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DocTaotsu
So my players have been using the extensive tunnel system of the Ork Underground to get to and from jobs as the main exits have platoons of SMG goons crowding around them (possible biological attack). So far I've been hand waving actual combat in the tunnels and charging them ammunition since we've been on a RL timetable and I didn't feel like running 3 hours of devil rat combat.

But now it's time to put the fear of god into them.

I've come up with the following entries to my "Why does it never go smooth?" notes but I'd love to hear what the rest of Dumpshock has to suggest.

-Lost. Players get horrifically lost, have to spend a sleepless night(s) wondering what those noises are and where little timmy went to in such a hurry.
-Collapse! A portion of the tunnel collapses and players have to dig their way out or find a way around (see first suggestion).
-Devil Rat Panic! See above, but 3 generations of pissed of Devil Rats poor into the confined space.
-Zombieeeeessss. I mean ghouls.
-Super Secret Laboratory Of Unmentionable Horror. Somebody is working on something unnatural and there's a reason his corporate masters don't visit too often.

That's all I got for now. More suggestions?
Serial_Peacemaker
Dug Too Greedily and Too Deeply. Apparently someones been digging far deeper than they should, and you get find whats left of the people that were delving deep into the earth.
WearzManySkins
The Ork Underground is not a Non Ork Sneaking Superhighway. frown.gif

Away from the Tourist areas, the inhabitants can be down right testy to outsiders. There are no parking garages, only in the Tourist areas will have some wireless access. So driving around down there, is a no go. Outside the Tourist areas since the lack of wireless, means payment/bribes is in hard currency, ie bullets, weapons, food, booze, etc.

There are various organizations/gangs living/working in the Ork Underground:

Ork Rights Committee (ORC)

Sons Of Sauron (SOS)

Skraacha (Ork Underground Gang)
Colors: Brown and Gray
The Skraacha (means something like “Scorchers� in Or’zet) is a new gang that’s cropped up in the Ork Underground following the Crash. Formed initially from a group of young orks who banded together to help defend the Underground when everything went to hell all over Seattle, the gang has since evolved into a kind of combination neighborhood watch group (think of the old-style Guardian Angels) and vigilante squad with the aim of taking down anti-metahumans whenever possible. They often skirmish with anti-meta groups like the Humanis Policlub, and they pick up extra cash providing security to pro-meta rallies put on by folks like the Ork Nation.

The Creeps:If you need something smuggled between Seattle and the Salish-Shidhe, the Creeps are a good choice. This mostly-ork contraband ring is what remains of the Black Rains gang, which tore itself apart in an internal power struggle a few years back. Operating primarily in Tacoma and Puyallup, the Creeps rely heavily on the Ork Underground to safely transport goods throughout Seattle. They also work closely with the Cascade Ork tribe in the Salish-Shidhe, expanding the old mining tunnels underneath Carbanado, many of which cross below the Runner Havens Seattle border and using them to exchange and warehouse goods. The Creeps keep a steady supply of chips flowing, though they tend to specialize in porn chips featuring orks and trolls.

Bot’Kham (“Sons of Kham�)an extended family unit of muscle-for-hire descended from one of Seattle’s more infamous (and now retired) ork runners. These guys operate on a strict code based on professional and familial loyalty—they’ll never betray

Then you have Fungitek a corp down in the Ork Underground, they may not wish to have outsiders trampling around.

Anyone one of the above groups have the muscle and firepower to make the lives of your runners end in a body bag.

In the inhabited areas and tourist areas rats are not a issue.

Unless they have knowledge of Ork Underground, outside the Tourist Areas, they can get lost or ambushed.

Also unless they can speak Or’zet, finding a "willing" guide can be a issue.

Set them up, when they leave the inhabited areas, that means no wireless except between themselves, have one or more of the above groups ambush them, heck even provide a "guide" to make sure they walk into the ambush too.

If they are coming back from a run on the surface, ammo might be in shorter supply than before the run. grinbig.gif

My players do not go into the Ork Underground unless they have a good reason, and they bring trade goods to keep the "locals" happy.

WMS
Chrysalis
Flooding, locked doors, stale air, leaking blister agents, just some of the many fun things that PCs could run into. Just because it is underground does not mean it is abandoned or does not change. There could be a wall where there used to be a passage. There could even have that the tunnel links up to construction work above.

A sewage pipe could have overflown and sewage repair are fixing it and the PCs run into them.
Critias
Deep Crow!

DEEEEEEP CROOOOOOW!!!
DocTaotsu
I award 5 points of DSF karma to Critias for timely placement of that utterly hilarious bit of Penny Arcade. wink.gif

That said... anyone want to stat out a SR4 Deep Crow? smile.gif

I need to include more of these gang interactions but the party includes the requist muscle and grasp of O'zet to keep them from getting killed every 10 minutes. Now at the top of the hour...
Chrysalis
d20 version:

http://d20.jonnydigital.com/2007/10/deep-crow
DocTaotsu
Oh I particularly liked the construction idea.

"Okay the smuggler's AR map says we go through here"
"Uhm, 'here' is a huge wall of densiplast."
'Wow it looks new... I guess they finally got around to building that shopping center. Well no biggie, we'll just turn around and... DEEP CROW! DEEP CROOOOO-"
Ancient History
And stalagmen!
Daddy's Little Ninja
Bad things in the underground? Orks.

IC: The changed ones hide away underground for a reason. They can ape behavior, some of them, in the sunlight but in their own world where they do not have to try and be other than they are, they let their true nature show. A beastial existance that humans cannot understand. If most people saw the true nature of the changed ones, there would be no question of them having an existance in the sunlit world. They would be shunned and have no chance for those who can ape proper behavior to better themselves. Better that they be allowed to keep their secrets undisturbed by outsiders.

OOC: Really. The orks are so not going to like a bunch of people just using them for free passage and potentially drawing the attention on the ork world by a vengful gang/corp/whatever that just got hit.

The next time the team is making a get away, hotly pursued, they find the way locked. "Sorry chummer, the Boss says you're callin' too much heat down our way." they fight their way in they have to fight through the entire underground? LS and corp teams won't do it and I doubt the Bridge of Khazadum is in Seattle. Though that could lead to a bunch of runs to get back in the Boss' good graces.
DocTaotsu
Woe be upon my players for not being regular readers of Penny Arcade. Woe indeed.

Does anyone have some cool deep creatures? Awakened (or not) nasties that got unearthed when someone dug too deep?
Stahlseele
also remember, that there's dwarf and troll-quarters down there too . . while the trolls keep more to the sides, the dwarves dug deeper, so just have them stumble into a part of the underground, where everything is dwarf sized . . meaning 1.5m high tunnels for example O.o
and there's a whole slew of critters that live down there too, not just rats and ghouls either. wild dogs and dog like critters(would be mean for my characters), maybe inkubus and sukkubus(kraken or however they are called) and awakened insects to boost the squik-factor *g*
Daddy's Little Ninja
Balrog?
BRodda
QUOTE (DocTaotsu @ Mar 25 2008, 12:07 AM) *
So my players have been using the extensive tunnel system of the Ork Underground to get to and from jobs as the main exits have platoons of SMG goons crowding around them (possible biological attack). So far I've been hand waving actual combat in the tunnels and charging them ammunition since we've been on a RL timetable and I didn't feel like running 3 hours of devil rat combat.


That's all I got for now. More suggestions?


Ork Underground(OU) is already nasty, but if you want to make it worse.

1) Deus Drones and banded: Most people forget that the OU was one of the few places that you could get into the Archology from. Banded cyborgs (still operating on old instructions or trying to just hide from humanity) could have made it into the tunnels.

2) Wendego: Lets face it most people tend to think ghouls and vamps when it comes to HMV. Orks turn into wendego. Make more sense for there to be larger communities of them then ghouls in the UO.

3)Smugglers: Lets face it there have to be tons of smugglers and most of them are going to assume that any shadowteam can ONLY be there to rob them.

If I can think of more I'll put more up.
Stahlseele
another thing . . why only ghouls? why not orcs/dwarves and maybe even trolls with HMHVV?('cause those are too dangerous i'd say guess *g*)
also have them stumble upon a gang of smugglers who don't appreciate being seen or people knowing which route they are using to smuggle . .

Edit: CURSES! Foiled again! <.< . .
Heath Robinson
Awakened bats - not huge monster-bats, just large enough to be a mild physical threat - with a low powered elemental attack or essence drain would be appropriate for a cave system, and really annoying for the runners to deal with on the rare ocassions that they will attack them (hungry bats won't be choosers).
paws2sky
Dzo-no-qua (spelling?): Super trolls, mutated by some HMHVV strand (IIRC).

Bandersnatch: Super sasquatches, invisible, and wicked fast. Again, another HMHVV strain mutant (IIRC).

Or how about a plain old feral dog pack, say 20-30 of them. Maybe they're controlled by a free Beast spirit or a Rabid toxic shaman?

Nothing like an inept digging team puncturing a gas main. You did bring chem sniffers, right?

Similarly, a punctured/broken water main could cause all kinds of trouble.

And there's nothing that sets the mood for your ritual blood sacrifice to the elder gods like a torch lit mine shaft, steam tunnel, or whatever. Hate to stumble into the middle of those things.
DocTaotsu
Ooo... I forgot about the Deus connection. Yes.. YEs ther will be dark mechanical things that go snickty snack in the shadows.

The smugglers are already there. The runners have been smart enough to "pay the toll" to make sure that the smugglers (who I imagine own the main passages) don't shoot them on sight. I really haven't fleshed out the smugglers dynamic though, maybe it's time for a violent change in management.

I'm not at all opposed by the occasional wendingo raid.

What to dwarves turn into though?
WearzManySkins
Read your SR history of the Ork Underground, yes the dwarves helped make some of it, but they no longer live down there.

WMS
Stahlseele
hrm, i'll have to reread that, as far as i remember, they just burrowed deeper, when they had enough of the orks and their parties O.o
dwarves turn into . . Gargoyles or something like that i believe . . am not really sure, don't have my . . wait a minute . .
http://ancientfiles.dumpshock.com/HMHVV.htm
here, read up on all things HMHVV, the best write-up there is to that stuff, done by Uncle Ancient of course ^^
generally, you can put ANYTHING down there, that has some allergy do light for example . .
DocTaotsu
I read that the Dwarves left, they helped build it but after some shennigans went down they split on bad terms with the OU. It's something I've been playing up in our current plot arc.
Drogos
Drop Bears biggrin.gif nyahnyah.gif
Blade
Don't forget that all parts of the Ork Underground aren't linked together. They may end up in a small section with only one or two exits.
fool
inter tribal politics. Something I did once was to have one OU tribe demand that the runners off another tribes shaman in order to get what the runners wanted. Doesn't have to be this extreme, but in My OU, everything was tribal. Different tribes controlled different areas. Tribes are bigger than gangs which operated like little tribes but could consist of people from different tribes. You could force the players to have to pay a much higher price for crossing from one tribes territory to another's. Or passage isn't allowed at all.
And again I must say DISEASES. Orcs and Trolls have a very high body rating so that means that diseases that would kill your everyday normy or dandelion eater won't hardly make a troll cough. Doesn't mean that said troll isn't a carrier though. Think Typhoid Mary on steroids.
As to your pc's familiarity with Or'Zett, it better not be on a chip, because it's a relatively recently revived language so it's still evolving especially on the street (underground) level.
Don't forget that there are lots of sewers down here and in fact some of those sewers are what makes up the OU. Giant Albino Crocodiles, Albino Deep Weed and Maurochs Oh My. Sanitation in general will be even sketchier than top side.
Of course, having said all this, my orc and troll characters usually have at least one doss in the OU, usually in the tamer areas where it's easy enough to pay off the local gang to be my security.
Drac
The old Sprawl Sites book had a vampire's secondary hidey-hole in the Ork Underground somewhere. Throw that in for kicks.
DocTaotsu
The PC's are smart enough to actually learn or'zet and have used it as a way of insinuating themselves with the local population (in the nicer parts). When the "pinkies" go outside the wire they're always accompanied by other ork/troll PC's or their ork/troll contacts. But even than, there are areas where I should be harassing them.
fool
yeah SOS definitely won't like any pinkies anywheres near their turf
Kalvan
Also remember that it's a very dynamic place, with new tunnels found and opened up or dug and old ones caving in all the time...
DocTaotsu
Nor would the Cascade Trolls I'd imagine, thank you all for reminding me that I need to make the OU a little more culturally diverse.
BookWyrm
I don't mind the stalagmen, they make a wicked tasty pizza. But the DeepCrow's gotta go. Have you SEEN the cost of Purina DeepCrow chow?! mad.gif
Siege
Oh lord, now I'm gonna have to break out my Legolas poser-Adept. grinbig.gif

-Siege
b1ffov3rfl0w
QUOTE (fool @ Mar 25 2008, 07:17 PM) *
yeah SOS definitely won't like any pinkies anywheres near their turf


I wonder how far you'd get with nanopaste disguises and big sweaters. Of course, at 500 nuyen.gif a pop it's probably simpler to bribe someone.
kanislatrans
speaking of dropping attacks, how about huge slugs with acidic slime? or have them attach themselves and use mind control ?
or 10 meter tapeworms. or fungus that steals your body heat.

the pastabilities are endless. spin.gif spin.gif
WearzManySkins
how about a methane gas pocket, characters standing in the midst of it, firefight begins, BOOM!

WMS
Fix-it
leftover land mines? or perhaps some kind of trap intended for devil rats, like sentry guns?
Pyritefoolsgold
Humanis or Alamos get some mining equipment set up on the surface and drop a mine shaft into a highly populated area of the underground which the runners have to pass through. Then they drop bombs through, the kind that throw shrapnel all over the place. Instant chaos, dozens of people injured and a few killed. This is followed up by a half dozen fanatics rapelling down with SMGs, firing at anything that moves. If the runners stay and help, they earn major respect in the underground, effectively sealing their right to use it. If they run, however, the whole underground starts giving them the cold shoulder, they aren't really welcome anymore, and no amount of bribes or favors will get the Orcs to forget that the runners will cut and run in their time of need.
Critias
If I were ever on my way to go ork-poaching, I'd bring something bigger than an smg.
Pyritefoolsgold
QUOTE (Critias @ Mar 26 2008, 12:41 AM) *
If I were ever on my way to go ork-poaching, I'd bring something bigger than an smg.


An SMG is the biggest gun I can imagine a not-heavily-modified human firing while rapelling down. And they're a lot easier to get a hold of.
DocTaotsu
In the game in question A20K actually managed to light vast tracts of the OU on fire, the players are still trying to figure that one out.

And if I have to fight Ork I think I'd want to be a heavily modified human, if only so I can carry something heavier than a SMG.
BRodda
QUOTE (Pyritefoolsgold @ Mar 26 2008, 12:19 AM) *
Humanis or Alamos get some mining equipment set up on the surface and drop a mine shaft into a highly populated area of the underground which the runners have to pass through. Then they drop bombs through, the kind that throw shrapnel all over the place. Instant chaos, dozens of people injured and a few killed. This is followed up by a half dozen fanatics rapelling down with SMGs, firing at anything that moves. If the runners stay and help, they earn major respect in the underground, effectively sealing their right to use it. If they run, however, the whole underground starts giving them the cold shoulder, they aren't really welcome anymore, and no amount of bribes or favors will get the Orcs to forget that the runners will cut and run in their time of need.


Why bombs and repelling attacks? Let face it Alamos and Humanis isn't that stupid. Trying to go hand to hand with orks and trolls in large amounts is suicide. And a hole big enough for them to repel through would make to much noise and would be a choke point. I would however think that they would be very happy to use a gas attack. Lets face it the OU has no wind to disperse it and even CO2 would be lethal if they pumped enough of it in down there (not enough oxygen to breath). honestly propane would be the way to go, its heaver than air and even if the fire and explosion didn't kill a ton of orks, the lack of oxygen from the fire burning it all up would.

And they could just write it off as sewer gas or a gas line leak. Not every attack on a grand scale needs to be a "We did this!"

I hate to say it, but SR4 background doesn't play either organization as genocidal enough. Again we play in a much more gritty game.
WearzManySkins
FYI even though not mentioned, any underground structure will have a "means" of moving air around, that means the Ork Underground does too.

Do not forget about the magic lake that is down in the Ork Underground, and those magical lodges there. On whose side would all those Shaman be on if some radical hate group be attacking? Troll Shaman Hougan, possessed by a rating 6+ Guardian Spirit, even better several. grinbig.gif

Any drilling into the inhabited areas of the Ork Underground, would be detected due in part the cheap price of sensors that would detect such work.

WMS
BRodda
QUOTE (WearzManySkins @ Mar 26 2008, 10:36 AM) *
FYI even though not mentioned, any underground structure will have a "means" of moving air around, that means the Ork Underground does too.

Do not forget about the magic lake that is down in the Ork Underground, and those magical lodges there. On whose side would all those Shaman be on if some radical hate group be attacking? Troll Shaman Hougan, possessed by a rating 6+ Guardian Spirit, even better several. grinbig.gif

Any drilling into the inhabited areas of the Ork Underground, would be detected due in part the cheap price of sensors that would detect such work.

WMS


Not sayign its the best idea, just better than drilling a hole big enough for a man and then sending an assault team in.
WearzManySkins
QUOTE (BRodda @ Mar 26 2008, 09:48 AM) *
Not sayign its the best idea, just better than drilling a hole big enough for a man and then sending an assault team in.

Also the size of a drilling rig to drill any hole, will be a bit difficult to conceal, even one to pump gas in. One to drill a man sized hole,,,, eek.gif

Things to remember the Ork Underground is 50+ years old, the inhabited areas may be under buildings in downtown Seattle, and the inhabitants have made some improvements.

It is also not Glow City/Barrens. Besides the government of Seattle may like having a hole the Orks live in. wink.gif

WMS
fool
shreikers, gelatinous cubes, and green slime.
For a really good time-
awakened ergot.
Fungus and slimes are going to be really common. I'd imagine there is some awakened form of phosphorescent fungi down there that would make for really good magical materials. however, certain shamen have controll over those areas and don't want to let anyone else near.
nathanross
QUOTE (Serial_Peacemaker @ Mar 25 2008, 12:15 AM) *
Dug Too Greedily and Too Deeply.

QUOTE (Daddy's Little Ninja @ Mar 25 2008, 09:48 AM) *
LS and corp teams won't do it and I doubt the Bridge of Khazadum is in Seattle.

QUOTE (Daddy's Little Ninja @ Mar 25 2008, 09:56 AM) *
Balrog?

I love how the Ork Underground just became the Mines or Moria. Hell, I'm all for an Ork magical group (Sons of Sauron anyone?) trying to rutual summon a greater Shadow spirit (or whatever you would translate the Balrog to) under Seattle. I totally just got my next campaign. grinbig.gif
Siege
Not trying to take a dig at the writer(s) for that one, but when you play it out in your head, it does kinda sound like the backdrop for Moria (which, in turn, is the wellspring for all former dwarven halls taken by Eeeevil!)

Its your old "dwarves dig nice home, dwarves get chased out of nice home, new owners change locks" tale. grinbig.gif

-Siege
Pendaric
Cos nop one seems to have said it yet, Specters and ghosts. Some of the tunnels are haunted by those meta's that did not make it.
Chrysalis
The Ork Underground sounds like Shadowrun the D&D experience.
Siege
Just watch out for the Night Elves.

-Siege
Large Mike
Dwarves turn into Goblins
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