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

Its name was Samarra Morgan.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Scaring the Players: This adventure hinges on the fact that the PCs have seen the Ring. It's not the fear of the unknown that will scare them, but rather of the fear of the known in an unknown form. They *know* that Samarra is going to try to kill them in seven days, but they don't know what exactly that will mean in game. Make them sweat. And if any of them are stupid enough to be alone seven days later, let them have it.
warrior_allanon
oh this definately sounds cool, i havent watched the ring or ring 2 but this sounds like something that my 3ed GM would pull if he didnt run solely canned adventures
PBTHHHHT
QUOTE
and then have it start popping up in the spam-zones

evil, just evil! Bwahahaha.....
Willow
Thanks, glad you guys like it.

Warrior_Allanon, you should totally watch the Ring. Just pretend I didn't say anything. I've given away a big chunk of the twist, but it's still a great film.
nick012000
Or she could just become a recurring annoyance if the mage is good and knows Manabolt.

"You will die in seven days..."
A week later...
Samarra: *starts crawling out of a computer screen*
Mage: *Manabolt!*
Samarra: *dies*
A week later...
Samarra: *starts crawling out of a computer screen*
Mage: *Manabolt!*
Samarra: *dies*
A week later...
Samarra: *starts crawling out of a computer screen*
Mage: *Manabolt!*
Samarra: *dies*
A week later...
Samarra: *starts crawling out of a computer screen*
Mage: *Manabolt!*
Samarra: *dies*
PBTHHHHT
what will really be annoying... the body doesn't disappear. The mage has to constantly dispose of a body.
Deadjester
Haha thats messed up!

Every 7th day I would just watch TV over a friends house and when she poped out and we killed her, I would just ask him what the frag is up and let him deal letting him think it was all him and then go clubbing as he deals with the body.

Deadjester
mfb
for the sake of horror, i'd have samara gain a point of force/rating every iteration, but only for the person who killed her. in other words, if i've killed her three times, she'll be force/rating 10 next time, but if you see her for the first time, she'll be force/rating 7.
hyzmarca
For Shadowrun, I prefer the explination given in Rasen, the original sequal to Ringu (the novel), as opposed to The Ring 2 or Ringu 2, the Rasen television series, and etcetera.

Spoilers are ahead.




In Rassen, Sadako's power, Nensha, (I pretty sure there is an English name for it, it is a rather common psychic power) allows her to imprint information on a variety of mediums including film, photograhps, and video tape. She also possessed powers equivilant to the nutrition spell, allowing her to survive without food for a long period of time.

When Sadako was raped and thrown into the well, she used her nutrition power to keep herself alive for decades. Over time, she is able to refine her power she, when the oppertunity persents itself she imprints her DNA her her powers onto a videotape, turning it into a self-replicating anchoring focus of sorts, and then allows herself to die having long ago lost any hope or desire to be rescued.

The people who view the tape aren't killed by a vengeful spirit, they die of a massive cancerous tumor around their hearts. The images they see of Sadako was simply halluciantions or mana illusions.

They can't fight her because their is nothing to fight. Surgery may prolong their lives but the fundamental change in their DNA cannot be undone and they will die with certainty.

Of course, Sadako did not do what she did to kill everyone, she did it so that she could be reborn. The point is to clone herself, although only an unfertilized egg could survive the process. If an ovulating woman happens to watch the tape a fully grown Sadako will pop out of her in 7 days (even if she copies the tape). The tape doesn't stop, of course, and the DNA imprnting powers are eventually transfered to a bestsellfing nevel and a major motion picture it just keeps going untill only Sadako clones are left.

Of course, there is some advantage to sideing with the Sadako clones. Their abillity to imprint DNA and memories (and persumably Astral Patterns in SR) gives them the ability to ressurect anyone from the dead, provided that they have a sample of the target.
PBTHHHHT
QUOTE (Deadjester @ Feb 4 2006, 11:43 PM)
Haha thats messed up!

Every 7th day I would just watch TV over a friends house and when she poped out and we killed her, I would just ask him what the frag is up and let him deal letting him think it was all him and then go clubbing as he deals with the body.

Deadjester

What will be really messed up... the players are hired by LS because of a rash of bodies being found somewhere (some dumping ground or body parts), and all the bodies seem to be the same person*. But that's not possible right? Illegal cloning experiments? What's going on? The runners are hired to find out... also there's a rash of deaths going on, with some matrix rumor about a killer tape (simchip), etc... No, connections, right? And the words on the streets... prices for organlegging have gone down, overflooding of market... what's going on? LS undercover is on the lookout. Insert other fun stuff.

*-said mage from the quotes having to dispose of the annoying amount of bodies, sure the first few times he could organ leg and all... but there's always a problem of oversaturation of the market (not likely, but still)... ohplease.gif


edit: Other things, if the runners keep dumping the bodies to a street doc/organ legger... the doc/legger might think the runners are some sort of serial killer for a certain body type. They, or a friend of theirs, might snitch out to the cops in exchange for favours. Etc... Just all sorts of random fun stuff.
Gyro the Greek Sandwich Pirate
A nice twist on this might be to have the team mage out taking care of something when all this hits the other team members. The others spend the week freaking out and running around like chickens with their heads cut off, and on the final day they're huddling wherever they feel safest when Samarra creeps in. Their weapons, of course, prove useless, and just before she begins to claim victims the team mage drops by, handily dispells her and asks what the fuss was all about.
PBTHHHHT
Alright, how about someone making this into a short story? biggrin.gif

it'll be a silly short story of course. wink.gif
warrior_allanon
wouldnt work with my group, to many physical adepts, Ok, well not to many, I just refuse to disengage and fight dirty. (i literally use every trick in the book and then some)
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