This is the continuation of this thread, my diary of Emo’s campaign. To recap: I and three other newbie players have been roped into participating in a campaign run by your very own Emo Samurai, and I’m keeping a diary of my experiences to give you an insight into Emo’s mind. Once again, I am not reading his Dedicated threads, so don’t give me any hints about their contents. The three other players will be called by their first initials (K, G, and C), Emo will be called Emo, and I will use the personal pronoun to refer to myself. All characters will be referred to by their “proper” names.
Yesterday was, of course, the first session. C, whom I believe is going to be our PhysAd, couldn’t make it, and G, K, and I were all late for various and sundry reasons. G and K spent the first couple of hours writing up their character sheets—despite their lack of familiarity with the game, they both insisted on building characters from scratch instead of tweaking with the sample characters listed in the book—while Emo and I answered their questions to the best of our abilities and gave them some input. G created Vranton, a mage who also happens to be an expert in “bear studies.” K created Johann, a heavily-cybered sniper from Europe (tellingly, K didn’t say where in Europe he was from). I, of course, had already created FanGirl, a young ingénue of a TM, so I pretty much just sat around and waited for them to get finished—BTW, we’re an all-human team so far
. During the wait, Emo kindly provided sustenance for us by ordering some pizzas, and after munching on a few slices we were ready to begin.Emo had drawn a simple floorplan on a small blackboard in the room, and explained to us that it was of a kind of special mall in the Redmond Barrens designed just for shadowrunners. The mall had been built by various megacorporations in order to cater to runners; this was a sort of anti-theft measure, for the mall offered a wide selection of all sorts of gear sold at the same cut-rate prices provided by fixers and fencers.
It was the grand opening of the mall, Emo told us, and we had each come individually without knowing each other. In the center of the mall was a lowered platform, in front of which a bunch of corp executives were standing. with one exec giving a very insincere speech. At the end of the speech, the exec pulled the switch to elevate the platform. Upon the platform was a very surprising thing: instead of the flashy display we anticipated (Emo said, “You’re expecting something like fireworks, or a giant cake with a fifty-foot stripper in it”) a group of flesh-form insect spirits rose up and proceeded to wreak havoc.
Vranton and I both dove for the exits with the rest of the crowd, only to discover that that there were more bugs waiting for us just outside. We opted instead to run for Saeder-Krupp’s store, where the mana barrier cast on it was able to protect us from the onslaught. Meanwhile, Johann had kept his wits about him and gone to the Ares store to loot the merchandise, which was very easy for him with all the extra initiative passes he had. Shoppers had been banned from bringing weaponry, and evidently the ban was well enforced, for most of the crowd was quickly slaughtered by the bugs and their ringleaders. The ringleaders were, of course, four insect shamans who stood on the platform and supplemented the bugs’ attacks by slinging spells at the crowd.
Vranton and the clerk in S-K cast their own spells at the attackers, I was able to hack into Ares’ anti-theft guns and put them to good use, and Johann even paused in his looting to snipe one of the shamans (a troll). Another of the shamans (a human) was able to flip the platform switch and allow the troll and gnome shamans to escape to the lower levels with many of their minions. The human was quickly blown away by Yours Truly, and because the fourth (an elf) was already dispatched, we were safe—for the moment.
Vranton and I joined Johann in his looting for a while, while Mr. S-K healed the few survivors. Then KE showed up, scaring all the outdoor bugs inside and down into the opening left by the platform. The cops used their super-loud speakers to offer us three a deal: clear out the mall, and we would each get
20,000, plus all the swag we could carry. Vranton was able to get an extra 40,000 store credit at S-K (it would have been difficult for him to loot that place, what with the clerk to deal with), but other than that we found the terms acceptable. (That was our first mistake that I can spot, because I later overheard Emo mentioning that KE pays 50,000 in death compensation per fallen officer.)Because G had to leave early, Vranton quickly bought some foci and went to the mana lodge out back to conjure up a spirit. While he was thus occupied I hacked into Mitsuhama’s system, gaining access to all their drones, and sent out four Steel Lynxes as guards—two for Vranton and two for Johann. Johann went and destroyed the Cinnabon to prevent the bugs from getting at all that nourishing sugar, but he was then attacked by two true-form spirits. Fortunately, Johann and the Lynxes (great name for a band, huh?) took them out easily, and at point the session ended—it was getting late, you see. We'll most likely pick up where we left off in the next session.
Will our heroes defeat the insectoid menace?
Will Johann reveal his mysterious past?
Will Vranton reveal why the frag he likes bears so much?
Will C actually show up next session?
Tune in next time for the answers to these and other pointless questions! Same Rat Time, Same Rat Channel!
Questions? Comments?
EDIT (April 24, 2006): I'm adding in FanGirl's character sheet as it is at the beginning of the campaign.
[ Spoiler ]
Any and all changes to this sheet as of the end of each gaming session will be reported in future updates. Also, details on FanGirl's backstory will be provided upon request.
Perhaps we should chalk it up to the intervention of the Deep Resonance?
I knew I should have kept my mouth shut!)
