stat as a caster, so it’s pretty high), but she also gets to roll her grade – which is also 7. So by virtue of her magic, she gets to roll double her dice, against the difficult of the test. For the two mundanes, not only are their stats going to be much lower, in the order of 3-4 say, but they have no grade, so no dice to add to it. That’s a massive difference between them.

Of course that means the mundanes would rack up the damage very, VERY, quickly and soon find themselves out of the running, sitting there bored to tears, while back in the real world blood is pouring from their ears! Not much fun at all.

So instead, as the team were all linked up together, instead I got all of them to roll their tests, but then add all of their combined successes up into a “team pool” – which they then got to allocate out as they saw fit.

In addition, at each of the places, based on the quest, there was a “key test” that at least one of the players could do to provide a plan or method of resolution, that I decided would add a success to *every* member of the team if successful, reducing the amount of overall successes needed for the group.

That means that in some places, it would be one of the mundanes that could hold the key skill to building up the base level bonus that applied to everyone, as well as possibly having exactly the right skill for the test – and even though they don’t have an astral pool to roll, that would keep them both relevant and involved.



Before the session, I’d sent out an email to all the players asking for a secret – and this is what I got back:

1. Kai – unable to drive, psychologically inept at it.
2. Shimazu – got caught in wrong position in an old job, lead to the death of a protectee
3. Aswon – game involving casual racism as a child that now makes him cringe with shame
4. Tads – lost some vital tribal equipment by being clumsy back in her early life
5. Hunter – secretly into a bit of retro disco dancing
6. Marius –betrayed his former team and got them killed, though he actually had good intentions
From those I built the little exposure segments from the Dweller, sharing their dirty secrets with the rest of the team. I don’t know how much attention they paid, but with the story being written, it’s available for them to see – and I don’t know if that will get followed up on or not – especially the Marius one! We shall see.

I also had the list of the 6 animals the team had on their masks, and then designed six challenges and places around those animals, and from that built up the six clues to give them. To make things a little more interesting, I then randomly allocated out the clues to each person, making sure they didn’t get the one allocated for their own place.

With that, it was time to start the show. Off they went, with some of the players being actively confused by the Dweller (having never played mages or done astral quests before) while others played it up (Marius has never been to the astral planes before, but Lee has played lots of mages and GMd loads, and knew exactly what to expect). They did a Dweller test, got quite a good result and got 5 rerolls – which again I told them was shared between the whole team. This made Marius and Shimazu very happy, as they’d both run dry of personal karma pool already!



I’d written the clues to be hopefully just cryptic enough to be able to apply to at least two if not three of the situations, depending on how you look at them, but to make sense and be easy enough to figure out – always a tricky thing with puzzles! I always err on the side of too easy, as what’s obvious to me as the GM is never so obvious from the player side. And it’s always a lot easier to throw in an extra wave or puzzle later, than it is to suddenly ramp down an encounter mid-way through, IMO.

There was a satisfying amount of discussion amonst the team as they tried to work out the “meaning” of the clues on one hand, and also worked out who should get how many of the test successes on the other. During the quest they had no idea what actual rating quest they were on, or which “place” was which, as I kept them very abstractly described – so Jez and Lee, the two most experienced players were feeling very much out of control and not able to rely on meta-knowledge of what *should* happen during a quest.

Some of the negotiations got very pragmatic indeed, with at one point Lee (Marius) actually putting forward that they should sacrifice the two mundanes and stop allocated successes to them, to help keep the magic users (especially Tads as the only native person there that could get them out safely) powered up. Countering against that was Jez(Aswon) pointing out that they had to keep making these “other” rolls against weird skills, that never allowed grade to be added, but seemed somehow important, and what if they had one of those skills?

It led to a lot of negotiation and the team trying to work out what was going on, not being able to take anything for granted and hopefully added some intrigue and interest for the veteran players, while still keeping it fast moving for everyone else.



One by one they battered through the places, actually doing very well until the halfway mark when they ended up with one that was the “place of fear”, which any veteran of 3e/MITS will shudder at – as it’s one of the few “deadly” drain places, meaning you need 8 successes to clear it without damage, which is normally quite hard to get. Even through the team did well, with 6 of them there, they needed 48 successes in total, and even with the cross-team bonus successes helping them out, they came up short and a bunch of people took some light wounds. That in turn made the next place more difficult, and the re-rolls started to get thrown around to help them power through, though they did pick up a few more wounds. Overall they did very well though, blowing all the team re-rolls and a few personal ones, but not having to blow any karma permanently, and getting through to the citadel without failing a place badly, or suffering too much damage.



Then it was time for the foreshadowing description, and to pop them out of astral and back into the real world – and to quickly wrap up the session, as I knew that I wasn’t up for anything complicated by then!

That leaves us in a good place next week to cover the journey back to the ranch and some big fat juicy karma awards, and for them to start planning their downtime and skill ups. Also, to warn you – we’re certainly having a week over after this next session, as it’s “The Gathering”, the largest of the Lorien Trust LRP events over the weekend, and I’ll be there taking photos, whilst Kai(Fozzy) will be running most of the logistics. The event finishes Monday, so Tuesday we’ll both still be wiped out, and its also Marius(Lee) birthday, so he was going to be absent anyway. With the GM exhausted and a third of the players down, that seemed like a clear indication we should have a week off! Hopefully we’re back on for the next session on 5th September, so the next update should be that weekend, fingers crossed.



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

1. Saturday 02/04//2061, Location: 11.41808, 6.63022, Time 06:30
2. Aswon sorts masks out enroute, land at dawn. Tads summons spirits and does rituals, then heals Shimazu up to full, 2nd sunrise inside the tiltwing. Kai saying that he's keeping inside the tilt-wing in the ward. Aswon - will you come if the spirits ask. Kai - yes. Marius - I'm getting some sleep, you've all been resting while I do the hard work!
3. Aswon notices the village looks abandoned, empty - all far too quiet. Team uneasy, armour ups, grabs guns, summons watcher spirits and gets ready for combat. Kai armours up, team encourage Kai to take his punch dagger. Spot very little cook fire smoke from chimneys. Team head in towards center, fanned out slightly. All armed with spears. Aswon double tap spear, triggers mexican wave in towards centre. Aswon makes sure Hunter is recording. Drum beat cadence from spear, building up. Everyone in the centre waiting, sunday best.
4. "You have returned, as the spirits foretold you would"
5. "We've done our best, but it's time to go, Novatech will find it hard to control the mountain."
6. Kai via radio - what have they heard.
7. Shaman - that you have been successful. But now it is time to get the blessings of the spirits!"
8. Kai under his voice "that sounds like death"... Aswon looks nervously at Tads. Then to chieften - how, when, where?
9. Shaman, the spirits have sent a way. Brightly coloured box. Aswon assenses, the box is "furious!" Shaman - ahh, we have one missing? Looks concerned. Aswon - explains kai being tracked, might be dangerous. Shaman - ahh, where you're going, the land will protect you. Rainbow scorpion removed very tentatively. Marius "ahh, I don't like this."
10. Aswon knows about Rainbow scorpion, full local knowledge, Tads knows its almost certain venomous, toxic or both. Aswon - be careful, its venom may help us take part in a ritual, but must be very careful.
11. Bone milker, a number of small dimples filled with fire/orange. slam the box shut after. Cocktail sticks with tiny doses. Mats out, village has all pulled in, deathly quiet. Tads gets everyone into physical contact. Mime sticking tongue out, scrapes the stick on tongues. Marius looks around, very reluctant, but everyone else is doing it, so joins in.
12. Start the trip, physical effects, abomination creature. Team have turned into their animals.
13. Dweller, "ahh, your're here, what a rag tag bunch."
14. Aswon: "Hey, Aswon, what did President Zachary Taylor die of in 1850? No, not got it? HONK! Guess you're the trog! Aswon's the trog, the stupid, stupid trog... how does that make you feel?"
15. "Aswon, don't be rude, don't insult my friend, not feeling good.
16. Kai: Just imagine Kai, there you are, last man standing. The enemy troops have stabbed Tads, and when her shields fell, their stunballs dropped everyone else, leaving them sprawling in the back of the truck. Only you were out of sight, squeezing one out in the toilet... what are you going to do? Jump in the drivers seat? Which lever does what? Where's the manifold compressor. What setting should the turbo encabulator be on? Is the reciprocating crankshaft fully engaged with the myo-mastic converter? Is it? Come on, no time for panic! You've got to drive these people out of here!
17. Shimazu: "Shimazu, hey Shimazu. Move to the left. Cover the left side. No, silly, MY left." A paintball round slammed into Kai, splattering on his chest directly above his heart, winding and stunning him. "Oh look - now he's dead. Again. What a silly mistake..."
18. Aswon looking at Tads, very confused. Shimazu guilty looking at feet.
19. Tads - this is kinda normal, just put up with it.
20. Tads: "Ahh, and here we have the shaman. The protector. The guardian. Knocked over any pots recently. Had a huge sneeze, eh? Oh dear oh dear... look at that. Something vital appears to have gone missing! Best watch out for this one, I warn you..."
21. Marius: And here he is... so tell me. Was 30 pieces of silver worth it? Did you learn from this experience? I hope so... they won't do any learning after all!
22. Hunter "Da da dum tish tish, da da dum tish tish. Come on there Jason, you know the moves, show us your footwork. Do you need your suit? Would that make you feel better?" Hunter was suddenly clad in a bright purple suit with silver detail, sparkling in the reflected light from an overhead spot.
23. All roll tests: Aswon 2, Tads 2, Shimazu 1, Kai 0, Marius 0, Hunter 0. Team have a group KP of 5 to use. Tads puts shielding up.
24. Magical zoo keeper arrives, sweeping dung.
25. Team get clues...
26. Hunter "Not every fight is one that can be won, and sometimes the approach of death is inevitable. But, when fate has conspired against you, then how you choose to die can be as important as how you chose to live." what's that mean?
27. Aswon - we're being compared to the viet cong I think, Back before the awakening, and the collapse of the USA, this most powerful of nations was handed a crushing and unexpected defeat at the hands of Vietnam, where despite their technology, training and massive logistical advantages, they fell to guerilla attacks, traps and tricks, finding their foe impossible to pin down in open warfare
28. Tads - give me a minute. Old man - just don't step in the dung. Tads - explains astral quest, some combat, some not. Marius who knew this was going to happen? Kai - nobody. M - ok, who SUSPECTED this might happen?
29. Tads - anyway, work together, keep calm, work out what each challenge is. Aswon what did everyone get then?
30. Shimazu: Never ascribe to malice what can be attributed to incompetence. Though sometimes violence is done for evil reasons, often it is the product of limited thinking and short sighted goals
31. Kai - The parable of the elephant and the mouse has been corrupted over thousands of years. It is not how a tiny creature can help one much larger, but more that even the mightiest foe can fall to a death of a thousand cuts
32. Marius - Roman forces, often misunderstood, it was as much about defence as attack, letting their enemies break themselves on formations like the Tetseudo
33. Team recount all again, Marius commits to memmory
34. Tads - you've been helpful previously, can I ask if we can cast magic here. Old man - might be tricky, Mind the dung. Dweller clicks fingers and sends them to the nexus.
35. Kai wanders away a bit-finds out there is no comms, including essense stuff.
36. Kai and most of group heading to chamaeleon, Shimazu is heading for dog. Kai turns around and follows, with rest of the team going after him.
37. Each get the desire resistance, morphing to try and appeal to them.
38. Kai - can I stay here forever. Tads tries to explain, TLDR - no.
39. Group test - A6, T4, S4, K4, M1, H1 = 20 total.
40. 3 each and 4 to the mundanes, good enough - place passed. Back to the centre, 5 animals left
41. Place 4 - barbury stag, Tads. All collapse in to the middle, toroise formation.
42. K5, A5, S6, T3, H3, M3 = 25, Shimazu one group RR, down to 4, now 27 success, split 4 to everyone and one with 6. Brief OOC discussion about taking the hits on the mundanes. Dire wolf throw themselves at the team for days, defeated and slink off.
43. All lions, see the tribe and poachers. Shimazu suggests Kai commanding voice to roar and intimidate. Kai 10D6T5 = 4
44. S5, H4, K4, A4, T3, M2 = 22, Tads group RR, T=6, group 28. 8 to Tads, 4 to everyone else. Light for everyone, Tads is fine.
45. Kai - Chamaeleon. Place of charisma. Team spot other lizards, about to be over-run by giant bears, crushing them underfoot. Sparkling dew drops distract the bears, and the team have to persuade / lead / distract the bears away from the lizard nesting grounds. MArius suggests yeeting the lizards out of the way.
46. Throwing test = K1, T1, M1, A2 RR 6 = 9 total.
47. H2, M4, S5, T7, K9, A2 = 29, 38 - all soaked.
48. Hyena - place of knowledge, but must use SUT to encircle opponent and strike at it in a pack, mobbing it and finding the weak spots. Marius - hit and run, different directions.
49. SUT roll, A1, M2, T0, S0, K2, H0. =5
50. Body check, H2, A3, S3, RR 10, T6, M0 ,K4 = 28+
51. Team take it down, just.
52. Cape Buffalo, place of battle - heavily armed and armoured milspec goons hunting the team down, must lead them into some badlands to break LOS and then defeat them one by one at short range
53. Bufallo, lure into badlands, melee test. S3, T1, A5, K0, M0 ,H2 = 11
54. Main test T3, S9+6, A2, H0, M2, K3 = 19=24. Scrape through, Aswon takes a L. To the citadel.
55. When all done, to the citadel, they become Martial eagles, soar up over nigeria, flying super high, vision shifts and spot mana flowing from a million natives / tribesman, all towards their shaman, getting brighter and stronger, then flowing together into bigger nodes, coalescing into torents of energy, all meeting at the village, then... vanishing from sight. Yet somehow still there, a huge store of potential energy, waiting to be tapped.
56. Back to the village, wake up thirsty and tired, needing a wee. quest took 37 hours
57. End session there...

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 277 is now published, and added onto book 9, bringing it to a close! Another 305,000 words added to the story over 480 odd pages, and we’ll be starting book 10 in a fortnights time.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
So, here we are, back again. A pretty short update this week, as we reached the end of this particular campaign arc. We’re not on next week (two players down as well as the GM, so that’s just not gonna happen!), so I opted for a nice quite abstracted journey back to the ranch. I got Hunter to make a computer roll, Marius a piloting and Kai an etiquette test to cover the various bits of permits, flying and bribery on the way back, and as they all got a number of successes, the journey went off without a hitch, and they made it back home.

A quick description on the way in of changes at the ranch to let them know Nadia had been busy, and also to warn them that she was going to hit them up for some cash again soon, bought a few smiles to faces, along with one comment of “she’s turning the place into a Centre Parks!” They’re probably not wrong there…

Still, the team were back, and the last thing I wanted to do was to hit Marius with his “special delivery” a series of very high end and somewhat restricted texts on nuclear power, as a foreshadowing of what was to come. Yup – the plan in the future is to give the team a nuke reactor (just a small one) in an experimental vehicle, to play with. This will be towards the end of the campaign, assuming we make it that far of course, when they’re fighting some real tasty stuff, and having vehicle mounted lasers or particle weapons with no fuel requirements will be a big factor! But that’s a long way off… Marius just needs to start studying nice and early.

With that done, I called a halt to the session, informed them we’d reached the end of the campaign arc and that it was time for karma awards and pool refreshes – which was met with great rejoicing.

Although it’s only been a month of IC time between the last break and this one, it’s been 35 game sessions – so a fair while. It’s also contained pretty much four back to back runs that have kept the team on the go constantly, so they racked up a fair sized award, in the 38-40 karma range. This suddenly opened up a lot of possibilities for the players in terms of advancement.

Even more important, having resolved (though they may not be aware of this yet) a major campaign goal in unifying and igniting the tribal rebellion against the megacorps in Nigeria, they also got a ‘special bonus’. For the magic users, this counted as having completed an ordeal, and thus giving them a cheaper initiation cost – which changed what at least 3 of the 4 were planning on doing with their karma. I didn’t want the two mundanes being left out or behind, so they also got a special bonus in that any two of their skills or attributes they had used on the last runs could be advanced much more easily as their karma just made things flow their way… so whenever they were making the learning tests for improving the skill and seeing how long it took, they were told they would just automatically get 50% of their test as successes! That made pumping some of the higher level skills way more achievable, helping them push their role-based skills further down the progression track.

With a bit of discussion on how people wanted to spend, and some back and forth to discuss availability numbers and such like, we were closing in on 21:00, our normal session finishing time, so we knocked things on the head a little early.

As a result, the writeup for this week and the conclusion of Book 9 is a little shorter than normal, though hopefully not unsatisfying.

That also gave me a chance to sit down with Tads, and to start working through her massive series of spell design tests, astral quests to reduce the cost of learning those spells, and then the actual learning tests, to find out just how long she was going to potentially want for her downtime – so that we could work out where we were skipping forward to, or when her progress would be interrupted with world events.

It remains to be seen how far through we get, but this is her general list and order for doing her stuff in, so you can see what she’s intending to buy:

Tads downtime
• Initiate to 8, 8 days (sensing)
• 4 X F4 quests to hide signatures (Kai, Shimazu, Aswon, new buggy). 62 hours. Whole team and tilt-wing now protected.
• Spell, Stabilise, design=2d or 8 hours, quest 1=17 hours, quest 2=18, learning=5 hours = 48 hours total
• Spell, Control Pack, design=5d or 20 hours, quest 1=12 hours, quest 2=18h, learning=4h = 54 hours total
• Spell, Nutrition, design=2d or 8 hours, learning 1d=4 = 12 hours
• Spell, Fast, design=2d or 8 hours, learning 1d=4 = 12 hours
• Spell, Fashion, design=1d or 4 hours, q1=14h, q2=15, learning=6d (24) fail, retry 3d=12h, 69 hours total
• Spell, Net, design=3d / 12h, q1=18h, q2=18, learning=1.66 days=7h = 55 hours total
• Spell, Light, learn =1d 4h = total 4
• Spell, Mist, design 3d/12h, q1=16, q2=17, learning=2.5d/10h = 55 hours total
• Spell, Spirit stun ball, design 6d/24h = 24 hours total
• Spell, Levitate, design 1d/4h, q1=11, q2=17, learning 1.5/6h = 38 hours total
• Spell, Create Alcohol, design 3d/12h, q1=17, q2=14, learning= 7h = 50 hours total (483 running total)
Assuming 7 hour work days (she does have a good willpower), that’s 69 days of fairly constant work for her to get everything done. That would at least allow the rest of the team some good training time in, with a few world events from Year of the Comet dealt with via news reports, but still gets the team back on the road before SURGE hits, and Halley’s comet starts doing all of its weird stuff.


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

1. Sunday 03/04//2061, Location: 11.41808, 6.63022, Time 19:30
2. Team have woken from quest, drank and gotten water, and meet at the chiefs hut
3. Marius calls Nadia to let her know he's ok, then goes to prep tilt-wing.
4. Aswon suggests checking in with Hestaby - better than her chasing the team. Suggests calling Phoss and Ury.
5. Tads chain heals all the light wounds, impresses the tribe.
6. Chief - told your work is done, the land is pleased.
7. Aswon - remember the mountain is guarded. Pebble seemed quite sociable, so be nice. Spread the word
8. Chief - You have not shown us how to fight - we knew that. But you have shown us that we can win, and that was perhaps lost to us. Now word of what has happened has spread throughout the tribes, quietly, and somewhat abstractly. But the people of the land know the invaders have been hurt, badly hurt. And now the embers of resistance have been fanned. But this is OUR fight now. But the tribe remembers
9. Aswon - pro tip - get bigger guns. But we need to go
10. Chief - spirits of the land will go with you. Kai scoops up some of the local dirt and puts in a jar. Tads thanks the tribe for their protection.
11. Nav, etiquette and handling checks all fine.
12. Call phoss and ury on the way, 20 mins into flight. Says hello, how are you, you clear. We're at Casablanca. Got told we can come home, so generally a good sign. K-witness - mental. Tell them about the assassinations, nothing to do with us. K asks them to call him. P - probably not, phones will be destoryed. K - good working with you. P - yes, we made a difference.
13. Get back to the ranch, Monday 8am.
14. Aswon wants to sanitise Hunters research into Novatech before publishing. Tads does an astral quest primer.
15. Back to the ranch, total 6000km, 36k fuel costs, 11 hours flight time
16. Family help them unload and get back into the house. Nadia warns him about the "package" with the complex lock. Assense shows nothing. Aswon - shall we take that out of the house maybe? Marius agrees, they go outside. Bioscans, open the case and check - 2 books on nuclear stuff, then a whole bunch of chips. Chips are all from an Ares subsidiary.
17. Tads asks about turning the tilt-wing into nuclear powered from this, and would it be cheaper? Marius is *very* much against this idea...
18. Nadia explains about the upgrades to the ranch. Tads asks Kai to check with Rusudan about the changes to make sure he's happy. More sellers on the roadside, area is safer and more prosperous. Kai checks with Nadia about problems - nothing that couldn't be handled either with threats of "my husband" or a big chunk of cash.
19. And relax....

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 278 is now published, starting book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
We’re one down for play at the moment, as Shimazu’s work is giving him a hard time and he’s having to do some cover shifts – so he’s not going to be around for a little bit. So in game, he’s off “setting up his dojo” and training the kids, and will be off-camera for a little bit. As soon as we know he’s coming back though, I’ll get him reintroduced to the game, somehow, and we’ll put the band back together.

But, with that taken care of, the first task of the evening was to bring the players up to date with major world events that had happened over the period of their downtime, letting them know what was going on. A bit of probe race stuff, a bit of Renraku Arcology stuff, some Cal-free stuff. All good exposition for later on in Year of the Comet.

Then a stranger turns up at the door – it’s Uncle Agi! A lovely, friendly old man, a helpful and charming individual, great with fixing stuff. Fantastic chap. And the teams start to notice a few things about him as he sets to work to earn his food and board. Magically active, but knows masking. Claims not to do guns, but has excellent firearm safety. Interesting in knowing all about the origins of the team.
They are suspicious – but he’s not done anything in particular to earn their distrust yet.

And then a job offer comes in, a bit of a rush job. So off they hipperty hop, getting ready for a quick there and back delivery job. Won’t take long. Nice and simple. Hooray – it’s almost like free money. The employer is even covering the fuel costs! What could go wrong…
They leave Agi behind – in fact Kai asks Agi to stay around until they come back, and to make himself at home… and then they set off.
This is going to be interesting, because “Uncle Agi” is a Yakuza scout. They’ve found out that the Mafia activity in the area has ceased, and had some rumours about why… so Agi comes in with a bit of a hearts and minds campaign to find out if the area is worth exploiting, and what obstacles they might face. As the area is pretty poor, unless they squeeze to the point of self destruction (which is what the mafia was doing), it’s a bit of a poor prospect. But also, even though the Yakuza are a world-wide organisation, they still don’t want to mess with runners. It’s just not worth it. Runners are invariably tooled up to give people a bloody nose, have little to tie them down, and operate in the shadows. You can go after them, but often it’s a losing proposition, and just gets you shot at, for very little return.

So, to give the team a nice little psychological win, I bought in uncle Agi. My plan is for him to do his thing, and to try and discover what is going on, and gradually (hopefully) uncover that this is not only a team of runners that have set up shop and called this place home, but that they’re also pretty tasty in terms of power level. And as such, his recommendation back to his boss, is to leave the whole area alone. In fact, providing his boss agrees, they will come to the team, let them know they consider the area is off limits, and inform them that the Yaks will not do any business in their turf at all, as a sign of respect. Potentially then, there might be scope to turn the ranch into a neutral meeting ground, where all kinds of shady deals might be brokered – but that’s way down the line. First they have to discover Uncle Agi’s status.
Of course, they can’t do that while they’re off to see Ludmilla and then head north – and that’s where they run into their next major plot branch.

They headed off to deliver some special ammo to the Brigadier around episode 90ish, and encountered him at Samara base, where his unit was being trained up and refitted. The Brigadier was a social adept (though unaware – he just thought he was charismatic), and a thoroughly nice bloke. Like genuinely, a man a of the people – empathic, charming, caring. Really cared about his country and the people. Inspired his troops, wouldn’t ask them to do something he wouldn’t, walk over hot coals for him kinda stuff. The team seemed to like him too. So they delivered the ammo, and discovered Yakut shapeshifters and spirits were targeting the unit. Got involved and help defend them, fixed up a bunch of stuff, warded the barracks. Generally made themselves useful, made friends, and got a free helicopter out of it. But on the whole, they think the Brigadier is a good guy, and he’s their buddy. They headed back to Samara around episode 143, and did some more work, earnt some more buddy points, confirmed that the Brigadier is still a sound guy. All good, off they went for more adventures.

And now they find out that the Brigadier is advancing on Tads’ tribal lands with orders to gather up her whole people, put them in a concentration camp and make room for MCT to come in and start strip-mining the land. They are *not* impressed with this! Not at all.
We’ve not got there yet, but the Brigadiers not impressed either, and really resents the hell out of this mission. But it’s going to be, from a certain POV, good for the country. Certainly for their economy. And he’s a patriot, which is the only reason he’s doing it…
Tads is already planning all kinds of magical vengeance and shenanigans to stop this – starting with high force influence spells and going from there towards massive spirit assaults and stun-balls the size of football fields. The player is proper fired up (which is nice!), and Aswon is equally firm that this shit isn’t going to fly, and they’re not going to see Tsimshian part 2.

Fun times ahead! Of course, the idea is that the team do stop this, and I’ve got what I hope is a really nice mechanic to dangle in front of them to see if they can find a way out of the situation, and keep friendly with the people they want to. Hopefully it’s enough of a puzzle to keep them guessing a bit, but obvious enough that they’ll “get it” and see the solution, without feeling patronised or given a gift horse, and it provides a bit of a rush when the plan comes together.


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

1. Sunday 11/06/2061, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752, Time 10:00
2. Major news activity:
3. March 19: A power outage strikes Seattle. It takes forty-eight hours before service is initially restored and brownouts plague the metroplex for weeks afterward.
4. Novatech announce that the mountain has "structural issues" making it unsuitable for development - they are concentrating efforts elsewhere. CEO reassigned for poor job performance...
5. March 21: The Corporate Court founds the Grid Overwatch Division as a cross-jurisdictional Matrix law enforcement division.
6. April 5 CFS: General Salto begins crackdown on teaching of Or'zet within the Protectorate.
7. May 13: Renraku Computer Systems announces that they have resolved the Renraku Arcology crisis, although hostile drones still control most of the arcology. Sherman Huang, Cham La Won, and Vanessa Cliber are credited with leading the resolution.
8. May 29: Damien Knight apologizes for Ares Macrotechnology's "accidental" destruction of Saeder-Krupp's Duccio probe.
9. June 1: Renraku Computer Systems announces the death of its CEO, Inazo Aneki.
10. June 11: Shibata Construction and Engineering's Kepler probe is severely damaged before launch at Aztechnology's Spindle space station.
11. Agi turns up, introductions, Tads checks for obvious magic - none. Kai greets him, bows deeper than he did. Welcome to stay. Lays out toolkit - Marius compliments. Talk about tools. Marius catches dropped tool. Stips down electronic screwdriver - Kai spots phys ad powers. Kai asks how long ago the earthquake was - 3 years. How long will he go - until he can't travel any more. Team provisionally trust/welcome him in, until he does something sus.
12. Tads asks if he is a dragon, he laughs, no - can carve you one though. How about an elk - what's that look like. Explains, does good carving.
13. Tads asks Rusudan about uncle Agi, R says ask Kai.
14. Give him Aswons shotgun - super safe, sets of Hunters gun-fu. Examines gun after firing dragons breath rounds. Improves on the gun cleaning kit.
15. At dinner, Agi tells them some stories, asks about the story of how the team got together. Aswon deflects, starts telling about things they've done as a team.
16. Kai, text from Ludmilla, are you free for a call. He texts back yes. Hunter escorts Kai outside.
17. KAi, darling, it's been ages. Ludmilla, your voice is still exquisite, what can we do for you? I have the team here listening in.
18. Urgent jobs, your man is a good driver, need something moving quickly. Red army doing something, road travel Tads - asks if they need anti-venom. 3 boxes, to Yuzhny island - team find out locations. Offers 20k + free fuelling there and back. Team look at fuel ranges - can just get to Ludmillas on 1 tank, island just on 1 hop. Tads suggest ammo costs if required. Kai negotiates a little, Ludmilla throws in repair costs back at the dam as well
19. Tads identified where Nenet lands are. Marius - are there local politics. Tads explains she will have to stop at some point, probably on the way back.
20. Agi offers help, Kai asks him to stay until the team return. Agi offers to fix fences and other things. Kai, you're our guest, please rest as well.
21. A sees the tilt-wing, Hunter stops him getting too close. Marius shows him the workshop, asks for permission to use, any tools to avoid. No tools particularly special, but all are very well looked after and spotless.
22. Team ready at 20:00, 4 hour flight to the dam. Straight to the dam, economical flying. Fill up, get the cargo. K - "does the lady of the house wish to see us" No, she's retired for the evening, but we have this - gives chip. K hands to Hunter. It has the drop off location, comms frequency, passwords etc.
23. Hunter research, rumours on shadowland, Russian troops heading north in multiple division strength.
24. Tads does recon, troops 50km south of homeland, spread out over 30-40km. Spots some of the brigadiers troops bivouacked, 38th Motor Rifle division including Iosi Lebedev (pagan worshipper). Stray shot, radio calm. We're sweeping up the locals, taking them into custody. Tads a bit sad, they're people too, well, of course. She leaves, checks out the island up north. Spots the dirigible by the cliff face, no magic activity, some paracritters. Tads goes back, reports, then heads back to villages - they have pulled back as far as they can, to avoid the Russian advance.
25. Aswon suggest to Tads, go speak to the Brigadier, ask him WTF is going on, hero of the soviet union, friends etc.
26. Team take off, head north, Marius hoping for a quiet flight. Sig 5, stealth 5, conceal 5 = 15s
27. Spot aid defence radars 100km south of Nenet lands. Aswon spots the layout as they cross - "by the book", but this is south of the brigadiers’ troops. Hunter military tactics - maybe political appointee, afraid of not following the rules. Team try to assess tactics, Hunter checks politics - finds Mitsuhama have done a deal with Russia for mining extraction in the area. Team discuss, Kai knows about Tsimshian, tells people about that. Tads knows the area will be very hostile but very rich. Aswon asks for scans as they fly over the brigadiers lines to analyse later.
28. Cross the border, Tads starts to froth, image of her lands ablaze... Aswon assensing Tads - definitely having a totemic vision.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 279 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Welcome back folks. Still down 1 player, so Shimazu is tucked up safe and warm back at the ranch, running his martial arts academy.
We started off with the team in the tilt-wing, and a couple of the guys starting a discussion on what to do – and then Tads started to talk, and refused to stop until they listened to her. Partly a problem with playing on discord, and it being easy to talk over people inadvertently, but partly a problem with player interactions. Tads is the only female player in the group, and is also generally quite quiet and polite. She often gets talked over (something I try not to let happen) but has a habit of then stopping talking – partly because she was bought up not to speak over people (even if she was going first!) and partly just because of how she is. But this time she wouldn’t (having had a brief before the game, and having ‘important plot info’ to share) and just kept going, until all the guys were quiet and let her get a word in – not just edgewise, but as solely just listening to her. And then she laid down the law to them – they had to do what she needed to do, or the team were down a shaman. No if’s not but’s… just this is the options available.

This was unusual enough to make them quiet for a minute, then they realised that with Aswon supporting her, they didn’t really have much choice – so they just had to work around it. At least they came up with a workable plan fairly quickly that was acceptable to everyone, and let the game go forward.
It’s always a tricky one to GM I think. None of my players are ignorant, or misogynistic. But certainly some of them are louder and more vociferous than others, more used to interacting in bigger groups, or were just raised in different ways. It’s not a thing they do consciously as far as I can see – but certainly some of them will just talk over other people or interrupt them without really thinking about it, while others (like Tads) have a knee-jerk reaction to shutting up whenever someone does that. It can be frustrating to her, and it’s one of the reasons I try to make sure people are on webcam – to reinforce that other people are there, and then that people can see when someone is trying to speak or make a point. Certainly I think it helps to stop people just being louder and brasher and talking over someone when you can see them getting upset and frustrated by what you’re doing!

But, with that said and dealt with, the team split into two (sigh, splitting the party. Yay! Fun times splitting the session up into two parallel activities). Team aircraft went off to do the drop-off, while team mystic met the other shamans and went to talk to the Russians.

Both were fairly simple objectives, somewhat complicated by events. For team aircraft, they saw the Russian interceptor early enough to get involved, but not early enough to stop it – and then had to deal with the aftermath of the attack. Now they know the team they were due to deliver to is completely hosed, and so won’t be able to take on their cargo for onward delivery. But – at least they still have the cargo and it’s not been destroyed. That will at least give Ludmilla some options.
Team mystic got introduced to the other shamans that were visiting Tads village, and we got to drop a small humour bomb on Aswon – that had been brewing for six and a half years. This has made Tads remarkably bouncy and amused for several weeks, once she realised that the plot was steering us towards her homeland. For all this time, the team have been calling her Tads as a short form, from Tadibya.

Tadibya is the Nenet word for “shaman”. It’s like if they called Marius “pilot-dude” or Shimazu “Mr Stabby” for six years...

So I had to very subtly steer the situation and conversation so that Aswon turned around and said “shaman” in their language, and everyone sat at the fire turned to look at him and said “Yes?”
For a moment, he was very confused, and then the penny dropped (possibly because Tads’s player was grinning like a lunatic and holding her sides as she rocked back and forth) and he realised what was going on. And that he didn’t have a name that wasn’t a little bit rude in some ways, to use.

Tee hee, ho ho. And all that… you have to get your humour where you can.

Still, on a more serious note, the players have now realised what a situation they are in. They can go nuclear on the Russians, and probably win, given the resources they have. But they’ll be taking out people they know, have trained with, defended and fought side by side with. They’re kind of friends. Just right now they have different objectives. And that unfortunately puts them on opposite teams. Brutal combat is an option, but not the one they really want. If it was anyone else, I think they would have started plans for the assault and would have summoned and released the kraken by now – but because they have personal history with the opponents, that’s not so palatable.

Let’s see if they can turn the situation around in time, before they get a call from Ludmilla that has them heading off elsewhere… or if they turn down Ludmilla and risk losing a powerful contact!


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

1. Sunday 12/06/2061, Location: 66.0579, 50.18371, Time 02:41
2. Tads coming out of frothy fit, still secured in the back. Tads - I need to get out. Drop the ramp, or land - I need to get out. Otherwise you don't have a shaman. Kai - ok. Check for landing spots. Eurasian steppes. Marius - do you want a better landing spot?
3. Aswon - what are you getting out to sort? Specifically. Tads - the Russians, genocide of the Nenet people. Aswon - so being 70 km back might not be good.
4. Kai - what are you going to do, and how long will it take? Give us more details, then we know whether to leave you or help me.
5. Tads - frustrated, i don't know elk just wants me to sort it , I don't want to kill them, but elk says sort it. Marius, heads to peninsula, but mentions to Kai time sensitive job, flight time is short, so probably still need to do the job. It's not that much of a detour. Get rid of that, then work out how to help.
6. Aswon still planning to get out with Tads. Plan to drop team off, then go and do the drop-off. Hunter recommends refuelling at the village, just in case.
7. Village is stirring, vaguely, reindeer herds, fisherman.
8. Bird sets down, bit squishy, then hits permafrost. Villages oblivious to the landing. Team get out to refuel, Tads and Aswon heading to village - quickly spotted. Some rifles, dogs and sleds, stretched skidoo. Aswon getting most attention.
9. Parako comes out, smile, slides off when looking at Aswon. Tads does introductions. P - big trouble, divinations, things brewing. Best come in. Tads over mind-link, easily offence, need to trade. Aswon nods, gets a spare talisman ready.
10. Spot the 3 other shaman, away from their tribes. Accept Tads, look at Aswon. Make room, hot tea. Babble, tads translate, wants to touch hair. Aswon no offence, leans forward.
11. "Giant from the far off land with the skin of coal, he has come!" Signs, he has come. No others in the visions, all very strange. No idea why you are here.
12. Kai, Hunter and Marius finish fuelling and then take off, heading to drop off. Hunter asks Kai - do we mention Russian activity to them as a courtesy, Kai - yes, been asked to help them. Check boxes again - hermetically sealed.
13. Lean about tribe reaction to approaching Russians, ask Aswon why he is here, he says friend needed help, his spirit talker too.
14. Tads explains about corporate interests in the land, minerals, greed. Might be able to slow them down a little, but don't know what to do about the corp. "We must stop them, if they take away our land, we stop being the people". Tads - Aswon, any suggestions, my best plan is to go tell the commander to leave or lose 95% of their troops.
15. Aswon, range of options, but like Novatech all over again. Serious thing to put them off. But don't know what that is. But we know the Brigadier, some of the soldiers, may be leverage there. May be media angle, rescue people from camps, share with the NAN/Tsimshian. Going to need international sympathy. T-ideally I don't want to blow anything up.
16. Both spot that there is a lot of telesma in the hut. Aswon not sure if this is unusual or not. Tads - can we change the mineral reports. It's a hunter job. Aswon - what about a giant ritual spell to transmute the metal into something worthless. Tads - but they'd have to strip-mine to find that out.
17. Aswon - this is a bit sideways, can't believe I want to say this. Telesma can be more expensive than metal, stop them destroying the place, they can't strip mine it. Puts problem off for a while. Tads - that might help, we need to put them off, we need space to live. Need Russians to go away. Tads - will you be ok here
18. Tads going to find Brigadier, Aswon asks for an escort, Parako offers but charges, get talisman. Both get comfy, then project.
19. Marius spots the jet on converging course, tells Kai to get on the radio. Kai calls ahead, groggy, spot cyberarm, who is this. Kai, 5 mins out, jet coming 3 mins out.
20. Drops the phone, shouts "Rufus, glass - we have incoming! Pan where are you!"
21. Kai - can we take that down? Marius - no, unless you feel really lucky with the door gun.
22. Dirigible starts to rise, big thermals from the engines, starts to cloak, but the jet starts to fire 20mm cannon and shred its. Kai gets to the door gun, Hunter gets Panther. Good piloting roll from Marius. Both get 1 shot, tracers illuminate, panther shot hits the engine, takes it out. Pilot ejects but he's inverted, and slams into the cliff.
23. Zeppelin is crashing, aiming for the narrow beach. Marius advises putting down, they land near the crash site.
24. Captain Hook (cyberarm) Robyn (mage), Pan (ally spirit), Rufus the ork (gunner/stevedore), Glass (gunner/stevedore) Yoyo the troll(gunner/stevedore) deluxe gyromount
25. Crap - Robyn is still in there, it explodes, blows him across the beach.
26. Gunners take out the captain, who is trying to get in, they're telling him she's dead already. Marius confirms no life signs in there. Cargo hold is going up, secondary explosions, warns Hunter.
27. Yoyo torn - then goes to grab the captain, help drag him away. The team is relatively intact. Kai - our tilt-wing is over there, concealed. We shot down the jet down, get in we can assess you, maybe take you away. Look we're here to make a delivery.
28. Captain hook, thanks, lets get you on board. Spots the tilt-wing. Get in through unwarded door, pan appears. Kai checks ok with the ward. Get strapped in, troll on floor, no seats sized for him.
29. Marius up in the air, back towards Tad's village. Verify each other, get names. Kai - you were going to deliver with your vehicle, yes? Hook - drek, lost the vehicle, lost the cargo. Kai offers to relay to Ludmilla. 10 min chat, then he plans, rest of team just wait for their captain. Kai gives refreshments.
30. Tads and Parako go looking, spot Iosi. Couple of km away from his former position, Tads - what's going on. Ahh, come inside. Glass of OJ. Brigadier - ahh, good morning. Tads - can't stay long. B - don't understand, I don't need to. Tads - I don't want to hurt anyone, you're my people just as much as they are, you need to convince your boss to stop this.
31. B- I'm not sure we can do this. For the good of the entire nation.
32. Tads - not going to happen. Politburo. Can't stop - B looks genuinely sad.
33. Captain - fuel pumps, 1-2 days. Hold in place
34. Call, come physically, arrange safe passage.
35. Tads - want to avoid loss of life on both side.
36. Brigadier - we owe you, don't want to fight, but not sure I can avoid my orders.
37. T - consider some of your people my people, but some of the locals have already been taken into "protective custody" - will be released.
38. B - to captain, we should check on this, not our men, make sure it's being done right.
39. Go back in, debrief, explain to everyone what is going on. Other part of team land.
40. Kai - is Ludmilla calling you back? Do we need to talk to her. Hook - I think she'll call you, she needs to work stuff out. Kai offers lift back to civilisation. They offer to pay taxi fee.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 280 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Welcome back. Shimazu is still AFK, so he’s still back at the ranch. Hopefully he’s back on the 16th October, so we can find a way to get him back into play then.

We got the team all back together, including the NPC shaman and the rescue team – and with a bit of spell casting, everyone can understand everyone else – which certainly makes narrating the conversation much easier! This is still very much the players show though, so the NPCs mostly sat back and let their conversation wash over them, occasionally adding something germane to try and help out.

I’m hoping that I pitched this just right – certainly the players reacted as I wanted them to. They’ve been handed a bit of a shit sandwich, certainly from their point of view. On one hand they have at least one, perhaps two full divisions of Russian troops, closing in on an area with 50,000 civilians who are not an organised cohesive force, and armed with only hunting rifles and primitive tools. On the other hand they have their own shaman stubbornly saying that she won’t leave, and if they go, they go without her and any of her spirits, or illusions.
Given the choice, they’ve knuckled down to try and work the problem – but seem fully aware of the scope of it, and how difficult it is. After bouncing ideas around for a good while, the *best* they could come up with is the idea of trying to appeal to Russia to keep their “telesma style plant pot” nice and safe, and certainly not spoilt. It’s a very long shot, but it’s the only one they have really, that they find palatable.

They absolutely could go to war with the Russians, and for the first day or two, would wipe the floor with them. We’ve seen them take out artillery, and take on troops. With the level of magical spirits that Tads can now summon and give out to the team, granting everyone at least +5 to their signature and stealth scores, they become like thieves in the night. Even better at the moment during the “long day”, whatever spirits Tads calls will hang around for the best part of 3 months…
If she adds an illusion or other spells on top, we’re at the point where the players could easily need perception rolls of 12+ to be detected, even in good conditions – so they could waltz through the Russian lines taking out troops with no real opposition. Even when Russian mages turn up, they’d have to be *very* careful operating around the team due to their magical firepower. But, after a while quantity becomes a quality all of their own.
And besides, they like the Brigadier and some of his troops. They have a bond with him and don’t want to abuse that.

Exactly as I’d hoped they wouldn’t.

So they’re trying desperately not to fall out with their buddy, but to stop them tromping their other buddies into the ground, and stay friends with both sides.
It took a lot of restraint not to grin like a lunatic when Aswon was discussing saying they’d found Orichalcum, and then dismissing the idea as *everyone knows that’s impossible*

So as we closed in on the end of the session, and the players had their plan, even though it was a bit thin and they certainly needed to roll a 12 on two dice for it to stand a chance of working – that’s all they’d managed to realistically come up with.
So that’s when it was time to reveal that I’d tweaked the timeline *ever so slightly* and actually the discovery of natural Orichalcum wasn’t first made in Azania in November, but in Nenet lands in June. Maybe they’re going to be able to keep it hushed up so the “official” discovery still happens later… we’ll have to see.
But now they’re certainly feeling like they’ve got a much bigger bargaining chip in their hand. Time to see if a pair of Kings beats their previous Ten high…

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

1. Sunday 12/06/2061, Location: 67.8139, 48.96953, Time 08:35
2. Marius calls ahead to warn the team they have rescue bodies inbound.
3. Hunter- what do we call Tads then? Aswon - shaman, my friend?
4. Kai - questions Hook, they work the arctic circle, slow and steady stealthy transports.
5. Kids looking like demon wigwams zooming around. Tilt-wing gets camouflaged. Skidoo owner comes over to poke around. Try English, no good, little Russian. Wants to stroke the tilt-wing. Examines, checks wheels. Hunter excavates around the landing gear so they don't get stuck later.
6. Hunter gets the rescue team over to a chum for a cup of tea, and a stiff drink. Quiet discussion about sharing food with the strangers. Tads fixes that situation. Aswon - asks Hunter to show the team where they are, who the people are etc to at least fill them in.
7. Tads explains who the new people are in Nenets, they are responsible for them, temporary refugees. Then goes into Russian to explain to the rescue party. Team start to pick up Nenets language
8. Tads explains the situation with the Brigadier to the rest of the team.
9. Hunter - it's not going to work, with the politburo pulling the strings. Brigadier will try to help, but he's not in charge of the operation. We can get word out about the talismongering perhaps? Becomes interesting for other parties.
10. Aswon - we need to communicate "are you trying to create another Yakut"? Maybe get them to reconsider. Hunter - history, they just make stuff happen once they've decided, regardless of the cost. Hero projects, Baikonur.
11. Discussion about how many troops the Brigadier has, the front, thin, dragnet, no strategic depth.
12. Aswon - we need the Russians to say no thanks, or external pressure. And the first isn't going to happen I think - so we need external pressure. Maybe KSAF. Orange lady? Who knows...
13. Tads has a fake id for environmental Para animal researcher for Pattersons. Aswon - that is maybe useful. Tads - that ID has the medal...
14. Aswon suggest telling people they have found orichalcum. Tads - does that need to be a fake. Aswon - well yes, it doesn't exist naturally...
15. Kai - what are we facing exactly? Heard about the politburo. We've faced off against some corps before, done ok with a bit of luck. But this is a national level thing, tidal wave.
16. Marius - Russian army, in Russia, doing their legal orders - just saying.
17. Hunter - can they emigrate? Go somewhere else? Tads - no capacity, massive change of life.
18. Aswon - TPA? They have land, similar ecosystem? Would they help
19. Hunter examines map - at least 2 brigades, their brigadier to the west, another force to the east.
20. Aswon - can we get Yakut to start an offensive. Marius - but they are weird shapeshifters and treat humans as 2nd class citizens. Aswon - just the threat of an invasion from Yakut might distract the eastern division
21. Tads checking on the thoughts on the Nenet folks - they don't want to leave, at all. Hunter - tells them that might not be a choice/option.
22. Aswon - if we get talismongering on the table it protects the land, maybe not the people. If the people work to gather, it might be better than getting run over by tanks.
23. Marius - have to be careful, if we upset the Russian, they might get vengeful. Aswon - they're fighting other wars, might be a thing they don't want to kick off another if there's a cost. But we can try to shame Mitsuhama.
24. Aswon - doing the talismongering buys us 5-10 years probably. Hunter - actually in favour of the dragon aspect on this. Aswon - maybe orange queen or ice maiden. Not Aiden. Marius - no, he just blows shit up. Aswon - but we know two others, we think - Lung and Ryumo, and R has ties with the Yakuza so it's rumoured. And he probably likes the land.
25. Kai - is there advantage to the locals doing the talismongering, to try and keep them in charge of the flow of materials? Russians act as protectors, PR win - would that work? Aswon - yeah, could give them a massive leg up in terms of corps. Only way they could scale up the gathering.
26. Tads tries to work out how many pebbles would be needed to guard the border - many, many. Marius - and that creates Yakut part 2. And that might not be something you want.
27. Other team looking a little out of their depth at discussion of taking on the Russian Army. Aswon suggests Kai take them out to discuss how involved they want be, before they learn anything secret / privileged.
28. Marius - gives details of organic attached units. Semi-autonomous units, massive logistics trail.
29. Kai and Hunter take other team out - they want to get back to western Europe. Any city, don't want to get involved. will try to get set up again. Kai offers to look after their weapons, get them back in the future. They want to stay on the circle route - it's what they know. Look at map - Helsinki, Murmansk, where? Anywhere. Just a major city, they will take it from there. Kai offers to put them in touch with some shipping contacts. Captain says they will try to stay out from underfoot, help with any minor work around the village.
30. Tads wants to start on the PR side, with Hunter helping her over the matrix. Marius - from his POV, their best angle is to convince the Russians it's better financially for them to use the Nenet to gather, rather than starting a guerrilla war. Aswon - persuade them that they need the supplies to help fight the Yakut.
31. Ludmilla calls back around lunchtime - the Linerburg is a complete loss yes? Kai - we have your cargo, will drop off the team somewhere soon. We have some private business. wants the team to deliver the 3 boxes to Smuggler Stop - Bright Spark, 67.8139, 48.96953, Old WWII airbase tucked away in massive solar / wind farm area near Swindon - must be delivered on the 20th June, not before, not after. Paying 100k.
32. Aswon - same deal with fuel and expenses. Marius - massive air defences, very paranoid.
33. Tads - I might need to stay, otherwise you don't have a shaman. Aswon - sworn to stay with her. Kai - get hold of the brigadier, arrange a meeting in a few days with the leaders of the Nenet to posit peace plan. Marius - tell her we'll do it, but she's going to pay for it...
34. Kai - we can do it. But we need expenses and stuff, and any intel you might have.
35. Ludmilla - great, let me know when the job is done then. Hangs up.
36. Kai - checks with Captain Hook. Provides flight path info, contacts and some route info to help get into UK.
37. Aswon - are we using Orange Queen / Ice Maiden - just to be clear? Are we definitely doing this? Marius grumbles - dragons. Hunter - yes, but not Lofwyr / Aiden.
38. Tads checks - Nenets will do what is necessary, they are quite pragmatic. Just don't want to leave. Hunter asking what they have all this telesma. Tads asks about the materials - they explain the visions, they wanted them to make weapons and tools to fight the Russians - but not enough time now.
39. Kai - I just see that this is going to end up with an insurgency or guerrilla fight somewhere, some dissenters, somewhere.
40. Shouting from outside, fisherman calling for Parako. Team head out, along with Shaman. All get one success - spot the orichalcum. Aswon goes to fetch the talismongering kit. Parako equally surprised - Oh, what weapons we could make. But no time.
41. Aswon - tries to determine how the orichalcum got on the fish - probably a sediment / cloud suspension. Hunter checks the bottom of boat - but clean.
42. Marius - haven't you said multiple times that this is impossible? Aswon - yep - but it might be something dumped in there.
43. Tads - could Mitsuhama have planted this? Aswon - no, they wouldn't be able to keep it quiet.
44. Hunter gets shapechanged into a seal, finds the vent and hot water, starts getting orichalcum fringe.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 281 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Huzzah! Shimazu’s player is back – so the first order of business was to work out how to get him back into the team. One of the players suggested we just do a subtle hand-wave – it was only one day of game time that Shimazu had been missing for – if we just agreed he’d been sat in the back of the tilt-wing, there was no action he would really have *had* to get involved with based on what had happened.
I would have accepted that – but preferred not to, as it would mean going back and editing the last few weeks of writeup to be consistent, but strangely enough it was the other players who all seemed to prefer him having to arrive IC and stick with the “hard way” that could potentially cause them trouble, rather than changing the past. *shrug*. Don’t argue with democracy when it works for you.

Fortunately with a decent rating fake ID and a couple of smooth rolls, he was well on his way.
That left the rest of the team to do a lot of talking about orichalcum and planning the meeting, working out how to present it and what to offer, what style of negotiations to do, how much to trust the Brigadier and so forth. It ended up being a very talky session with no major disagreements, but lots of people chipping in ideas about how best to present things.

When we got around to the meeting, rather than having to RP all of that all over again, I took it as read mostly what they were trying to achieve and how they wanted to achieve it – and only fed in some key reactions from the Russians for the team to react to in turn – choosing whether to modify their plan or go with the original. As things went, they had pretty much accounted for all of the major issues the Brigadier would have, and had solved them or worked around them. With the Brigadier having a high opinion of the team based on the previous two jobs for him, he’s firmly in their camp (he wasn’t feeling too great about the mission to start with – he’s definitely not the best choice for the job from Moscow’s POV – but there’s a reason for that!), but now that he has a way out that actually helps his country, he’s all over the plan like a rash.
The team – or rather Kai – were generous with the orichalcum, handing over their entire supply as proof of what they have and how much they can get, which was *exactly* the correct approach to take, and has convinced the Russian mage that this is the way to handle the situation.
My plan is to have them chatting away in Moscow until quite close to the deadline the players have for delivering the cargo to the UK, then come back with an agreement and do a quick show and tell scene of the Russians moving in to fortify and secure the Nenet lands, but working with the people to support and protect them, rather than as aggressors – and then they’ll have to skidaddle over to the UK to make the delivery time

And then I spring the next part of the plan, and throw Hunter in at the deep end! Honestly… playing an English character and the first time back in the country after 7 years of playing? Does he think he’s gonna get away with that? Pfft…

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

1. Sunday 12/06/2061, Location: 67.8139, 48.96953, Time 13:00
2. Shimazu heads up, commercial flight to Moscow (3hours), charter to Naryan-Mar (5 hours), Marius goes to pick up last 200km at around 19:00
3. Rest of team start to gather materials. Tads analyses with artificing 3 successes.
4. Survival rolls for Tads/Aswon - better to recycle the fish, but need to supply alternate food to the tribe.
5. Tads - provide foci to the Russians in exchange for food. Can we call Alexander Galler - aid to the captain, magical troops
6. Marius - call Vitoly Frederick, he was the magical guy at Irktusk
7. Get Shimazu picked up from the airport. Tads asks tribe to contact the other tribes over the phone links for other sites that may have sparkles
8. Tads negotiates with shaman, they agree to provide foci for the Russians in exchange for security and safety.
9. Tads - and I want to get together with Hunter for a report to Pattersons on magical activities, for when it's safe. Marius - don't tell anyone ever, based on what it is. Tads - maybe 3-6 months, helps shore up the ID.
10. Hunter and Aswon - we want to get the Brigadier to get Vitoly Frederick shipped over, his word has more credence, and he can convince the Russian army. Marius - he's 3.5k km away, get him moving ASAP.
11. Tads talks to Kai, explains how much her people mean to her, and how she wants to protect them, and not expose them.
12. Marius - conspiracy theory, Mitsuhama "not natural material", Aswon - I love it. Kai lets not make it too complex. Marius - still need a reason to keep Mitsuhama out. Kai - ok, gives us some ammo, but he needs to have the passion for it.
13. Call the Captain to arrange to meet the Brigadier for breakfast in the morning. Tads offers to eavesdrop. Kai says no - we have trust in him. Play it straight. Captain arranges safe passage. Kai asks for Vitoly to be there, or another magical officer to verify stuff - etiquette test ok, agrees to get Vitoly over.
14. Rest overnight. Prepare presentation on telesma, orichalcum and foci, and possible casualties to prevent. Tads estimates 20+ shaman available to build foci, if their safety and security.
15. Kai and Marius work out the potential income from today's harvest - 1m. Team discuss using Shimazu and Hunter shapechanged as big fish instead of smaller fish - maybe try tomorrow?
16. Aswon - do you want me at long range? Hunter, what about me and Panther. Aswon - think they need you on EW. Kai - I think we can trust brigadier, we have good rep with him.
17. Transponder squawk ok, no concealment on final, tracking radar, but no fire control. Some troops waiting near landing area, windsocks and clear ground.
18. Kai steps out, troops approach and salute, Kai returns. Whole team goes except Hunter, guarding the bird.
19. Brigadier extends his compliments, this way to breakfast.
20. In to tent, more tables, Vitoly, Captain and Brigadier. Team open comms to Hunter. Fresh food carried in. Tads makes some local food for cultural exchange.
21. Brig - as you can see, Cap F here, long travel, can you explain what's going on.
22. Kai - we have a plan / alternative for a better deal for you, your men, Russia and even the local people. Discovered something highly profitable, we're traders, cut out the middlemen. Have a lot of magical potential for you, we know from Tads being of the region, (pass over the portfolio) we can reinforce your troops, easy to protect the locals etc, supply you with refined weapons to use elsewhere, these are not your enemies.
23. Show him 10-15g of the gathered Orichalcum. Vitoly spits OJ in Kais' face, WTF, so sorry. Shimazu psychology - realise just how important this is to Vitoly.
24. Hunter relay - via Marius - this has more value than enriched nuclear material. Kai -we want the best for Russia, in this case - it's not good to have Mitsuhama here to take their cut. Aswon - this is worth more against Yakut, than any number of missiles. Brigadier asks for clarification, team allow his officer to detail, they help him a little. Aswon nudges Tads to offer services. Magical etiquette test - two successes. Kai pitches in with details of how the natives can help, if they're protected. Tads shows her staff - example of low level item. Vitoly explains to Brigadier / Captain the value of magic weapons and weapon immunity. Aswon uses SUT to detail improved tactics and abilities. Vitoly snatches pad from Captain, bit of dirty look. Is this a mistake? A missed decimal place? Team confirm.
25. Kai produces rest of orichalcum and shows, Aswon says this is only from a few days. Vitoly - we should do whatever they ask, 10s of millions.
26. Aswon - a corp can't get this for you, only the locals can. Kai - in fact a corp will ruin this, and stop you getting it. And ruin it for you. But it's up to you.
27. Brigadier - can we take a sample. Kai - sure, have the lot. Brigadier - Captains, take sample, arrange transport to Moscow. Lebedev will come with you with radio for liaison office. We will stand down immediately. Kai - just to be aware we need to go in a week.
28. Tads - you will want to provide us info on your mage power and what kind of materials they need. Brigadier - and why do you need this? Tads - we can start, offers enchanting services. Russians had missed this, get number, suddenly understand. Tads explains numbers and willingness. Vitoly translates to military terms.
29. Tads - and unrelated, our missing tribespeople? Captain Z shows Brigadier a report. Lips thin. Captain, sort this, and then we're both going to Moscow as well, no offense Cap F, but you need more firepower for this discussion. B kisses Kai on both cheeks, things get in motion. Team left while everyone else bursts into activity.
30. Kai to Lebedev, get us some fuel.
31. Brigadier leaves with entourage while they are waiting for fuel. Tads sends spirit to guard them until they hit an urban area.
32. Talk to Lebedev, fashion on his uniform to make him less military. Indirect route back to Nenet village+ concealment. Lebedev is Russian and Chinese 1, they teach him Nenets please, thank you and toilet.
33. Tads briefs shaman on what has happened so far, and then looks at doing Shapeshifted Shimazu and Hunter fish. Stroking naked runners, bit of a weird look, but it works. Tads - control pack, shape earth for a holding pen.
34. Aswon asks tads to relay to Nenets - never admit how much we can get, to anyone. Never reveal where it's coming from, or what it does.
35. Hunter - engineering, can get some material to make a fish net that duplicates the characteristics of the fish scales.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 282 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
A late one this week, unfortunately not publishing until after our game – more than a little behind as the weekend was taken up with a guest staying with us, and Saturday hosting a 10 hour game of Shadowrun at the table – which was a lot of fun, but completely chewed up my writing time for the weekend!

But, we’re all done now, and the session is published! A slightly unusual one for us as the clock advanced almost like a downtime session, while the team were waiting for events they set in motion to have an effect, and were planning / making preparations based on the situation.

So, as covered last week, I had a plan to advance through the week, with the Brigadiers messages being drip fed to them via the liaison officer each night, a continued and steadily increasing flow of orichalcum harvested by the locals, and then deal with whatever they wanted to do on a daily basis.

The team did mostly sensible stuff – maintenance on the aircraft, preparing flight plans and papers for the refuelling in Sweden to make things go smoothly there, making food for the tribes, doing first-aid and medical checks on nearby villagers – all things that were low to no risk, so that all went off without a hitch. Each of the “radio updates” normally kicked off a couple of minutes conversation – especially the one where the Brigadier reported problems, as they tried to work out just how big the bribes from Mitsuhama might have been, and if there was anything they could do – before realising that they probably couldn’t, short of flying down to Moscow and getting personally involved (and that would have been a whole nother thing!)

The team also got amusingly nervous as I was asking them to make the rolls for the amount of orichalcum harvested – and they noticed either the number of dice, or the flat bonus to add was creeping up during the course of the week. With 422g collected by the end of the week, that’s a huge amount of boosting materials for the Nenets to start work on their cottage industry, and represents a massive boost to their own value to Russia, and to the Russian Magical Corp (at least in a month it will!)
I was somewhat curious to find out if the players were going to skim or claim any of that for themselves – but they made not a single move or discussion to grab any, despite the value and the large quantity available. Instead they worked on the assumption that the Nenets would be happy to give them some later, as a thank you for all the teams work (which seems fair) – but I was still a little surprised!

So, having effectively fast-forwarded (at least for us) through a week, we’ve now advanced the timeline to Monday 20th June and the Summer Solstice. I had to try *very* hard to keep my poker face on when the team (or rather Aswon) realised the date and the potential significance of this, especially when he then started reeling off the potential bad stuff that could happen – including mentioning the wild hunt. Marius’ player in particular was vocal saying “don’t say stuff like that, he can hear you!” which is the normal reaction when someone has a crazy idea and mentions it.

Little did they know that I’d already been messing around with some art generators with prompts like “v22 osprey aircraft pursued through eldritch storm with ghostly horsemen and pack of spectral dogs riding through green tinted clouds, bolts of lightning and sense of menace”…

I’m going to start work on *this* weeks writeup tonight after work, and hopefully will get it bashed into shape over the weekend (though I have arranged another Pink Mohawk session for Saturday night, which will also chew up some time…) covering off the triumphant return of the Brigadier, a formal treaty between Russia and the Nenets, and the team heading for the UK and running slap bang into some very bad weather. And some flying horses… 


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

1. Monday 13/06/2061, Location: 67.8139, 48.96953, Time 12:00
2. Aswon - good survival roll, makes scraper for harvesting orichalcum. Marius starts on routine maintenance. Kai asks Hunter to research on the UK, does some archery practice. Tads asks for help with doing first aid hearts and minds. Shimazu helps with chum maintenance etc.
3. Shimazu spots Kai being expert at archery, impressive accuracy.
4. Tea-time. Tribe eating huge amounts, especially the kids. Gathered 46g of O today. B arrives at Moscow makes appointment with army command
5. Russian test for all team, on 6+ Kai realises that it's Brigadier-General.
6. Tuesday morning - Natena - initiates, tads teaches mana smoothing for F6 lightning bolt/ball. Marius does full strip down on all the door guns, just in case. Rufus and Glass help. Marius picks their brains about the UK. In and out the same route, over the North Sea. Find some info about Bright Spark. Tuesday harvest = 35+4d6 = 46g harvested, total 92g on hand. Hunter tries to talk to Hook - confirms same route and code on the way out. Protecting his contacts / investments.
7. Tue 14 - B gets meeting with army command, agreement by 15:00 to proceed. Arranging meeting with PB ASAP. Confirm that captured Nenets are being released and sent back to the brigade HQ. Tads asks for medical checks.
8. Weds 15 - Hunter spends most of the day doing legit papers for stop in Sweden. Locals emphasising talismongering.
9. Wed 15 - B gets in to see politburo at 11am. B makes presentation, they ask lots of questions, don't seem that keen from his POV. Team thinking Mitsuhama have done MASSIVE bribes. Harvesting, 40+5d6 = 57g, total 149g
10. Thu 16 - Shimazu gets impression tribes are all aligned with the shamans, will work to make it work with the Russians, or will go all Vietcong on the Russians. Politburo discussion agrees to investigate, demand more information - Kai, megacorp politics, sounds like good schmoozing. Team advise yields are consistent and still continuing. 45+5d6 = 56, total 208g. Tads makes as much food as she can. She says she wants to come back to the village after visit to the UK.
11. Friday morning 3am, phone call, Russians are moving. Tads goes to check. Spots most of the brigade on the move, high speed, towards villages. Reports back, they wake up Iosif. He gets info they are going to villages to dig in and defend. Aswon - should have radioed ahead. Tads confirms after scaring the shit out of a radio operator. Tads starts to spread the word to villages to be calm. Team sceptical, but worried about civilians being "protected". Marius - but fraternisation. Some discussion about the merits of stuff. Communists killing stuff for a buck. compare to Tsimshian.
12. Aswon - find Noley, do divining. Orders can change, but benign for now. Discussion about what to do if the Russians went hostile.
13. Fri 17 - Team go into top gear for mapping out the villages, making maps, getting dispositions. Tads goes to villages astrally to talk to them. Etiquette ok - share food and meds, dig in, facing outwards. SUT / mil tactics tests = logistics trail, some driving to the coast. Tads goes to question. Tads leaves a spirit with them to help minimise damage. F5 spirits to help engineers...advises Iosif to tell B that magic helping engineers.
14. Brigadier back in, 2nd presentation, more mages and discussion. By mid-afternoon PB agree. Issues finalised by late evening.
15. O gathering = 50+5d6 = 67, total 275g
16. Aswon realises that going to be in the UK on the solstice, security will be all over the place, strange things going on.
17. Sat 18 - Russian troops start to move in to Nenet region at high speed, facing Yakut. Tads goes, gets shot at A lot! astral project with the medal. Then Tads gets Iosif to radio through...
18. O roll, 50+6d6 = 68, total 343g
19. Sun 19 - Russians start to disperse, moving to protect tribes and area, securing logistics. Other brigade continues to fortify line facing Yakut. Hunter worried about Russian sats spotting the bird. Marius - hidden under cammo nets, no signature, it'll be fine.
20. Tads goes to check island to the north where the zeppelin was. No sign of anything up there. She does spot the Carrier battle group steaming 200-300km to the north.
21. O roll 55+6d6g = 79g = 422g
22. Monday morning dawn - stopping for the night.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 283 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
And here we are – heading up to another big plot reveal for the team, and some “exciting” times ahead.
We started off with the return of the Brigadier and the team setting up a meet at a quasi-neutral location. While some of the team were “away from the orichalcum for security”, others (quite rightly) had sussed that the Brigadier knew what was going on and where, and was just being polite, so they kept it fairly local to make things easy.

The nuts and bolts of the deal were pretty much a done deal – the Nenets are being fairly well treated because the Brigadier is a genuinely nice guy, and he figures he can get away with it if he delivers results – and most importantly for him personally it’s the right thing to do for his country. But the players still had some ways to steer the outcome, and their suggestion of using the eastern side shaman to support the troops directly was a good one (that will earn them some karma later).
I think I managed to pitch it right for at least one of the players, as Tads looked about ready to cry, feeling very happy that for once they’d solved the plot in the right way and it was all rainbows and unicorns, and things were looking good for everyone involved. At least one player very happy, at least for a moment – good job!
That done, they collected the other team and headed to Sweden, and thanks to piloting skills, stealth, concealment and me wanting to push the plot along, it was a nice quiet journey to the Stockholm airport, drop off the other team and then push on to the UK. We slowed down a little here, with a nice description of the stinkfens, spotting some wildlife and then trying to depict the changes in the UK as they flew over the countryside towards their target.

Once there, they met the NPC, who was a little odd and standoffish, which put the team a little on edge. They did the deal, bought some supplies after trying to work out if it was a good deal, and then were just starting to settle down – when the NPC swung the vehicle around to come back, which immediately put them back on edge again. Then a fairly chill ask for them to take off in a particular direction, to avoid other aircraft – and they calmed down again.
In the air, they flew away, and I gave them some reassuring smiles and told them the contact was fading out, and just as they were starting to discuss what was coming up next, I hit Tads with her spider-sensing and told her there was a massive mana-storm brewing, chasing them down. They evaded, but the storm pursued them – and they started to feel a little put upon.

So then it was time to break out the artwork, and show them the wild-hunt chasing them through the sky. Soon Marius was making dodge rolls and the team were wondering just how they were supposed to get away from this nightmare – and that’s when the massive lightning bolt destroyed the engine and sent them down.
Was there anything they could do about that? No, nothing at all. So yeah, in that moment the players had no agency. But from time to time – that’s ok (at least in my book). I try not to do it too often, but sometimes a cutscene helps set things out. And, as often as it puts the players into a situation, I try to balance things out and give either a nice montage of them getting pulled out of a situation, or screwing over the NPCs and totally dominating them.
But anyway, the players all at least got onboard the plot train, with no grumbling, handled the crash and then started to run for their lives, towards the second picture I had prepared for them – and just as we got there, we ended the session, on a nice cliffhanger.

It’s going to be interesting to see how tomorrow night goes!


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

1. Monday 20/06/2061, Location: 67.8139, 48.96953, Time 05:00
2. Tads - can we arrange paperwork for landing in Sweden on the way back. Hunter, grumbles.
3. Aswon - also tell the locals to break up the orichalcum into small amounts and sent out to villages, never too much in one place. Tads does that.
4. News report: The Cataclyst terrorist cell highjacks the semiballistic craft carrying the Shiawase Corporation's Brahe probe, which explodes during its ascent, destroying the probe and killing all on board. Aswon "Terrorist - riiiightt..." Marius "can anyone say shadowrunner?" General discussion, 10% of Hunters contacts think it's a dragon egg coming back. Marius - worst thing is that's not the weirdest thing we've heard all year...
5. Team up and breakfast, morning runs, normal routines.
6. Brigadier radios to Iosif at 8:15, asking for location of Tads village, want to fly there and meet with the team and locals - someone able / wiling to speak on behalf of the Nenet people. Kai checks with Tads - yes, this is where we're mining, might be better to meet him elsewhere. Tads - might be able to take the shaman to one of the local villages and host there. Hunter - but he has a radio operator here, he knows EXACTLY where we are... Kai - yeah, good point - can we set up something nearby? Kai talks to local shaman, they suggest spit of land to the north as a meeting point. Tads suggests getting the time sorted so others can arrive astrally. Marius - should be useful to show the Brig how useful the shaman are, even from a comms POV. Tads - and we can take some more magic stuff to show him.
7. Iosif calls the Brig back, will be there by 10:30. Parako sends locals to go make a spot. Marius finishes work on the tilt-wing. Tads - do we want to fly there and then leave directly? Take Iosif and find a spot, start getting sorted. They build a chum, B arrives, least time course from Murmansk. Tads checks with Iosif if he's just back - he is.
8. B arrives with Captains, warm welcomes and smiles. Shimazu psychology - B very happy. Asks Kai to make introductions to the locals. Kai does his best to give full titles and honours, using Tads and Marius. Shiumazu spots Frederick bouncing up and down a little, keeps an eye on him.
9. Arrived by chopper by 10:20 from Murmansk direction, he has the agreement from the council - they recognise the right of the Nenet people as proud Russian citizens, part of the glorious socialist collective and it would be improper to force them away from their land, especially as they live in a such a sharing and supportive political environment. The Russian armed forces will support and protect them against the evil Yakut oppressors, allowing the Nenet to harvest their materials and work on their traditional crafts. The country will even support this by providing logistics and administrative functions to allow them to export their craftwork to a wider market for sale...
10. Agreement reached, Brigadier speaking "off the record" to Parako and Tads, organising their presence and withdrawing to key centres - though he does want to bring up AAA defences and some reaction forces to near wherever the stuff is coming from. Has taken advice from Capt Frederick, and wants to use vehicles as little as possible and avoid contaminating the area - but also wants to cycle his troops through the villages to make contacts, help out, distribute food and medicines etc - and get his troops familiar with the locals.
11. Brigadier explains the deal, then the real deal. Mentions road - B is aware. A gazillion spirits around Cap F shows his astral form, doesn't look at the others - Hunter, probably told by the B not to. Tads does, they look at her, most powerful here. Kai does too. Aswon does not, Kai does, as does Shimazu. Reappraisal in crowd. Brigadier drops original agreement, pulls out new one. Explains, locals look at Tads, she examines. It seems ok. Tads thinks if she signs, leaves the rest off the hook. Kai makes really bad politics roll - agrees. Hunter - at least if the Russians break it, they're breaking it with the hero of the Russian nation. Aswon - not a written culture - how about each of the locals offer a physical token, a tribal pledge, to affix to the contract.
12. Brigadier does a recap, happy to keep the Nenet people as they are REGARDLESS of the talisman/foci situation. B says Iosif will leave behind to be the liaison, Tads suggests at least one more.
13. Brigadier helicopter has drop tanks, no missiles but rockets and chain guns, but then heads north - towards the carrier fleet.
14. now 11am.
15. Tads asks Iosif for list of what is needed for the crafting so they can get started. Aswon cautions the shaman to stay vigilant, might not be safe when word gets out.
16. Capt F sends back basic list. B says about rapid response force, on the spit. Exposed for winter says tads - but ok to start.
17. Marius - just before we go, to help out if the orichalcum dries up, they should be helping the Russian forces with Yakut insurgents, being useful, having something else to offer. Kai - yeah, offer magical support, watcher spirits, advice. Marius - almost instant comms, good recon. Local survival knowledge. Tads relays to locals. Parako suggest using the eastern side of the country for support, the western side for making. Marius - good idea. Tads tells Iosif to let people know.
18. Captain Hooks team have left weapons with the locals, just in case. Hunter asks them, they explain. Tads explains about netting people if there's turbulence.
19. Good transport roll from Marius. Leave 11:30, arrive 14:50, actually 13:50. Refreshing change for Marius, decent landing zone.
20. Team get food, Captain hook says thanks to Marius, he's heading for security. Marius makes sure team is back on the bird, just in case.
21. 1772 km to Sweden airport = 3:20:00 flight time. 20-30m to refuel. 10,600 Nuyen
22. Hunter arranges takeoff. But remembers BST! Across Sweden, cross to North Sea into international airspace north of Gothenburg.
23. 1520 km to Swindon = 2:50:00 to get to destination for 8pm
24. Also, want to allow 3 hours for time zone changes. So 6:40 in transit, but -3 hours TD journey will take 3:40 to complete (effectively)
25. Flying across North sea, toxic zone BG count varies between 2 and 4 depending on pocket. Rain starts, turns to heavy rain as they near the UK. Over the coastline after sending the recognition code, into the stinkfens. Spot a Wyvern disappearing into the rain clouds. Rain intensifies into a proper storm, rolling thunderclouds, heavy downpour.
26. Into the stink fen - Hunter thinks he saw a baby dragon. Shimazu - no it's a wyvern. Description of low lying land being reclaimed by the sea, lots of pollution. Stink starts to permeate the cabin.
27. Down to NOTE and along the Chilterns towards Swindon. Very quiet and rural, what they can see through the rain.
28. Send recognition codes, in at the south end of the runway near the power farm. Transit, FLT and one guy with a golf-brolly. Marius lands, kills the engines.
29. Mon 20 - Delivery date, by 8pm (BST!) Bright Spark (51.50377, -1.81016) James Middleby, Dwarf power engineer
30. A fairly slender dwarf, athletic and looking more like a regular person shrunk down by 1/3 than the usual stocky dwarven proportions. Dark brown hair with a side parting and generous comb-over, his hair is thick and luxurious, with a large amount of volume. His beard is short and neatly trimmed, while his moustache is shaped into a gentle handlebar shape.
31. He wears a green flannel shirt with micro-collar, and all the buttons done up to neck height, underneath a pair of light-brown plasticised dungarees, with thick shoulder straps holding up the bib, supporting a number of small computers, peripherals and tools. A large torch hangs from a loop on his right hand hip that has a side baton handle, and his work boots have a large metallic band running down each side and disappearing under the sole.
32. As he turns towards you, you can see that his left eye is a cyber-replacement, with a very obvious red crosshair that seems to scan from side to side as he examines you. The edge of a datajack just pokes out from under his beard under the left ear.
33. Intros, polite, can we walk, use the facilities. James not really - walk around here. Kai - always nice to do a walk and see. Thunder/lightning at dramatic time
34. 3 mins to refuel. High capacity pump. Kai - any jobs? James, wasn't arranged, but have some supplies we can sell you. Have some encryption modules you can purchase. 120k for chips, Marius asks about other stuff, bit of a cold shoulder. Make an appointment. Kai, happy with that price, give you a call some time, yes make an appointment. Hands over OTP token. Tads does a quick astral recon - all clear. Van returns with shoe box size package, gets paid. Team do bug scans. All clear, Van loops back - air tracks to the north, please go south. M - how far? Oh, 10-20 miles should be fine. Marcius spots a fast mover from Cheltenham to Oxford, heads directly away.
35. Tads, picks up sensing front to the east. Shimazu on the sensors - sees the hunt behind. "We need to be going faster!" Marius "any reason why?" Shimazu "some ghost catching us up? Some riding horses?" Marius can see the hunt, throws on sensors. Marius rigged reaction check.
36. Can hear the hunt now, Marius avoids the first lunge from the pack, BGC at 4. Tads puts resistance up. Kai shouts at the pack "bother someone else!" through warded door.
37. Aswon magic test - naturally occurring, harbingers of great doom.
38. Lightning strike on starboard engine, pretty much blows it off. Marius soaking spike. Bird is going down, looking for a safe spot. Soaks from the impact after Tads Nets everything. Slams down into the ground. Wild hunt chasing them.
39. Spot the "fort" ahead of them. Waist high barley, running towards the house. Team activating powers, getting ready for combat and running for their lives, hounds baying at their heels.
40. Into the archway, goes all quiet, no storm, monolith stone circle, 150 druids stop and look at them.... pregnant pause.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 284 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
A little journey into the unknown this week, with an encounter designed to make the diplomat be quiet, and the quiet action bunny try to come out of his shell and do some roleplay to save the group!
We have the team arrived, and I started the session with a description of the area, going over what they could see and making sure that everyone in the group knew that they WERE outnumbered by a large margin. Sure, the team are pretty pokey now, but numbers can count for a lot, and I didn’t want there to be any misunderstandings.

Next, I went through the team, asking for a number of tests. Astronomy first of all to pick up on the stars being in the “wrong” place, indicating either time travel or some weirdness going on. As time travel is one of the big no-nos of Shadowrun, that meant weird – and the team immediately thought they’d gone through an astral gateway entering the stone arch outside. I was fine with that, as it guided their actions considerably better than what was actually happening!
Next, even though it’s not a standard thing, I had Shimazu make an assensing test, and then fed him the information that his masking had been pierced, and by someone more powerful than him. As he’s recently initiated to grade 9 (!) that meant that he know as a character, and the other players knew on a meta level, that there was AT LEAST one person there at grade 10 or higher, letting them immediately put the whole thing into some kind of context. This was not 150 mooks with the odd mage – this was some very serious level magic shizzle going down.
Tads got a roll on general magic then, and was fed that this was a Power site, aspected towards nature, and at least force 6. It wasn’t a great leap of intuition to determine that this was a druid aspect of course, but it again informed the team that they certainly couldn’t be relying on Tads to cast anything powerful here with such a big penalty to overcome, while the 150 opponents might find they had double the power they normally would.
Last of all I got Kai rolling on his social skills, politics and organisations – picking up that there were different sects or sub groups and a rank structure at work, letting them know that not only was there going to be a leader of some sort, but there was also likely to be some kind of internal politics at work.

Hopefully having now set the scene that they were very definitely outgunned, I spent a GM point on “fancy CGI” and described all manner of defences springing into action, either labouring the point or hammering it home that the 150 enemies were *all* magical.
Kai spoke first, and as the social adept in a situation like that, chose not to deactivate his powers – which is entirely reasonable. And exactly what I was counting on, to trigger the hostile reaction from the druids as they saw the internal magic used to manipulate, lie and deceive hard at work, and called him out on it.
Poor Kai tried several times, changing approach and language choice, but I just kept hamming up the response, with the druids getting more and more upset with him (while not actually doing anything to start a fight other than calling him names.
Next it was time for some magic bullshit – but not for one of the magic characters. Hello Hunter, this is your 8pm plot delivery, straight to the face. Of course strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. (or so I’ve heard) But here one was, poking Hunter in the back and demanding he take the sword. Which he eventually did, turned around and of course got a reaction from the Druids. A very mixed reaction, as the various power blocks reverted to type on seeing things unfold before them.
Kai continued to try to speak, until the 2IC of the druids had had enough of “his lies” and zapped him. I kept the damage low, but enough to give him a serious warning, but the rest of the team immediately went to combat alert, and there were several locks amongst them, including Marius going “are we doing this? Are we kicking off? There’s a fucking shit ton of them, but they started it…”.

Cue me holding my breath for a moment. Please no, don’t kick off. Don’t kick off.

As the GM, I have responsibility for statting of course, and get to decide what NPCs there are, and what they do. I can have them choose to do anything, with anything. Nobody is “forcing” me to do anything at all. But, I’d already made up my mind, that this encounter was going to be “fair”.

My stat block, as far as it went for this encounter was thus:
• Benjamin Paxton, Minister for Thaumaturgy, G10 Druid, White flame cabal
• Alick Porter, Shadow Minister G9 Druid, Dark-branch cabal
• 1 X G8, 3 X G6, 5 X G5, 20 X G4, 40 X G3, 50 X G2, 30 X G1
• White flame cabal, ~50, power, structure, order, ancient ways, honour, fealty, protection
• Dark-branch cabal, ~50, power, politics, manipulation, subterfuge,
• Forgefathers, ~20, rituals, crafting, duty, strength - hammers not sickles
• Loremasters, ~15, history, knowledge, experience
• Huntsmen, ~15, blademasters, hunting, assassination - swords not sickles

So, 150 enemies all at grade 1 or more. Some of them very powerful. Enough to be more than a 1-1 match even at the top end of the power scale for the team, and to have lots left over. If the players started anything, it was likely to end in a TPK. Big risk. End of the campaign. 7 years of story ending very abruptly and quite unsatisfactorily I would imagine.

But, against that, after 7 years of the same game and knowing their own powers and how each other react, and more than 20 years playing TTRPGs together as a group for most of us (not Shimazu, he’s still a wee bairn), they should know better. *should*.
Of course… players. Herding cats. Weird ideas. Crazy thoughts. Who knows!

Thankfully though, they chose NOT violence. Hunter waved the sword, and realised that they thought he was a big deal. And though it wasn’t the greatest burst of RP going, he did step up and play the part. Long enough that I could bring in “Merlin” to further cement his position, and to also give the team a clue that what they were involved in was all connected.

After that, it was fairly straightforward – a bit of RP with Merlin to explain a few things, and drop some vague statements to make it look like he’d gone to Vorlon finishing school. A chance to see the druids working. Information that there was cabinet level ministers here, indicating not only lots of magical power, but also political power as well.

From there it was simple enough to get through the night, and then whisk the players away to a new location and present them with their new aircraft. This one adds a few capabilities to the team, making it a little easier to sneak across borders, and carry a little more cargo, so they can be more effective as actual smugglers, and also gives them a bit of a range boost to open up more of the world. While this benefits them greatly, it also makes my job as a GM easier as it’s far less complicated to get them around the world to do the jobs I want them to do too! So very much vested interest – and doing it this way means that I’m not relying on them saving up the cash for a new vehicle (always expensive) and trusting them to have the priorities that *I* want them to have.

I also found during the session, that half-joking, half-serious, that Tads (Ali) correctly predicted both that Hunter was King Arthur (effectively) and that Merlin was the water-carrier from the mountain. Not sure if she’s been paying lots of attention, or I’m getting too predictable! Either way, at least that means it makes *some* kind of sense to the players, so I’ll take it as a win, even if it did take a little out of the ‘reveal’ – not that I think they were that fussed about it.

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

1. Monday 20/06/2061, Location: 51.17888, -1.82618, Time 20:17
2. Hunter at the front, Shimazu and Kai, then Tads, then Aswon and Marius.
3. Into the circle, a ring of stone monoliths, grey and smooth, standing over 4m high, 2m wide and 0.5m deep, with 1m gaps between them. Huge keystones link over the top, running around the ring of stones. In the centre is a smaller ring of bluer stones, just as high but half as wide and deep. Scattered around the ground between the inner and outer ring are a number of smaller stones only a metre high. The setting sun shines through the stones on one side, at odds with the night time storm raging outside, and a faint show of stars above is vaguely visible in the evening sky.
4. * tests *
5. Marius and Hunter both get 2 on astronomy
6. Shimazu 2 on assensing
7. Tads 7 on general magic
8. Kai 3
9. Rank upon rank of cowled figures turn to examine you in surprise, and then there is a barrage of magic as flame and lightning auras go up, weapon foci are drawn, barrier spells are raised and spell defence is applied in massively overlapping bubbles
10. Kai - deeply apologise for intrusion, bows head. Tads swaps to shielding.
11. Whoever speaks first
12. Who dares enter this sacred circle? Who dares disrupt our task? Heathens? Despoilers? Or is this a sign, a blessing. Have we been provided blood to spill, power to fuel our rituals and preserve our land, our hopes, our dreams?
13. Kai drops masking. "My apologies your worship, merely visitors who stumbled here, we mean no offence."
14. Silence! Foul-tongued worm, whisperer of evil. You speak with lies in your heart, your soul blackened and shrivelled with deception. It is as though Mordred the unworthy has walked amongst us, tainting this place with his jealous heart!
15. Hunter feels someone trying to pass him a sword - maybe Shimazu. Hunter ignores, takes safety off the panther cannon, loaded with HE.
16. Hunter turns, pale figure, flowers in hair, poking him with sword. Gets harder and harder, more and more insistent. Holds hand out, she places sword
17. Hunter - someone passing forward a sword. Broadsword, about a metre long, broad blade with a rippled fuller, large cross hilt sweeping up to points, covered with Celtic knot work, a large pommel with a stags head.
18. Rest of team see him blinking, no sign of woman, just looking bemused.
19. Kai goes to speak, silence, worm of Mordred, speak again and we shall cut out your tongue.
20. Tads assenses, ancient, 4th age relic. Shimazu whispers in Kais ear "at least one of them stronger than me". Tads thinks about mindlink - rejected.
21. Hunter waves sword, ripple of recognition amongst the druids. Spreads until they are all staring at Hunter, ignoring Kai. Tads whispers "sword is like the spear, ancient and powerful"
22. Kai antiques check, it's Excalibur
23. 2IC shouts at Druid "you are not fit to wield that weapon"
24. Kai shouts "sheathe that weapon", commanding voice, then to 1IC "With your permission" 2IC does fail WP test and complies. Lots of angry muttering and the druids start to advance. 1IC still looking at Hunter with mouth agape.
25. Kai - "with the greatest respect, do you think Mordred’s minions could wield that weapon?"
26. 1IC he might not be, but you could. He holds Excalibur
27. 2IC he can't be, filthy subhuman. Kai "hold your tongue" - no effect this time. 2IC casts powerbolt M at Kai, gets 2 successes. Kai gets one, takes moderate damage.
28. Hunter points sword at 2IC "You! Come here!" "I don't take orders from from you." Hunter points PC at 2IC. 1IC quasi threatens 2 - don't shout at the king!
29. Kai quick assessment of the crowd and reactions 60-70% support for the "king", rest see a filthy subhuman. Tads looks to Hunter and kneels, starts a ripple, assess which are the slow to kneel, all in the 2ic camp.
30. "Kai - we seek council from the wise druids"
31. Merlin - cowled figure with a rich velvet robe in deep blue, with silver edging, walking with a large stave - the top end of the stave is carved out in a spiral, and some kind of glowing pixie is trapped within.
32. Merlin, "Is it not written in the texts that when Arthur became captivated by Lady Guinevere, that with the help of a certain wizard, that he did masquerade as a gardener, working in the grounds of Cameliard Castle, seeking to win her affection? Is that not the case? I think you will find it is written, exactly like that, isn't it? And how do I know that? You there, speak up! How do I know that?"
33. Random druid on the spot #14 "Because you were there?"
34. Merlin, "Exactly. And Later, when King Ryence threatened King Leodegrance, and demanded that instead the Duke of the North was to marry Guinevere, who arrived back at the castle in the form of a peasant, carrying out the lowliest of tasks and behaving with utmost humility and humbleness, before revealing himself and becoming Guinevere's champion? Hmm?"
35. #14 "King Arthur"
36. Merlin "So is it so hard to believe that the heir to the King Arthur should appear before you, in this form, not claiming to be special, just wanting to do what is right? Hmmm?"
37. Around the circle there was a general shuffling of feet and much looking down at the ground, up at the monoliths or at other points of interest - anywhere in fact other than at Merlin. Nobody wanted to be singled out for the next question it seemed.
38. Merlins ripple "Look to the sunstone - blessings upon us all". *all the druids turn at his command.* Brief perception check for the team, vs 8s - his visage shifts to the water-carrier, but wearing a Russian army private uniform, carrying a bunch of files. Overhead the illusion ripples to show the wild-hunt circling the henge, looking for a way in, backlit by lightning. Gives Aswon a wink.
39. Aswon whispers "stall, wild hunt still circling outside" Merlin waves them over to the middle.
40. 80% support now, druids making way for Hunter. Hunter tries radio, nothing external working.
41. Merlin bows to Hunter. Auspicious night, king returned, but not staying, has a quest. And needs the support.
42. "Horror related?", We do not speak of the denizens of evil here. "so yes".
43. Tads extends shielding to Merlin. He smiles, pats her on the head condescendingly.
44. Kai to Merlin - any magic to heal me please? For that wound, no. walk it off. Hunter points the sword at the 2IC, "seeing as you caused the damage, can you fix the damage." Good charisma roll. 2Ic fixes Marius first, pauses then Kai. Kai bows respectfully and looks smug.
45. Merlin gets people sat down, hood down. Starts to tell folktale. Mythology rolls - Aswon, Marius, good rolls, pre geoff of monmoth, king on long quest, takes decades, support of the people.
46. Marius and Hunter recognise Ben Paxton from the research, realise he's a cabinet minister.
47. Merlin tells the druids to go back to work, the night is wasting, he needs to talk to the King and the Minister. Marius, Shimazu and Tads go to near the entrance to lurk. Aswon and Hunter stay with the Minister and Merlin.
48. Merlin explains to the minister, the king is back, but not yet, needs transport to carry out his quest, but he's happy about the state of the country and the druids should just carry on regardless. Go to get Marius to advise on transport.
49. "So, what are you flying, I know better than to ask how you came here." Merlin - that's right. Marius explains. Hunter explains how valuable the tilt-wing is to him, for sentimental reasons. Shimazu heads over, so Tads does as well. Tads spots enchanting of high tech equipment with high OR as she comes back.
50. Merlin reinforces how important this decades long quest will be to keeping the UK safe, denizens of evil have returned from the abyss.
51. Minister agrees, a little reluctantly. Hunter then asks about the lady, Minister - Vivian, oh it must be true then, lady of the lake. Aswon sees Merlin poker face.
52. Hunter - so what's going on. Merlin - you ARE a direct descendent. Don't worry about getting out arrangements will be made. Explains about the cabals, both want him gone.
53. Tads asks about heirs, do they need one. Merlin - personal choice, up to you. Aswon, what about the sword? Don't worry about it.
54. Aswon - so what's going on, chasing us across continents, are we done? Do you need more? Oh yes, lots more.
55. Shimazu - should we sell the shares. Only you can decide.
56. Aswon - next time how about a call, instead of letting us getting shot down. Marius looks pissy.
57. Aswon - what about the wild hunt. You have a destiny. Fight or run...
58. Kai - ask for a favour, payment. Merlin - you can want all you want, that's your right.
59. Aswon - but he's carrying a burden for you. M: No, he's carrying it for all of you, not for me. Merlin firm this time.
60. Druids finish ritual, objects disappear, high levels of stealth and concealment.
61. Henge reasserts itself. Tads thanks the stone for protection. Druids start to disipate.
62. To the limo, getting in. Spot the crash of the tilt-wing. Test for Marius - tilt-wing burnt out husk, badly twisted.
63. Head to Britannia gate at Brize Norton. Waved into the base, pull up inside. Senior office. As they get out, Hunter notices Excalibur has gone. Aswon checks the car, fading magic.
64. Aswon spots stealth craft - astral, jet. Unstealth. Wing commander presents key codes to Marius, looks very unhappy. Team get to check it out.
65. Marius heads over to the WC and Minister. Borrow a tech - ahh, 101, you can be shown here, not taking him away.
66. Minister - I need to get back to Westminster, I assume you will be on your way shortly. Hunter asks for contact details, passes to Kai.
67. Get to know the new bird

[Lionesque]

All runners know that supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses (of guns), and not from some farcical aquatic ceremony!

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 285 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
This week was very much a “relax and discuss” after last weeks drama, as the team got to explore the new aircraft and make plans for the future – and realise that *all* of their gear was gone and they needed to get some new stuff.

I wasn’t too fussed about blowing up their old aircraft as I knew that the new one was “better” and would help resolve some plot issues – having a longer range and more cargo space makes it easier to take a wider variety of jobs for the team. Certainly it’s my plan for them to have this vehicle now for the rest of the campaign as we start to ramp up the main plot line – though of course the players might have something to do with that!
But, all of the gear they had inside was pretty mundane and easy to get or replace, with a few notable exceptions – the heavy sniper rifle and the special ammo. But the team have contacts for those, and getting replacements will help get them involved in other jobs, so again I’m not too fussed there. For the other stuff, it’s just a matter of a few thousand Nuyen – maybe low five figures – but for a team that’s closing in on a million in the bank right now, I’m fine with that.

The planning for where to go let me present them with a map of Western Europe with a few of the stops they know about marked on it, along with a 3000km range bubble around each one to show the increase in flexibility they now have thanks to that range – I think the visual confirmation helped really sell the information, and make it sink in at a more visceral level. Tads especially I know struggles with conceptualising distances and directions sometimes, so a simple map can really help her out, and it hopefully means we’re all running on the same page.

Now that they’ve had two bits of “main plot” back to back (the Nenets people, and discovering Hunters heritage), it’s going to be time to relax a little bit and let them get a few smuggling jobs done and decide their own destiny for a while, and see where that takes them – at least until the start of November, when the strange old man has them booked for a job.

But otherwise, this was a fairly low key session, with some talking amongst the players to discuss the merits of inside vs outside wards, naming the aircraft, checking on contacts and not getting up to much of real excitement – so a fairly simple one to GM, with nothing really special going on.

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

1. Tuesday 21/06/2061, Location: 51.17888, -1.82618, Time 09:30
2. Tads suggests - back to Nenet lands for warding materials
3. Kai - good idea, contact Ludmilla, anything to bring back. Explain to Kai, no transponder, no commercial airports
4. Tads - get insurance for the bird, just in case? Hunter and Aswon - no no no...
5. Work out fuel ranges - Ludmilla right at range, can get fuel barrels. Tads - I don't HAVE to go back, can do astral.
6. Hunter - would it be a better ward in your home lands. No, not unless something else unforeseen has happened. Aswon - mostly would make it faster, not stronger.
7. Discussion about inside vs outside ward,
8. Tads - back to Samara to do tunnels. Aswon, merc background - he won't care, he's left.
9. Kai - back to Ludmilla. Tads - be aware black tide will be inside. Aswon - how much can we get Ludmilla to spring for? The optics and other stuff... Oh, can you get them to deliver the vehicle in the back? Kai - no, charisma won't work on brits.
10. Hunter gets in and starts sorting camo detail. Marius learns all about the aircraft. Kai contacts Ludmilla, we're coming - we need "supplies".
11. L - darling how are you? K - had better weekends, England was rubbish. L - but you made delivery? K - there were complications, we're on our way to see you, if that's ok. L of course. K - we have a new vehicle, part of the story. L - what happened with the old vehicle? K - wild hunt. L - oh. Send me a list, we'll see.
12. Aswon suggests someone magic sits in the front for first journey, Hunter in the back.
13. Hunter - what is the range on MRAAM? Bit of research - 30-70km.
14. Explain to team about PVP vs RP and can cloak, but not disguise
15. Marius - detects the bird has a bulldog mentality.
16. Faint pings south of Denmark, fighter pilot goes mental, but doesn't spot them. Arrive at the dam at 18:00, still daylight. Marius aces the landing.
17. Transponder - check
18. Empty transponder library - check - room for 6 IDs
19. Fuel barrels - 3k refuel + 2k in barrels
20. Doberman with MMG - 2-5 weeks, come back
21. 3 HMGs with AV - 2-5 weeks, come back
22. 50 cal - 2-5 weeks, come back
23. Hunter runs a bot to search for Mitsuhama / Nenet info. Tads finds stuff in Nenet is proceeding as per previous, no problems. Tads checks with Aslick, has warding materials. Tads - we don't NEED to go to Nenets lands. Kai - can you check in with the Brigadier, go yourself, not use comms. Think he's playing fast and loose. Brigadier ok, Nenets are out of prison camp, very confused. Tads explains, they're all ok with that - shaman said it.
24. Shimazu wants to talk about the leeches. Weaponised the soporific agents. Creating hybrid biting/stinging creatures. very deep bio-chemistry waffling. Tads messages Kai offer Ludmilla a makeover/fashion for her ball.
25. Kai offers makeover to Ludmilla, "this is all natural, no thanks". Shimazu gets impression she might not be super impressed "am I not pretty enough?"
26. Kai - what about the other team
27. L - very generous, speak highly of you, still stuck secure side. K - what are they like? L - normally very competent. Quiet, competent, slow, but reliable.
28. Passes over a credstick with a wry smile. K thank you, doesn't slot / check it.
29. Team - dammit, cred-reader. Get Nadia on it. Ludmilla - off to her limo to head for the ball. She's not apparently dressing up for the ball.
30. Back to the ranch, 2k of fuel. Arrive 11pm.
31. Discussion on name of the bird - Marius likes "Danny boy", Aswon "swordfish" or "Excalibur", "Broadsword" gets the eventual vote.
32. Arrives at the ranch non-cloaked. Nadia concerned about Marius, what happened with the old aircraft, are you ok. Marius reassures her. Go to bed??
33. Family get refreshments sorted. Agi waiting to speak to Kai. Kai gets some refreshments, come for a walk? Shimazu trailing them at 5m range.
34. Mr Kai, thanks for you hospitality and generosity. K - is this some personal info, Shimazu ok? A - yes, that's fine. K - what's up. A - have friends, want to set up a meet with some friends, matters of mutual interest. K - do they need to travel. A - only from.... Baku, not far, but it's late. perhaps tomorrow. K - how was your stay. A - exquisite, very well looked after. Taps belly, not eaten this well for months.. K-good. A- make arrangements for tomorrow, 12pm. 3-4 friends. K - do they want to stay. A - no, they will need to be back to business, just a brief meeting.
35. Aswon gets some clothes ordered and checks guns.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 286 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
It’s not been too long since we last awarded Karma and reset everyone’s karma pools, so I didn’t want to have a proper “break” again so soon, but the team also needed some downtime to get things sorted out, so we had a bit of a “laid back” week. Before we could get to that though, there was the matter of the visitors to deal with.
My thinking here was that the team have really become quite powerful. Against run of the mill gangers or street thugs, they’re just on a different level now. It takes a significant threat now to challenge them, and I wanted to build in something to the game to reflect that.
The nearby town used to be Mafia controlled – though very badly and destructively. It was the attempted burning alive of Rusudan and his family that made the team stop at the ranch (well it was Tads launching a massive stunball out the window that just dropped everyone in a wide area that really kicked it off, but the rest of the team backed her up!) The team investigated, and then proceeded to kick the ever-living shit out of the Mafia, wiping them out in the town, dealing with the corrupt cops on their payroll, and then heading down to Shirvan and taking out a bunch more there – the more senior branch of the family.

Understandably, that created a bit of a vacuum in the area, and the Yakuza were looking to expand operations into the area. And that’s where Uncle Agi came in. Coming up with a very careful and cautious group of Yakuza with a slightly unusual M.O., I had a scout come in to size up the area and work out what was going on. And of course he ran into a group of well tooled up Shadowrunners.

Now, in the standard SR world of course, quite often the various organised crime factions are the targets or opposition for our heroic (!) runners. Individually they’re not that strong, but they have two main factors to make them formidable – size and organisation. If the runners poke a mafia family, they run the risk of having to deal with tens or hundreds of opponents, with extensive contacts and networks of people spread in a wide area, all of which can make trouble for them.

But, balanced against that, the OC factions also make use of runners from time to time, and they also understand their role or niche in the society of the SR universe. Operating completely outside the law, the un-people do the things that can’t be traced or attributed to anyone. Often armed with excessive firepower and control of mystic mumbo jumbo that can take out a building in short order, runners are so often psychopathic exterminators that they should be rightly feared and given a somewhat wide berth by “normal” people.

So Uncle Agi turns up and finds this nest of fairly high level runners, and wonders what the cost/benefits are of trying to move into the area. The last thing the Yaks want to do is piss on the feet of a team like this and annoy them. The Yaks want to make money and control things, and will do whatever they need to advance that. But pissing off a bunch of killers for hire could lead to a very messy and very expensive conflict that earns the Yaks nothing but trouble. And they ain’t stupid!

In addition, though the team haven’t really thought about it much, they’ve had a major impact on the area. The amount of money they’ve funnelled into the area directly and indirectly has really helped the town out. As well as people not having to pay protection money to the mafia now, they’re also getting regular work from Nadia to do things around the ranch while the team are away. Digging swimming pools, building rockeries, putting up holiday cabins, sorting out the wiring. Picking up laundry and returning it. Deliveries of all kinds of equipment and lots of manual labour – which suits a town like this down to the ground. So there’s lots of extra money floating around in the economy all of a sudden, and it’s all associated with the arrival of the team.
Balancing against that is the fact that Nadia is actually a competent administrator and logistics officer, with a canny knack for negotiations and a fairly big chip on her shoulder about the patriarchy. She can be MEAN, and drives a hard bargain, and many of the locals have heard the phrase “do you want me to have to discuss this with my husband?” So while the townsfolk have been given some of the carrot, the stick has also been waved around in the shadows, right on the edge of their vision – and of course they know in rough terms what happened to the mafia.

So the word is out – don’t fuck with the ranch and the people there. They’re generous when in a good mood, and will just straight up murder you and leave you in a ditch if they’re not. Best keep them in a good mood. So when uncle Agi goes around town fixing things and just casually asking about the area, that’s the news he gets. And when it’s repeated dozens of times, from all walks of life, that’s what he reports back to his bosses.
Best leave this town alone.
They’ve already got protection. And we don’t want to end up face down in a ditch.
And yes boss, they’ve got the firepower and abilities to enforce that.
No, really, please believe me. You doubt me? Come see for yourself…

So that’s why Mr Kenji turns up, and promptly finds out what would happen if he tried it and fucked about…
And hopefully from this, the players are now getting the feeling that they have a reputation, and an impact beyond themselves. Their actions have slowly had an impact and changed the economy on a whole area. It’s now a safer and better place, because they wanted somewhere nice and safe to chill between jobs. And word is slowly spreading about them – in general unspecific terms – that they’re a bunch of very serious dudes that you don’t want to mess with unless you have a very good reason.

Now potentially the ranch and the surrounding area is neutral turf – and following Kai’s offer, it may be that treaties or negotiations between the Yaks, Triads, Mafia and Rings could happen here, kept safe by their presence. That or the team come back to find out that someone abused their neutrality and kicked off a fight – and now there’s a bunch of people that did indeed “fuck about” and now need to “find out” what the consequences are.
And that’ll be fun to run too. <grin>

In the meantime though, they’ve put up a new ward, at force 14 – making the inside of the Broadsword magically proof against all but the most obscene enemies, and have replaced all of their mundane gear, ordered in some new heavy weapons and have a clean slate for jobs, ready to go again.

This session, as a mini-break, was also a chance to “power up” their campaign special items. Each of them was asked “do you want to spend 5 karma”, with no further explanation – which they’ve now cottoned on to being the breakpoints for whatever they each have. I even asked Tads – who looked confused and said “yes please” before I told her tough, and she couldn’t. It’s a hard life being the GM’s wife sometimes… poor Tads hasn’t had hers yet, but when it comes it’s going to be very interesting for her!

Hunter upgraded what he refers to as his “draconic butt plug”, and got a bonus of +1 to quickness – counting as a cyber style boost, rather than a natural augmentation limited by his racial maximums. His campaign special item is “The Dragon’s Breath”. The first implant of the device by Aden gave him an essence boost of 3, the next level (costing 5 karma) gave him +1 Body, and the current one +1Q. Pretty obvious that his other stats will get a boost at subsequent levels.

Shimazu has “Blood of the Tribes”, granted by the NAN shaman and Eirhan after he was willing to sacrifice himself for Kai during the horror attack. This counted as all his powers being geased based on his selflessness, giving him lots of extra power points to pick up and increase abilities with, and every level since then has given him +1 mystic armour and magic resistance which stacks up.

Kai has “The soul crystal”, the purple crystal that exploded up in Siberia and a shard wormed its way into his body. This gives him “Voice Domination” – though he’s not really worked that out yet. But it provides a boost to his negotiation and kinesics, and as he rises in level becomes more and more like a Jedi mind trick kind of vibe against opponents.

Marius has the “Genesis Cyberware”, an experimental system designed by Ares that combines Move-By-Wire into a VCR, giving the user benefits both in and out of a vehicle. Each level of “firmware” upgrade tweaks the hardware to work better with his unique physiology, and grants higher bonuses to skills, initiative and reaction.

Aswon has his spear, and his 4th age legacy dragon hunting weapon crafted by the ancient elven initiates gives a unique power at each level. First was “Shield of the Mind”, giving shielding, which scales up 1 per level, as per the standard metamagic technique. The second level gave “The Way of Scales”, forming a fire deflecting mantle over him when he encounters flames, giving 3 points of power reduction per level. This new one “Legacy of the Cloud Dancers” unlocks a levitate ability on the spear (though again he doesn’t know this yet, as he didn’t pass his magic check when he tried to work it out – and that’s going to give him a surprise some time in the future!). I mean, think about it. Dragons can fly. What better way for the elves to annoy them than to make a magic item that lets them fly up after them and be fireproof and immune to their spells while they give them a good stabbing!

And poor Tads has to wait until we run the plotlines from the Dragons book – but then she’ll get a nice chunk of very flavoursome story exposition and development that will make her go “squee” a lot.

Next job I have for them is a run to Afghanistan to visit another black market and pick up some stolen art for a previous contact – which will also let me drop in another smuggler stop and provide a new fuelling point that connects up some areas, and allows for easier navigation in the future.

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

1. Wednesday 22/06/2061, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752, Time 09:00
2. Tads awake at dawn for spirits, restock food in the house.
3. Aswon - checking for bad vibes from Agi - no, none.
4. Marius - firmware update waiting.
5. Aswon mediates with the spear - new runes "Legacy of the Cloud-Dancer"
6. Tads does some digging for Nadia.
7. 10am - first deliveries arrive from Baku - replacement cred-reader, roll-out screens, tablets, phones, chargers, some clothing, hammocks etc - all express shipped
8. Aswon to roof with Purdey. Hunter in paintball course with ghilly suit. Shimazu shadowing Kai. Marius with Kai. Spot the 2ic hands
9. Shimazu basic info on the swords.
10. Yaks arrive, bow, Agi does basic introductions. Take them to the table.
11. Shimazu 3, Kai 1 on tests. Outside area stays fine, no tails, no alarms
12. Kai, makes nice, thanks them for coming. Family serves the tea, Shimazu prompts order oldest first.
13. Agi, not interfere with business processes.
14. Kenji - understand you got rid of the mafia. Kai, downplays but confirms. Tads checks where the mum is and keeps her out of the way.
15. Kenji - not as bad as the mafia, maintain decorum, advised to leave this town and go on to shirvan Kai - appreciate, is this a new venture
16. Kenji - noticed a whole, but not wanting to repeat history. Kai - better to let the land refresh. Come to some arrangement?
17. Kenji get Shigekazu to do map, excludes local area, includes Shirvan. Kai - Shirvan too big for us, not stepping on toes there.
18. Kai - no, very happy with that, happy to work together, information swap. Aswon to Kai - offer them preferential rates to stay at the ranch, Kai does, Yaks like.
19. Kenji - happy to do a quick deal. Kai - happy to reciprocate. Team chiming in over the comms, they approve.
20. Kai - can I ask if there are rivals, you want information on? Anything to do. Kenji, others will come, we want to be in first, hard to shift.
21. Kenji - interested to see a competition - friendly. Shimazu answers - happy. Kenji gestures to outside, shall we go outside?
22. Team outside, Uncle Agi points to the bird "indicative of level of team". Kenji looks impressed. Kai asks Marius to cloak, Marius warns them about the warmup. Impressed noises about the quality. Marius does a quick demo of VTOL.
23. Bodyguard gets ready for spar. Kenji "Taheiji - no blood". Draws main blade, Shimazu mirrors. Spot his sword being active. Exciting combat, but a draw
24. 2nd burst, he uses some phys ad powers, but Shimazu ups the power, and gets 3 'hits' in on Taheiji. Kai compliments Kenji on his abilities.
25. Shimazu drops masking, he sees goes to a knee and surrenders. Shimazu offers a hand to help him up. Aswon suggests to team - get him to help teach in the local shool. Tads - but we know he has astral perception now as well. Kenji to T - wtf. He is a master, turns and looks at Shimazu and bows.
26. Kenji - can I try something else. Calls the car, "bring out some rolls" Set up bamboo. Taheiji demonstrates. Shimazu gets 18 successes.
27. Shimazu asks to use the 3rd one, they agree. Shimazu walks away to do distance strike. Marius, Kai and Tads spot interplay between the 3 yaks.
28. Shimazu gets 12 successes on distance strike on target, obliterates it. Jump in surprise. Deep bows to Shimazu, and then to team.
29. Kenji, taken up more of your time, happy to make an arrangement, offers Kai a handshake, takes it, double hand business card presents.
30. Walk around to front. Taheiji goes to talk, stops. Shimazu offers to spar in the future if he's in the area. Grateful nod. Turn and go. Agi to Kai - thank you, really appreciated the hospitality. I think I go to Shirvan now. Kai - check comms. Agi goes in to get stuff, winks at Shimazu.
31. 10 mins later. Agi goes. Team offers a lift, thanks but need to walk, get travel stained, work off some food. Kai - you're welcome.
32. Next day, team put up a force 14 ward. Mundane team do gunnery practice, Marius training Hunter to pretty competent levels.
33. Waiting another 4 days for the optics system to come and be installed.
34. Hunter orders in an Ares Monosword. Tads advises Hunter to do a sperm donation - he's apparently important, and need to preserve the royal line. Hunter less than impressed, somewhat in denial.
35. Hunter doing searches on the Yakuza by name

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 287 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Bit of a short update this week – just seemed to have a bit more out of game froth than normal, so even though we were one player down, it seemed to go a little slower. I think that’s just natural, and generally just let things run – sometimes you seem to have people at the table and the energy level is a bit lower than normal, and you can’t force things… but it does lead to a slightly shorter writeup!

First thing to do was send Hunter the notes about what he’d discovered for the Yakuza – which he then sat on, not sharing it with the rest of the team. Not sure why, but hey – that’s his choice. I’m not sure why he did that, and I’m certainly going to note down if he starts doing research and then not sharing it with the others and have a word to find out why he’s doing it… but maybe he just didn’t feel this was worth sharing. *shrug* Perils of being a GM I suppose, is that sometimes your players will do strange things!

Otherwise, this was a fairly simple and straightforward session. I’d already worked out the fuel costs for the run, and made sure the pay for this would still let them turn a profit, so they were pleasantly surprised at what they were offered. With the aircraft available to them they have the option of a fairly simple and quick flight in and back out, and just get the job done.

Aswon however had a look at the map and immediately wondered if they could do a side job to do some courier work on the side, the detour to Tashkent not being that big. That gave me an opportunity to add in the drugs side of things with him asking for a kilo of opium – and me wondering if the players want to be drug smugglers / runners. Would it give them any kind of moral quandary? Would they want to be involved with the drugs trade? We shall have to see..

Tads also noted that she had a contact in the area, and asked to stop off and do some humanitarian work – which the rest of the team didn’t seem too fussed about, but have agreed to. So, they’re going to meet “Mary Pat” and we’ll see if slightly older, wiser and more cynical people notice that something doesn’t quite add up with her and what she’s doing! Of course, I’m not expecting the players or characters to care about her being an illegal ruby miner and smuggler, but it will be interesting to see how they react if/when they find out.

For the black market meeting, I looked at the location and figured that at least a bunch of people from the Tehran black market meeting would be able to make the 1600km journey over to this one, so I’ve recycled about 50% of the stalls – so the players have someone familiar to meet, and also they run the risk of being remembered as being there on the night of the massive mist incident.
The stalls I have laid out are:
• A Guns Norikito, Japanese Yakuza aligned - wants to know who Shimazu works for. Disgusted by Ronin. Sells Renraku VSP guns and other good Japanese gear, with scopes and accessories.
• B Electronics Repair gear, spare parts, wire, cases, replacement optics, low end security cameras, stuff needed by gangs to secure their bases, bulk discounts available. Run by Imran and Falooq
• C Vehicle parts xxx
• D Drugs Gulpari, Khost province, 85% Heroin, 5k per kg.
• E Guns Khan, selling old Russian and American weapons in bulk, with crap ammo - functional but *very* basic, but low costs
• F Bio/nano Haramishas - good supply on muscle toner / augments, extended volume and adrenal pumps.
• G ID / Passes Manuel - info broker, fee based service for checking goods costs in area, monitors supply and demand, new service - bit of a pyramid scam, 1k pcm
• H Drugs Abdul Ahad, Paktika region, 80% Heroin, 4k per kg
• I Slavers Xi Pen - bunch of Vietmanese and Filipino slaves - industrially trained, not sexual.
• J Bio/nano Mr Cee - Shiawaise affilitiated, has a wide variety of reflex recorder cultured bioware for combat skills, and level 3-5 (but not 1-2) damage compensators
• K Guns xxx.
• L Bio/nano Mr Rand, South African Bioware shipper - Superthyroid glands for executive protection
• M White goods Maalek - selling goods made in far east at 20%
• N Slavers Bunch of liberated Bunraku / P-fix slaves, mix of races and sexes, from Japan, being moved west towards Turkey and the Balkans.
• O Drugs Daruka, local Afghan warlord, selling 90% pure heroin, 5K per kg, Helmand province
• P Guns Mr Wei, Chinese, Triad funded, will refuse to speak to Kai - dirty Mongol. Lots of cheap ammo, and cases of basic SMGs and machine pistols at .8 SI, but poor quality
• Q Electronics Viktor Pavel - Encryption. Sells chips and encoders / decoders using Russian algorithms (they are actually compromised by the FSB) but are much cheaper than usual
• R Magic Curses, blood magic and voodoo
• S Cyber Bulgarian cyber systems - mostly dermal sheathing / body plating, or limb replacements. Unknown brand, but actually *extremely* good and massively under costed
• T Vehicle Stolen supercars from Hong Kong.
So, still got a couple to flesh out (suggestions welcome, or if anyone wants to appear as a quick cameo – now’s the time!) with appropriate detail, or to change to something else.

Also at the meeting will be Falcon, the courier that the team took down at the last meeting. If she spots the players – especially Shimazu – then it’s likely to be revenge o’clock, and we could have a bit of action kicking off!
Got a session as normal this Tuesday(so far at least), but then a week off, as I have a course and exam to do with work, so cancelling my gaming for a week – so there’ll be a gap of at least one week. After that, we’re on the run up to Christmas of course, and people will be doing all kinds of stuff, so it may be fragmented until January – will have to see!

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

1. Monday 27/06/61, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752, Time 09:00
2. Hunter research on Yakuza
3. Elderly boss man / = Nagatsuka Kenji, Oyabun - Yakuza operative working in the Iwate prefecture on the north-eastern coast of Honshu, Japan's main island.
4. Wakagashira = Hayato Shigekazu, an orphan who rose through the ranks of the Honshu Yakuza, serving time as a street enforcer and foot soldier. Word on Shadowland is that he was "sacrificed" during some kind of rivalry with the 318s, a Triad gang working in Morioka, but that Kenji's gumi got involved, and took out the cell of 318s holding him and his soldiers. Following the betrayal, he transferred allegiance to Kenji.
5. Kyodai = Taguchi Taheiji, no real info other than a possible link to a Narataguchi Taheiji, a 16 year old entrant to the 2052 Olympic games for the Japanese Kendo squad. He disappeared shortly afterwards after having placed 5th, and has not been seen / heard of since.
6. No details for "Uncle Agi"
7. Kai does health checks on the family to work up medical records.
8. Russia is going well, enchanting is underway.
9. 3 holiday groups at the ranch.
10. Aswon - should we look for work from Germaine? Kai - Nah, she's crazy..
11. Underground base is still under construction but coming along nicely.
12. Kai - sending out a message to regular contacts about having more lift capacity for jobs. Kai asks Shimazu to check with Sato on status.
13. Contact from a flunky on behalf of Mr Kulkerchev
14. Kai - not aware of who you are. Clarify. Collect object d'art from east Afghanistan. Check size - assured they will fit in the vehicle, 1 statue and 5 paintings. What is the pay. Mr K says 75k should cover your costs.
15. Marius - he knows we had a truck, he's given us enough time to get there in a truck. Kai goes to say that, Marius says not to, keep it quiet
16. Aswon - go via Tashkent? Know a talislegger there, maybe combine journeys and earn extra cash.
17. Tads - I know someone over there, villagers. Aswon - social call? Tads, can drop off stuff in the area.
18. Tads calls Mary Pat. Bad laggy signal
19. Aswon contacts Borgein to ask if he has work. Will be buying but has nothing to deliver. Ask for details on where they are going. Afghanistan. Asks for opium. We have no contacts. It's the national export. We can look. Willing to pay for up to a kilo.
20. Hunter - we're gonna need some warded and sealed boxes aren't we. Let's get something ordered. Can put up a temp ward at least.
21. Sunday 3rd July, Black Market meeting, meet Aaabdar, 34.58482, 68.97008
22. Kai checks on language - lots of variations of afghan with 60% English as a second language.
23. Tads suggests staying invisible on landing and marking the area out. Aswon agrees.
24. Kai - can you find out what they need Hunter? Team being sarcastic - safety, stability, hands...
25. Kai - how many troops can we fit in the back, if we don't take a vehicle. Aswon, about 20, can ask Sofi from Lionheart security? But it's a very different kind of job.
26. Tads goes astrally to see Mary Pat. What do you need? First aid, water purification, blankets, decent clothes. Surprised to hear from her after so long. Very awkward conversation with Mary Pat unsure what is going on.
27. Tads returns, fills in the team, asks to stay for a day or two maybe to do first aid? Aswon not massively impressed. Kai - should be fine. Tads mind-links with Marius and Hunter to fill in area around Mary Pats village.
28. Tuesday boxes and supplies arrive. Badly spelt message from Sophie - caught in a car bombing, in hospital. Aswon - need to go visit him when we're done with the current job.
29. Sato is doing ok, on the northern side of Estonia.
30. Nadia is planning a new bigger hanger, underground base, Aswon suggests adding a conservatory.
31. Tues night, Fly over the Caspian, detour around the Esprit terminal
32. Fly over Ashgabat, then down into Afghanistan, fly past some possible corp black sites in the mountains, tiny villages, no electrics. Arrive at Mary Pats village around 2am. Land around 500m from the village, around a ridge to minimise the noise.

[Kren Cooper]

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 288 is now published, continuing book 10.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fcb1uxs6ql0k3ax/...PTozxFHo1a?dl=0

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
A fairly straightforward session this week – the players arrive in the village and make everyone happy. The End.

Well, not quite. I mean, mostly they did. Bringing in even just a few thousand Nuyen’s worth of supplies has completely transformed the villagers life in terms of their quality of living – supplying warm clothes, blankets, water purification kits, sewing supplies and all manner of other small stuff that they just otherwise couldn’t afford. Hardly something they’re going to notice compared to their overall bank balance, but more money than the village as a whole make in a year.
On top of that, this one Tads really comes into her own. Between her high force “Shape Earth” spell, “Create Food”, “Create Water”, “Heal”, “Fix”, “Prophylaxis”, “Cure Disease”, “Fashion” she has massive utility in providing a huge boost in their quality of life. It’s a weird thing in some ways – but while if Tads had been built as a combat mage, all fireballs and lightning bolts she could have been a much more combat-influencing character in the story so far – but with her spell mix now she has completely transformed the lives of 40 people for the better. She could legitimately just fly from village to village and boost them up out of poverty in a single day with some of her abilities, and at her power level, not even break a sweat.

But, on the other hand – that direct level of intervention can only help a village at a time – granted, that’s really good for the village, but it doesn’t “fix” the larger issues… and no matter how many spells she has, that’s not likely to change. Not until she gets the power to start casing “influence” on some corporate CEOs anyway! Certainly, while they’ve helped this one individual village, it’s nothing compared to say the effect they had in Nigeria on a whole tribal culture with stopping the plans to build the spaceport on the mountain. But, for the moment, it’s nice to be able to give one of the players some immediate and noticeable “wins”. And for anyone that knows Ali (Tads) in real life, you’ll know that it’s made her bounce and be all excited as she gets to play “Fluffy Unicorns and Rainbows – The Role Playing Game of Happy Endings”, at least for a while.
And that’s nice – from time to time. I think it’s important to have some moments where the players get to win, and maybe change the world for the better. Do something “good”, fix the world and see an immediate difference. Next session I think they plan on digging out a sump or pond to provide longer water storage, and possibly some irrigation channels – which will really help provide a long term boost for the area. They’ll have made a lasting difference and boosted some people out of poverty, and they’ll get a nice little hit of karma for that.

But then when they get to the black market and start rubbing shoulders with some of the local scum, hopefully that transition will be all the more jarring as they come crashing back to the “reality” of the rest of the Shadowrun world. Especially when they come across the murder-to-order organ-leggers and the like. They’re nasty enough in a general sense, but I’m hoping that this little “high” will make that “low” feel like all the more of a transition, and the rollercoaster will work out nicely.
As mentioned last week, I’ve got an exam coming up this week, so no game – and with xmas looming up on us, I’m sure we’re going to have some disruption in when we play. However, we’ll be back as soon as we can get 5/6 of the players together! That’s my normal benchstick for running the game, we’ll go ahead with one missing, with that character going “in the blanket box”, but as soon as we’re two players down, we call the game.

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

1. Wednesday 29/06/61, Location: 35.14575, 67.11577, Time 05:00
2. Tads up for prayers and spirits. Marius - how long are we planning on being here. Tads - several days, until the market? Sunday. Marius - need to get the cammo out then to hide the bird. Aswon - or ask Tads to shape the earth and make us a hanger. Tads does some earth pillars to help put the cammo nets onto. Team get the netting up and hide the bird.
3. Kai asks Hunter for research on medical clinics - Kabul, one or two smaller ones, and otherwise nothing.
4. 6am, team grab supplies, Kai asks Tads to take point, take supplies around to the village. Topographic map, geology tests.
5. Hunter - staying with the bird because ork. Aswon and Marius going armed as "guards", rest take supplies.
6. Tads - Shimazu take your pistol as well, so we don't appear vulnerable / targets.
7. Spot village on the side of the mountain. Some paranormal crows circling the village high up. "Carrion Crows" acidic maw, digestive expansion. Aswon survival - houses into mountain for warmth. Kai - stink of death on the village? Marius - more likely free and easy food in the village.
8. Mary Pat emerges and waves, villagers relax a little, MP = hello, wasn't sure you were actually coming. Introductions. Mention one in the aircraft. MP - so what are you doing over this way. Tads - picking up some stuff and taking west. Where's you vehicle. Tads explains. MP probably best, especially not arriving in the dark - would frighten people. Aswon - who causes you trouble? MP - Warlords, Muj, Taliban,
9. Kai - what about the crows? Unusual? MP explains about garbage disposal. Kai private message to Tads about water source, digging a well?
10. Tads - awkward question MP, asks about magic. MP says "cast out devils" they won't ask. Tads - what about steps? MP who has time for carving stones? Tads... well.... Also asks about water, possible ways to get water to last longer in the summer, a sump.
11. MP - have a seat, will get you a drink. Call the village together. About 40 people, mix of ages, subsistence farming, hard labour.
12. Locals 1/4 head off, come back, flour welcome. Tads "casts out the devil" and makes a stone table to put the stuff on, before making the steps. Tads charisma check = good. Villages generally welcoming and approving of tads, lots of touching and stroking and congratulations. Tads starts to work on steps to different houses and the valley floor. MP starts to distribute goods, villagers all seem happy enough with that.
13. Aswon to MP - do you have guns. Yes, they have basic guns, very defensive. Aswon to Tads, if you are doing horizontal paths, can you put a low wall on the outside to provide cover. Discussion about water holes, amount of cover. MP offers to get villagers to help carry stuff from the bird - Aswon says thanks but no. Team go and get rest of stuff from the bird. Kids going mental for the stairs, some villagers asking for slight tweaks. By the 3rd trip there is food and drinks provided to the team. Now about 09:30-10:00, temp rising. Aswon asks for a place to set up a clinic. MP asks villagers "Massoud" offers his place.
14. Building in 3rds, not private, but open space. Tads recommends that Aswon keeps lookout in case of warlords. Marius agrees as he has nothing to do. Kai and Shimazu do doctor stuff, Tads magically heals.
15. Aswon pumps MP for info about local herbs - there are none. Aswon - what do the locals do for food? Subsistence farming, carving, manufacture, barter economy. Tads to Aswon - ask for containers for food later.
16. Kai and Shimazu try to train locals in first aid, working through language barrier as best they can.
17. Aswon asks MP to get all the defenders together at some point so Aswon can explain tactics. Villagers discard cellophane and waste packaging - crows swoop down and have it away.
18. Marius spots villager struggling with repairs on lantern. Marius fixes stuff, that starts a chain of repairs. Tads reminds him that she has a fix spell to repair anything he can't.
19. Team treated like kings and queens at evening banquet. Aswon gets a hot pot to take something back to Hunter with Shimazu.
20. Aswon catches a faint whiff of acid - tries to pinpoint, but can't locate. Mentions to Marius, he tries to look but also can't localise.
21. All sleep together in Massouds house. Have open comms to Hunter, and he has a spirit on watch, just in case. Team do normal watch schedules and sleep until morning.