Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 244 is now published, and can be found added to the main book and the 2 fan-fic sites.

This one was a little delayed as I got sick and had to cancel for a week while I was in hospital – hopefully that doesn’t come through in the storytelling.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Having accepted Aden’s job, the next stage was to introduce a local NPC with some specific knowledge about what happens and to arrange some safe spaces for them to land and base from. I had a friend suddenly log in to discord, described how the phone rang, and then let Kai and the NPC just chat.
To help out, I’d prepared a brief for the NPC, which is reproduced below:

Name: Yezda Khan
Handle: Yez
Type: Freedom Fighter / Guerilla
Allegiance: Kurdistan Workers' Party
Description: Approx 1.72m tall, about 71kg in weight. Solidly muscled with slender shoulders, dark hair in a rough cut (clearly done with scissors in the field), and dark brown eyes. No facial marks or other distinguishing characteristics.
History

• Grew up in the eastern parts of Turkey, in a family that strongly supported Kurdish liberation and self-governance. Was well educated (fluent in English, Kurdish, Azerbaijani and Turkish) until the age of 10, when increasing brutal suppression by the Turkish government closed down schools and radicalised much of the younger population. NB – the team often talk in Azerbaijani as their “secret” language, as it’s not that common – feel free to keep the fact that you understand it to yourself… 😊
• With still unknown benefactors starting to channel money and guns/ammo into the PKK movement, the uprising managed to liberate the “Kurdish Autonomous Zone” to the point that Turkey washed its hands of the area, and the corps at least acknowledged its existence.
• Continuing efforts have been made to free traditionally Kurdish lands to the west, a hotbed for the Alliance for Allah and a Muslim stronghold – with minority Kurdish farmers constantly living under brutal suppression.

Current Events

• The Turkish army escalated things by starting a chemical weapon campaign against the people in the hills – civilians and PKK alike, seeking to render entire areas of the mountains uninhabitable. The players received this info when they over-flew an area:
• “Hunter had some information for them a few minutes later, though it raised just as many questions as it answered. First he played them the news report from the Turkish media, thankfully dubbed with English subtitles, announcing that the Turkish army had launched an assault on several suspected PKK strongholds, using artillery strikes to blast away at their hiding places and strike at the enemies of the people, clearing out the vermin that were seeking to destabilise their country and destroy the Turkish people. The propaganda was laid on thick, though it did at least stop short of accusing them of eating babies, but it was clear that the noble, heroic and virtuous Turkish Army were doing only what they had to do, to defeat the murderous savage guerrillas.
• After that though he showed some of the messages being posted on fringe groups and hidden noticeboards, and a few articles recently uploaded to Shadowland, claiming to be from the PKK. Some pictures appeared too, showing men, women and children covered in horrific chemical burns, blinding and debilitated by direct exposure with whatever poison the army was using to bomb the mountain strongholds. Then it moved to a grainy and low-quality video showing guerrillas moving in to a village, storming the houses and dragging out the people, shoving them away from their homes and workplaces before the teams moved in with flamethrowers, torching them all and working their way through the settlement. The announcer laid out the terms of the PKK – for every chemical attack on the countryside, one Turkish town would be destroyed, the people safe but with their lives destroyed, the blame being pointed to the Turkish government, who were responsible for the situation. “
• The turks started their attack in November of last year, to “test” the policy, then stopped for the winter. It’s now February so they’re starting up their attacks again, trying to make sure that nothing grows at the start of the season.

Your Role

• You can steer them to the general area that you think they’re going to hit next, based on operational history and intelligence – the area around Erzincan. Word has come down from high command that some “special operations” troops are going to strike, so he and all the other cells have been forbidden from acting on that intelligence, to avoid tipping off the Turkish. You don’t know who the “special” team are, but you’re assuming it’s the player team.
• That doesn’t stop you from being an angry, bitter, committed and very strongly driven man – you hate the Turkish with every fibre of your being for everything they’ve done to your people for hundreds of years, and there’s pretty much nothing you wouldn’t do to further the cause – you’re fighting fire with fire, and it’s a war of survival. Atrocities are things described by people that have never had someone try to wipe them out. Even the foot soldiers, at the bottom of the pile – they’re conscripted, sure – but they serve, and work towards your end. They’re legitimate targets.
• You can guide the team to a decent observation point, a high pass in the mountain that should be secure, and give good coverage except for direct overflights. You can also get them fresh food and water, and standard ammo to resupply. Your cell of 20 men, women and kids are ready to provide covering fire or diversions if needed. But the team had better get it done – you trust your next cell up that *they* say the team is trustworthy, but you’re still very suspicious, especially about trusting outsiders with something so important.
• Other than food, water and ammo, you’re very light on supplies – the team were listening when you told them about the scouring of their farmlands and communities right? Feel free to be surly and slightly antagonistic if they give you cause and let your distrust show. You’ll stop short of hostilities – the Kurds have excellent discipline, and you won’t go against your leaders orders. If the team are very much giving the impression of being on the Kurdish people’s side, then feel free to warm to them, especially if they start getting results.

You’re not aware of the makeup of the Turkish Army units – they’re firing at up to 60km ranges, so they’re waaaaaay out of LOS, and they seem to have reasonable security on their ops – you’re not sure how they got the information about this strike, but you know better than to ask.
As far as you’re concerned, anyone living in a town or large village is almost certainly fundamentalist Muslim, the oppressors and can be summarily dealt with. Only the small freeholders and tiny mountain villages remain Kurdish.

You’re not going to be afraid of any obvious shows of magic, though you will pay close attention to the teams capabilities for future notice. Likewise, you had a technical upbringing, so drones, computers and high tech gear won’t phase you. Make you jealous perhaps – but not phase you.

My friend did an admirable job of getting the players to promise to help, and even got them to offer in some medical supplies “for the cause”, to make sure they’re really committed to his side before ending the call.

After that, there was the usual skull session as they tried to work out the general plan of attack, and what they could do to take on the artillery. I actually used the real world Turkish arty T-155 stats and fluff, as there’s some good pictures around and it just seemed to make sense – just improving the range about to account for SR tech creep.

Once they had their supplies, we could bring the session to a close, and next week should see them heading to the forward observation point, and working out how to run the attack.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Monday 28/2/2061, Location: 40.02426, 48.95799 Time 06:00
2. Studying map - navigation and politics rolls, merc background, display info and countries. Check that Jenkins is not close. Awson - not the other jobs, Aden has a probably personal interest, we should do that first. Shimazu - any details on how long the recon was for.
3. Kai gets phone call from PKK operative. "is this the team I've heard so much about" Kai - depends if you heard good things about us. Who is this?" "This is Yez. Are you coming." K- is this about pest control?" Y - I've been told you are trustworthy. K - our big scaly friend? Y - I have no idea what you're talking about. Details local stand-down. Gives quick brief on local area, limited info. K - is there a schedule? Or just ASAP to prevent damage. Y - we can guide you to obs point. You have long range intel gathering? K - we're very adaptable
4. Claims secure commlink. Gives name of Kai, 5 other people. Small group but effective. Ask for fuel - Y says no. Landing spots only. Arrange resupply ID and co-ords. Kai says they'll just come and get on with it.
5. Hunter nav check - topographic detail and downtime over winter.
6. Marius - need to optimise cargo. Take the drones. Tads - skip the bikes, too noisy and too rough terrain. Kai - another question Yez, we're in logistics and supply. What do you need. Y - medicine especially chemical burn treatments. K - we'll do what we can, send us info on what you want, especially brands.
7. Tads - if they're happy, 24-36 hour stop off at medical facility.
8. Marius - different denomination, but technically Muslim - want to check with them. Aswon - want to check now. Kai - back to Y, he says if it saves lives,
9. Aswon gets a passphrase asked -, then civil goodbyes.
10. Aswon says get battlefield medicines and anti-biotics
11. Kai - how do we deal with arty. My assumption is kill all the crew, then take the devices out at leisure.
12. Aswon - might be a lot of crew and other people in the area as well.
13. Marius - assuming it's modern, take out the electronics, cripple the battery. Or if old gun, disable the breach.
14. Aswon demo charge - need C12, high impulse, shaped charges
15. Metallurgy check for tads - just need to overcome the balance. Also suggest blocking barrel and then using earthshape to turn it into stone in the barrel. Hunter - melt? With Acid maybe? Aswon - difficult to get there. Marius - very volatile. Hunter - maybe adding a pancake of C12, though need to get observations. Aswon - maybe taking out the ammo dump.
16. Marius - shells may be two part to avoid that. Eastern style is cheaper, more dangerous. Marius - no risk from counter battery fire, no fear of that. Hunter - footage from Russia, mortar attack, variable fusing.
17. Hunter research, gets details of the T-155. Aswon - APC levels of armour? Hunter/Marius - no, at that weight, it's heavily armoured. Aswon - mind control? Tads, probably not. Aswon - maybe. Might if you got a strong enough suggestion. Tads - how much armour on the bottom? Anti-land mine? But less? Aswon, probably as much as the main hull for exactly that reason. Tads - to do good protection, it needs to be on the outside, not the inside. Kai - spirit accident? Tads - can target the thing, not components, but might work. Aswon - especially if it's moving.Also depends on the unit size - if there's 6 we can take them on, if there's 50 - something else. Tads - if there's 50, we get into the mess hall, and spike their dinner...
18. Tads - did we see the firing spot? Background test? Marius - we only saw the results, not the launch site.
19. Aswon - and the launch site probably isn't too bad, unless they're like the toxic shit we took to the Russians. We should head to the FOB and do recon, after getting supplies.
20. Kai - head to their base. Aswan - no cell structure, need to arrange with Yez. Also get pattern of attacks.
21. Marius - describes TOT attacks, burst fire. Tads - can we infiltrate their electronics? Hunter/Marius - we have skills, but not the kit for a viral infestation. Aswon - chances of taking out their network, fairly small - likely to have military grade ICE / EW suites. I think taking the ammo out, that's got to be Aden's main aim.
22. Marius - we really need to get eyes on. Aswon - I know, we need minimum shopping list and to crack on.
23. Look at fuel ranges, 650km each way, leaves 800km buffer. Tads - we're using it for transport, not attack. Aswon fuel is not a concern. Kai - anti-air? Aswon - the PKK doesn't have much in the way of air force, so probably not.
24. Confirm the drones are repaired. Discuss what the hq might look like, like the team truck. Marius - not the kit, it's the people. Strike at the leadership. Aswon wondering about blow out panels, grenades or charges inside. Marius - should mission kill it,
25. Shimazu - psy ops, they expect to be safe, massively demoralising.
26. Kai - and a bow and arrow. Shimazu - even more psy-ops value.
27. Shopping
28. Battlefield med supplies+antibiotics,50ny each, antibiotics, antidote patches, 5k of supplies. Kai negotiates with pharmacist, threatens to expose.
29. Aswon - multiple 6s on making shaped charges
30. Hunter - getting winter camo / nets, battery powered electric blankets+ solar panels
31. takes about 5 days to get supplies - up to 4/3/61
32. Saito calls, set up a meeting room. Min 4 weeks, that should be, Baikonur, got at least 2 months, can supply you with the specialist gear - 1200mm lenses etc. 200k, long range observations. Saito makes arrangements for supplies and gear needed.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 245 is now published, and can be found added to the main book and the 2 fan-fic sites.


Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Well, the team got into position and did their usual stuff – hiding the tilt-wing, setting up an observation point and getting their gear ready, then settling in to wait. Not too long after, I had the convoy appear around town, after feeding them some tidbits of information on the town layout and surrounding area. The convoy headed fairly close towards them, then got set up in a nice circular formation, giving the players an outer perimeter of soldiers to bypass and a juicy target in the middle, all under the watchful eye of some decent surveillance drones. Not a trivial set of obstacles, but not insurmountable either.

I had a timetable for their attack already worked out, so the players were left to watch, discuss and plan, as time marched on – they seemed to think the units would be here for multiple days, though I’d certainly not given them that impression in any way. So, we got to just after lunch time, and the first gun fired its ranging shot, waiting for feedback from the recon aircraft orbiting the strike site at high altitude. When that was reported as “good”, the 2nd gun then fired, and the rest of the arty got ready to follow on, at precisely timed intervals.
In theory, once the first shot was ranged in, then the other 17 guns would have exchanged target info, got ready and then all 18 guns could have fired in a massive salvo, and repeated every 30 seconds and kept that up for an hour. But, that would not only have *really* put the team off from getting down anywhere near that kind of blast wave/pressure front, it would also have given them no time to do the assault before massive damage was caused at the strike site. Instead, working on elements of both a psychological effect, and the crews doing a very slow, almost training like attack speed that cuts down on accidents, wear and tear on the barrel and reflects the enemies complete lack of ability to strike back (so they think), the attack can be stretched out to make it a horrifically long bombardment – but that also gave the players chance to do something. And for me as a GM to keep narrating the probable consequences where the shells were landing, 50km away, adding some emotional pressure to them in terms of what they were supposed to be stopping.
Some of them bought into this quite happily – Aswon, Shimazu and especially Tads (for she is a very care-bear player), while the others were more thinking about how angry Aden will be and the effects upon them. Either way, and for whatever reason – they all realised that the shelling was a ‘bad thing ™’, and they needed to stop it.

We actually ended the session with the team deciding that ‘something has to be done’ and getting ready for the full frontal assault they were very much trying to avoid. Just after the game though, Tads was looking upset and saying “I don’t know what I could have done to stop that”, so I sighed, and got her to make an intelligence roll – and then, thanks to her “magical common sense” said…

“Right, you know they’re firing every 120 seconds – that’s a clear pattern. You have geology. You have shape earth. You get into line of sight, and wait, and just at the exact moment the next gun fires, you do shape earth and make a sinkhole or earth-fault under tracks of the gun firing, as if the recoil has triggered a seismic event. It won’t stop that shell from firing – but do you think the next one down will want to fire after they see what happened? And if they do, you do it again, but try and make the track fall over this time. After it’s happened twice, an apparently ‘natural’ event, do you think any more of the crew, who are trapped inside their vehicles, would want to risk it?”

A lightbulb goes off in her face at the cunningness of the plan (which I was hoping the team would come up with on their own – but hey, it means I get a point of GM karma to spend later) as she realises she CAN do something, so I changed the emphasis on the last few paragraphs of the story to reflect this new found knowledge.
Next Tuesday of course, we’ll see if they can carry it through and make something of it…

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Monday 28/2/2061, Location: 40.02426, 48.95799 Time 06:00
2. Aswon - need to determine magical surveillance, because if not - we have invisibility and concealment, and can get right in there. We still can't affect the vehicles directly probably, too big and heavily armoured - but if they have only light cover, and we can take that out as part of our first strike.
3. Marius, 11 on vehicle stealth, come in from the north,
4. Town at 1200m, Obs points at 2600m, 5km away. Gentle blizzard
5. Hunter research - used to be major ski resort / wilderness camp town until the fundies drove the tourists away.
6. Kai - if we get hit by arty, we're all fucked aren't we. Marius confirmed, probably inside 20m. Aswon - what's the min range? They can fire almost flat and level, so whatever they need. Aswon checks direction of fire - we're pretty much behind them
7. Land on a ledge below the ridge, from an avalanche. Cover the bird in cammo nets.
8. Tads - what's stopping us "arriving" via airport and booking into area as tourists - just a thought. Hunter - not very subtle though. Aswon - nah, but unlikely to get to the armies attention, and might get us even closer.
9. Kai - Examine the area, roads few and far between in the mountains, major thoroughfare, good firing arcs, flanks protected
10. Bit before 10am, train comes into view. Tads assenses F6-8 wards on most of the vehicles, look permanent.
11. Arty deploys in 3 X 6 rows, + hq function. Infantry surrounds and extends. MBTs go forward and block the road.
12. No active magical assets. Can see them getting drones ready. Team spot and double cammo the bird and dig in further. Tads starts to build up a rock wall around the tilt-wing to cover it. Marius looks at breaking out the decrypt gear to at least listen in on stuff. Hunter perception looking for command vehicles - spot them laying out the fibre links to each arty piece. Aswon suggests that Tads stop the shape earth and does an influence to get them to fiddle with the cables and keep messing them up. Tads suggest influence them to not plug them in, then alter memory to stop them remembering it needs doing.
13. Tads cast influence, 8 success on F5, "crosswire things or not connect properly, damage the connectors if possible." Then returns to shielding the tilt-wing. Drones launch to 2000m and calibrate, huge, very long endurance.
14. Spot the infantry digging in, infantry HQ and heavy weapons sections back from the arty park.
15. Kai - if we got close, could we tap those data lines? Marius - yes, but it's a bit slow, might be risky. If they have a rigger, non-effective. Need to take the rigger out first to have any chance. Maybe if it's an older system, matrix based. We might be able to mess with them with illusions, ghosts etc - like back in Constantinople.
16. Tads - think about how far you might be thinking of me digging this tunnel, it's kilometres. Also the ground pressure of some of those heavy vehicles might collapse the tunnels.
17. Foxholes set up in LOS of each other, even early gen NVGs. Aswon confident spirit concealment would get them through the perimeter.
18. Midday - drones push up and go to 4000m and spread out. Good sensor package on gondola, no obvious armament. Marius suggest infiltrate with lots of magic, then go nuts with demo. No count on crew for the T-155s, no sign of them yet.
19. Marius looking at Altays, big turrets, thinking about planning demo under the tank bustle to mission kill them by detonating ammo.
20. Kai - if we stole a tank, could we use it to take them all out? Marius - not sure we could all fit in. I could drive it, not sure you could operate it and fire the gun.
21. Officers come out and start diagnosing cables, find the "sabotage", start abusing the enlisted men, backhand one of them to the ground. Spot them setting up tactical net, get enough to go that penetrating tac net is not feasible.
22. Marius - we need to take out the command vehicle to reduce accuracy. Hunter - yeah, that needs to die first, that'll stop them. Marius - well, it will slow them and stop them being as accurate, but they can still fire on their own computers / grid reference.
23. Tads - can we detrack them, how long will that take them out? Marius - not long, competent crew can probably repair in 20 mins. Some extra detail about how that happens. Kai - could we use 18 cans of expanding foam to mess them up by blocking their vents? Marius - we'd need schematics of what the systems are to work out how to do that. Not worth trying to block the barrels.
24. 13:30, first gun up. Elevates to 50 degrees. Team a little dismayed, can a spirit stop a shell? No. Can we create water in the engine intake - can't see it. Talk about texting Yez on the sat-phone, warn him to take cover. Very short, can't triangulate message that quickly. Call from Mr Yez "what is going on, I asked you to deal with this days ago."
25. Kai - the convoy just arrived and set up. We're heading in tonight, striking as soon as we can.
26. Yez it's been four days since I spoke to you.
27. First arty fires. Snow pattern, audio report, slowly fades away, kids screaming and running home. Some cars stop on highway to look.
28. Team - we can't go in, not until dusk. Too risky...
29. Big burst of encrypted traffic, platoon wiggles, then other 17 barrels rise. Kai - could we invisible and fly in shaped charges? Aswon, yes - but very difficult to place at range. Might be able to invisible me and fly me in with charges to set them...
30. Tads - if I put static charge on a vehicle, would it weird them out and make them stop firing, at least with that vehicle? Aswon - probably, but that will make them call in magical backup. 2nd piece fires, exactly 2m after the first.
31. Team looking at how long to cover the ground, getting down the mountain very difficult, slow even with being levitated by Tads on a direct course. Kai makes the call to push for a daylight attack and interrupt the attack.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 246 is now published, and can be found added to the main book and the 2 fan-fic sites.


Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
After a tiny little nudge, Tads ‘discovered’ that the situation wasn’t as hopeless as she thought it was, and decided to use her massively powerful Force 7 shape-earth spell to dig holes under the artillery and really mess up their firing – which remarkably enough worked very well. I mean, I figured if I was in an artillery vehicle that when it fired collapsed a metre down into a chasm that had apparently opened up in the unstable earth below me, with a spiders web of cracks radiating outwards from my vehicles and ominous creaking indicating that it might collapse further – I would *NOT* be interested in doing anything to make the situation worse!

Once that happened to the 2nd vehicle, the other crews would also start getting very nervous – and the officers would become involved very quickly. Tads dealt with that by using the third machine to kill the officer, sowing even more confusion.

I was running a screen-share over Discord at this point, where I had a map of the area (https://www.google.com/maps/place/Erzincan,+Erzincan+Merkez%2FErzincan,+Turkey/@39.7476011,39.5484545,11990m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x40700cc900531deb:0x1fb8de6e1302e7a9!8m2!3d39.746797!4d39.491124 gets you to the right place, if you’re curious) with various overlaid information – a large perimeter for the infantry, three lines of artillery, with the command section just behind them, and then the drone truck, supply trucks and infantry trucks surrounding the command vehicles, so there was a lot of pointing and referencing to positions on the map as the players described what they were doing and how.

With the arty stopped, the rest of the team decided to head down, and managed to waltz through the security perimeter – showing once more just how powerful magic is if one side has it and the other doesn’t. With the force-4 great form spirits concealing the team, the enemy were on base targets of around ten to spot them, taking into account concealment and cover, then adding on the individual stealth-scores, and nobody even got close – even when I was making repeated scans with the over-head drones, their cover held.

On the other hand, the team were respectful of the threat – planning everything they did as quietly as possible, and making sure they didn’t start a noisy fight until they were absolutely ready. Whether they ‘knew’ that I’d have the units engage in suppressive blind fire (that only has to get lucky once, after all), or just suspected or feared doesn’t really matter – they treated the threat as real and worked hard to mitigate it. Only once did they get “spotted”, and quick and more importantly SILENT action from the two closest team-members dealt with it, and they hid the evidence for long enough to get away with what they were doing.

I did have a moment as they were just about to set the bombs off – all of them, when I just smiled at the camera and asked the entire team to make intelligence checks – with strangely enough only Marius making the target number to suddenly remember they were dealing with chemical warheads and that maybe they wanted to make sure they were upwind or well clear of the blast area – which caused a *very* sudden change of plans and rethink of what they were doing!

In preparation for this part, I’d done a bit of research on artillery, and plumped on a current generation Turkish artillery unit, produced locally under licence from South Korea. I figured it was better to have really good stats, layout and pictures of the vehicle than to come up with some “future-tech” that wouldn’t be as well illustrated and described.

I had the following details for the Turkish army units:
18 X T-155 Fırtına, 56 ton 12m long 3.5m wide 3.4m high 155mm SPG, 5 man crew (commander, driver, gunner, 2 loaders), 52 calibre gun, 12.7mm machine gun for close defence. 8 cylinder water cooled diesel engine, hydro pneumatic suspension, 66kph max

Forward screen = 3 X Altay MBT, 64 tons, 7.3m long, 3.9m wide, 2.6m high, crew 4 (commander, gunner, loader, driver), EW, active protection, 120mm smoothbore gun, 12.7mm AA and 7.62mm coax, 12 cylinder diesel engine, 65kph

Local screen - Aselsan Karagoz recon drones, blimps, IR/HDTV cameras, unarmed
1 company of Turkish infantry (Stats of 3s, 3/3 armour, low end AR, 1 radio per squad of 5 men, 10 squards on perimeter security, transported by 5 trucks. 1 command squad with a heavy weapons section (LMG and mortar). 2 10-ton truck equivalents for technical support - drone bays and blimps, 2 reloading trucks with more ammo and spares.

Current shelling, southeast of the Erzincan area, off the E80 highway which forms the logistics trail.

SOP - drive into area at speed, 2MBT up front, trucks, arty, one MBT rear.
Get to staging area and deploy arty battery and CP.
Push out patrols and establish perimeter.
MBTs echelon forward to provide primary barrier to PKK forces.
Artillery leader fires one high-ex ranging shot, observed by recon aircraft and GPS calibrated.
Artillery begins saturation pattern bombardment, one shell per two minute, working in line abreast and driving across a wedge shaped area. Pause at 30 mins
Artillery reload, recon aircraft pass to confirm.
Commence sector 2 bombardment.
Rinse and repeat 5-6 times.
MBTs fall back, troops collapse in, all equipment stowed, retreat back to deeper holdings.

Source materials / images to show players:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-155_F%C4%B1rt%C4%B1na
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altay_(main_battle_tank)
https://www.aselsan.com.tr/KARAGOZ_Balonlu_...Ailesi_2661.pdf
https://en-gb.topographic-map.com/map-j5gt/...088&zoom=10
http://www.military-today.com/trucks/bmc_235_16p.htm
https://xpatloop.com/channels/2022/03/defen...ar-hungary.html

With the force sketched out into what I thought looked like a reasonable organisation, I could then describe how they arrived and set up, how the emphasis changed from tank defence to dug in infantry, how the tanks then moved forward to provide a hard armour barrier across the highway and the layout of the camp itself – hopefully providing some inspiration to the players on how they could achieve their goals.

The infantry themselves were very little threat to the team, being barely trained conscripts with low end equipment – but their main danger lay in them all having radios, and being able to lay down copious amounts of fire, while more and more troops flooded into the engagement. Wards on the tanks and artillery cut down on direct magical attack, and they were heavily armoured, meaning the team really had to work to isolate and find weak-spots, based on the weapons they were carrying.

My original “solution” I had worked out, was to have the drone truck able to be infiltrated – and once they had taken out the rigger inside, between Marius and Hunter they could have compromised the tactical net from the inside. I’d envisaged them shifting or poisoning the GPS co-ordinates, and then feeding out bad data to the artillery platoon, and modifying their orders. Then, instead of firing at the incredibly slow rate they were engaged in initially (which did save barrel wear and had a psychological impact on the enemy), they would go to maximum rate fire of 20 rounds per minute, shooting themselves dry in two and a half minutes… by which point some unsuspecting towns on their own side would have been absolutely destroyed, causing a massive political stink and something that probably would make the global news.

Instead we have a poison gas attack rolling over an international airport and destroying an entire valley, narrowly missing a big town / small city – which from Aden’s point of view is probably just as good. So – mission accomplished, and the Dragon is still happy (or as happy as he’s going to reveal to these puny mortals), so the job is a good’un. Of course I’m still going to ham up the massive ecological damage to the area and give them some free guilt feels (or at least those of the team that care about such things).


And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
Monday 28/2/2061, Location: 40.02426, 48.95799 Time 13:37
1. Tads - "Hang on lads, I've got an idea..." Shape earth to make fault lines go under the arty, timed to the recoil. Rest of team agree, they will move down while Tads does from elevation. Hunter good geology roll to support. Last few seconds, precast ok, Force 5, track slides 0.5m down and to the right, then crew bail out. Aswon, Hunter, Marius, Kai and Shimazu all start to head down. Gun 5 fires, Tads casts a few seconds after, same effect, joins the first. Crews start to look out of tracks as gun 5 slides backwards and down a metre.
2. Commander waving arms around at officer, refusing to fire. Team starts getting towards bottom of slope. Arty commander gets pistol aimed at him, shrugs, agrees, they fire. Tads casts again. Officer gets deafened, then shits himself as the arty slides back towards him, he sinks neck deep as the gun almost capsizes. Tads starts to cleanse. Drones fail to pick up team again.
3. Crew get out of all nearby tracks and stand close, some smoke, clearly not getting ready to fire. Team will take about 10 minutes to close to infantry line. One officer assessing, one with a spade, start to dig out, then realise it's futile. Tads assense - fear, curiosity, apprehension (4 success, 5 1s). Tads starts to magic fingers, letting air out of wheeled vehicles. Tads also relays what she can see to the rest of the team - Aswon SUT and Shimazu psychology. Aswon - broken line of responsibility. Shimazu - crews will probably not want to fire. Tads, influence the officers NOT to call in for instructions. (6 and 7 successes)
4. Assault team spot the foxholes, some distracted and looking in, some looking out. Tads adds trid-phantasm to help cover the team movement past the infantry. Sneaking past infantry goes well, they get inside the perimeter.
5. Aswon thinks - get in, plant explosives, when they go off, it's an obvious attack. Shimazu - but conscripts, may fail WP, may abort, especially with top officer dead. Aswon, only have 12 shaped charges.
6. Hunter - we have to take out the heavy weapons squad, for our exfiltration.
7. SUT roles for Aswon/Hunter - get one demo set up, then sink the track and blow it, make it look like more natrual effects. Use that as distraction to plant more demo. Tads planning on more crazy paving to head to other vehicles after capsizing on. Hunter thinking about moving on the mortar team to blow up their ammo store.
8. Marius (5) and Hunter (17) go to the heavy team, Kai nearby with bow, Shimazu and Aswon(7) going to track 4 for demo.
9. Hunter aiming for mortar ammo, Aswon plants demo on 4,3,2. Aswon gets to track 3 ok. Demo good roll, gets to track 2 ok. Demo good. Marius spots a rigger in the demo truck, in interface. Asks the question to team - take the rigger out? Aswon says wait until demo is all placed. Marius aims at rigger.
10. Aswon gets to 2nd row, and plants on tracks 7,8,9,10, guy walks around the corner and spots Aswon. Aswon thrown knife at the guy - takes a moderate, ceramic knife in the body armour. Shimazu closes, kills the guy in one hit, manage to keep things quiet, hide him under the arty. All bombs on 2nd row good.
11. Aswon moves to 14-16, not spotted. Demo on the 3rd row, RR, 2 successes. Aswon planning on them moving north when the party starts, to strike at any remaining comms structure. Then take out the rigger and get into the drone truck.
12. Getting ready to start the party off, int check for the outdoors team. Marius - hang on, gas? Wind blowing from north to south.
13. Mushroom cloud, track explodes up out of the hole. Grass withers,
14. Marius takes out the rigger with a 3-round burst. Hunter fires grenade blows up the mortar ammo. Aswon sets off the other demo packs. All of the crews are running for the hills. Massive gas cloud heading south, covers the airport and main road.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 247 is now published, and can be found added to the main book and the 2 fan-fic sites.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Well – WTF? I did not see that coming at all. The session started off ok, with the escape from the valley going ahead in a straight-forward manner, and the team heading to go and meet Yez and the Kurdish guerrillas. Once they landed through, the rails were firmly jumped, and the situation took a sharp left turn heading into very confusing territory. Shimazu suddenly got a major hump on, and when the NPC responded in his angsty/broody fashion as they’d seen and encountered before, he kicked off and threatened to chop off his hands. The rest of the team seemed as surprised at the sudden development as I was, but decided to back him up (as soon as they’d finished face-palming, quite literally in one case) and support him. Suddenly the NPC was facing off against Shimazu, Kai was lost for words, there was a bunch of Kurds in the woods armed with all kinds of random weapons, and the team armed for bear, facing them down. Their contact didn’t want to back down, and neither did Shimazu, and things just escalated from there, until I thought a massive firefight was inevitable.

Shimazu moved in to deliver his ultimatum, getting well inside melee range, and I spotted a way to bring this to a conclusion – and Yez went for his gun. He never stood a chance – with no wires or reaction boosting abilities, Shimazu was *always* going to out-draw him. But, with a bit of cinematic licence, we could turn this into a ‘teaching moment’ for the Kurdish forces. Quick-strike and quick-draw allowed Shimazu to get the blade out, and with the number of dice he had to throw, he could have sliced Yez in half – however, without any prompting or guidance from me, he thankfully went for a called shot on the gun itself. With a big handful of 6s on his dice roll, I went with the gun being sliced in half – then asked if Shimazu wanted to go for broke and try a ‘quick-sheathe’ to make it look like he’d barely moved? I think this appealed to the players view of his character and he went for it – and thankfully made the quickness check easily.

That gave me a perfect out to describe this superhuman feat of quickness and strength, and for Yez to have a sudden and chilling realisation of how badly he was outmatched, and just how one-sided any fight would be – and a chance to back down suddenly.
The encounter as a whole was still a massive bust. In my notes I’d originally had “once the players arrive at the camp, if Shimazu and Kai do their doctoring and Tads does magically healing on the civilians and guerrillas there, they will move the PKK movement from Neutral to Friendly”. This was their chance to get the entire movement recognising them as friends and allies – well it was. Now it was time for them to leave, with the Kurds firmly thinking they’re a bunch of assholes, and relationships between them being ‘strained’ to say the least.
*shrug* Oh well! That’s the thing with free will, and the joy of RP. Sometimes people will view things very differently from you, and you just have to roll with the punches. I’ll have to do a little re-writing of some of the future stuff, but not much – and the best RP normally comes from conflict anyway, so this will bound to be interesting!

Once they were back at the ranch, I could dangle the next job to them – helping someone over the border. This was ideally going to make them think and realise how far they’d come – a year ago, they’d needed the help of a team to cross the same border, being carried over and dropped near Kum Dag to start the oil-field jobs for Maersk. Now they were doing the same for someone else… except they decided they didn’t want to go to the hassle of getting an external hook installed at short notice, and turned the job down.

Oh well! They might still change their mind of course – the team can be fickle, but if not, we’ll just have to make do.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session, to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Monday 28/2/2061, Location: 40.02426, 48.95799 Time 14:54
2. Team moving back to the base of the hill, toxic cloud spreading, infantry generally still running. Some abandoning kit so they can sprint faster. Team stop by a foxhole to loot some random kit including a bivvy bag and rat-pack. Tads doing a phantasm over the team as they start to climb. Kai - when will the response force turn up? Aswon, probably fast jets - but nobody called for help. Flipped command vehicles, the officers at ground zero, probably dead.
3. Team have 1000m to climb. Soldiers talking in town with the local police, blue lights. Listen in on police channels, evaccing the eastern part of the city, starting to panic, then calling the airport and real panic sets in as there is zero response. Team make it to the top.
4. Astral perception checks to spot background count rising. Hunter worried about tanks. Aswon - far away, and they don't know where we are. All back to top of hill by 16:00. Aswon hears a jet coming, watches as it comes in at low level, south of the city, north of the airport, banks to the south, then crashes into the ground at 650 kts
5. Make letterbox, Marius flies out like a pro, two 10s no RRs, Tads seals up hole behind. Fly out, 100km away to Mr Yez
6. Kai calls Yez. Y: At least you stopped them shelling, K: Yeah, got a bit messy, if you have anyone near the front line, pull them back. Y: What do you mean? How messy, how far: K: Err - tell you when we get to camp! Bye! <Hangs up>
7. Team land and decloak, natives shit themselves and arm up with what they they have. Kai gets out "Is Yez around,we have medical supplies."
8. Yez comes out, calms people down - these are the SF unit, they stopped the shelling - eventually. Hunter translates. Yez walks up to Kai, surprises him and punches him in the face. Shimazu gets out and says to Kai in Mandarin "load the supplies up, he gets to chose a hand or the med supplies." Kai says the same kind of thing to Yez, but he doesn't want that to happen. Makes netotiation check - good roll.
9. Don't lie to me - you said you were in the tunnel. You said you were flying. Offers Kai a hand up. Just don't lie to us.
10. Shimazu asks which hand - as he's chosen the medical supplies. He's an ingrate, white lie, we did what he couldn't, he's a shit bag. He needs to be dealt with.
11. Aswon - tell Aden that. I don't think you should do anything here and now. Shimazu - I don't want to do the equivalent of telling his mum... Kai - just a moment, Shimazu give me a mo. Come over here. Shimazu - get your point across, or I'll get my point across. Kai leads Yez away from Shimazu. Explains what has just happened. I'll take it, but he'll cut you in two. If you're open to it, I'll slap you over the face, and that will be the end of it. Yez - no, you were told about this days ago, you let them shell us.
12. Kai - we said we'd bring medical supplies, so that's what we'll do. Yez tells him to just leave - not wishing to escalate to a fight.
13. Aswon - don't waste your mana on healing them. Tads - helping allies not a waste of mana. Aswon - he's been ungrateful.
14. Shimazu walks over to Yez, asks which hand. Calls on radio in Kurdish, then tells Shimazu none, stands hands on hip. Aswon hearing - this might kick off.
15. Shimazu leans forward again, which hand, or we'll make it clear to your boss that we're more valuable than you are, don't bite the hand that brings you medical supplies. Don't look down on us. So I ask again, which hand - or are you the coward that we think you are.
16. Yez looses temper, goes for pistol. Shimazu quickstrike. Quickdraw. Aiming to cut the gun in two. Five successes on called shot, cuts off the gun barrel, quick sheathe test - plenty of successes.
17. Shimazu "I offer you this mercy, I won't offer you another one..." Spits on his boot, turns and walks away. Aswon and Hunter at arms, ready to fire, Shimazu 11 on an intimidation check. Marius in the cockpit, wondering what is going on. Kai just unloading medical supplies.
18. Yez is intimidated, just stares at the cut gun in his hand. On his radio "stand down, now" Aswon hears, tells the team. They unload the supplies, and get ready to leave.
19. Marius takes off, head home, arcs a little to avoid Mt Ararat.
20. Aswon - Shimazu, what's up? Are you ok?
21. S: We go everywhere, we help people, nobody ever expresses gratitude, it's tiring.
22. A: That's true, but maybe just say "next time try that with me". You're right, but there was a camp full of armed goons that we didn't want to kick off with.
23. K - he was pissy about the 4 days, not the white lie
24. A - do you want a cup of tea Shimazu?
25. Tads - they may have different perspectives, they had enough time, backtrack to their base and stop them even setting off and causing damage. Crossovers and miscommunications.
26. Aswon - he's out of his gourd, but wasn't necessary to take his hand. No way we could have got ready in that short a time. He's mental.
27. Ka - alter memory, fix this all?
28. Tads - doesn't work like that
29. Aswon - and there's all kinds of evidence to the contrary. We need to talk to Aden and tell him we can't work with his minions if they're not going to respect us.
30. Back at the ranch about 20:00. Tads goes to lodge and start to commune with elk. Before she goes - Kai asks about slay X, what can you do? Tads - explains - no.
31. Refuel the bird, reload the cargo area. Aswon goes for a walk. Marius then goes to see family. Shimazu up into the hills to meditate. Tads checks on her tribe, then the larder.
32. Hunter puts info about the Turkish up onto Shadowland under his ID with an oopsy!
33. Kai goes looking for Shimazu to thank him - doesn't find anyone, just small creatures and trip hazards.
34. Morning of Tuesday 1st of march.
35. Confirm details of going back to Aden on the 19th.
36. Kai - have we run out of quests? Nothing until the end of the month.
37. Shimazu - we could go and sort out the theme park? Tads - I LIKE THAT IDEA! Rest of team NO! Marius - who's paying for the fuel?
38. Germaine calls, loud and exuberant, team across the border, light vehicle - unknown weight. Germaine just sounding them out, can get more details. Outlines details to the team, specifically Marius. M: what are you not telling me? A: nothing! Border hotter than normal.
39. Aswon looking on Trid - nothing there. Have a quick look at the map, border location, smuggler stops.
40. Marius - I'm deeply unhappy about the "no Iran rule" breaking... Tads - I'm not happy either - didn't we have a job with Johanna at Maersk. Marius - no, that was a while back, clashed with eagles+boars.
41. Marius - reliant on EDs+Magic. And we need size details for hooks and stuff, we need to fit it inside the vehicle. Aswon - if we can't fit it in, then we tell her we can't do the job then, is that our line?
42. Tads - not happy about Iran to start off with, but could we help them get over the border ourselves? Aswon - we're not doing their job for them though!
43. Germaine calls back with specs, establish it'll not fit. Aswon keeps trying to say no, rest of team keep trying to think of ways to do it. Tads reminds the team about themselves getting over the border. Shimazu it was Saito's. Aswon tells Germaine. Offers to try and get a team to help - Shimazu calls Saito, stopping there.

Oh, and the image I used for the vehicle that needed a lift over the border was this - make up your own mind if it's as bad as I make out, or not! Suzuki X-head concept

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 248 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
We were one player down this week, Marius having caught Peruvian Death Flu and being laid low. Our general agreement is that we’ll still run with only one missing (unless I know that the character in question is going to be a key part of the plot, or is integral to the story in some way), and they got in the “blanket box” – nothing bad will really happen to them, but they also won’t be very helpful to the run.

Tads had been speaking to me offline, and wasn’t happy with the way things ended up with the refugee camp, and wanted to know what she could do about it – coming up with the idea of riding over on one of the motorbikes. So, we had a look at the map and worked out the approximate distance (950km by road) and route – looking at the types of terrain and levels of development. It was pretty remote, and went over some decent sized mountains – just looking at some of the series of hairpin bends and series of snaking paths winding back and forth told you it was a serious elevation change for that area of the route. I pointed out to her that she was likely to be targeted by several people who saw “single female riding alone in remote area” and then we both giggled…

Quite some time ago you see, in a previous Shadowrun campaign, she was playing another shaman, this time a Snake totem, and she had the “Blind” flaw. She had to get to the meet with the Johnson for the run, so was riding the city bus. So, we’ve got a middle aged, blind, single, female sitting on the city bus, after dark, driving through a D/E rated area. The gangers thought all their Christmas wishes had come true. They were not aware that she was an initiated mage, could see them clearly with her astral sight and had discerned their intentions more clearly than they had thanks to her assensing / aura-reading, and was ready. And so were her little stable of invoked great-form spirits. Let’s just say it got messy, the bus driver had to have his memory altered, and the bus depot wondered just how all that blood had gotten there. So, as Tads is now a Grade 7 mage, chances are things would go a very similar way. Of course, she’s still have to deal with the attempt, and that’s a bit of a pain all by itself.

Then she came up with the idea of using shapechange into a familiar shape, and using a spirit to boost her speed via the movement power – and that ended up giving her a speed of about 304kph and of course the ability to fly direct, using the shortest distance. But, she also didn’t want to explain what she was doing to the rest of the team unless she had to, to avoid any hassle with either Shimazu or anyone else. So, I worked out the travel time and gave her the figures, and we did some healing roles and etiquette checks, just in case, and worked out the RP consequences of her actions, in case she did get the 2+ days she needed to make it happen. And if the team suddenly went haring off in a different direction, then it just wouldn’t have happened…

They didn’t, it did, and she made a big difference to the guerrilla camp, healing a LOT of sick people and making a huge impact on their quality of life from not only the magical healing, but also making clean fresh water and basic foodstuffs, and did a huge repair job on the teams rep with the Kurds, which will make a big difference going forwards.

The rest of the team did the prep for getting to the amusement park, and I handled the travel arrangements with a few etiquette and negotiations rolls from Kai – keeping it very high level because he does have people as a contact, and he is pretty good – a social face phys-adept with Kinescics and all sorts of other tricks *should* be able to arrange fairly legit and no-risk stuff like this very easily. Likewise the trip over and the drive towards Turkmenabat were handled fairly abstractly with a few random rolls – I didn’t want to draw it out unnecessarily, as Hunter’s player was waiting patiently, and it wouldn’t really have helped the story that much or added much drama. Even the Wolf tribe they ran into previously would be much harder pressed to deal with the team now compared to 1 year ago in game (and nearly 6 in real life).

Once we got to the amusement park, it got a lot more indepth though, as they got the descriptions for how the ghosts acted to let them understand how they had died, and start to get an impression of the level of incompetence and penny-pinching that was going on at the park. This is where I ran into my second problem – poor old Tads. Or rather, the player – who along with being caring, empathic and compassionate, also has a very vivid imagination, and really isn’t into horror and ghost stories, especially not just before bed-time. So in some parts I had to keep the descriptions a little vague, or go into just enough detail to make it clear what was going on, but without adding too much detail – saving that for the writeup instead. It also meant that I had to get someone else to proof-read this week’s chapter (and probably next weeks as well) to avoid giving her nightmares that way!

Still, we got there in the end, and they’re closing in on the amusement park HQ where all the dodgy deals took place, and hopefully will get to find some damming evidence that they need to resolve the issue and break the ghost’s chains, and they can get back to the ranch in plenty of time to meet back up with the others, before heading to go and meet Aden – where Hunter is convinced that Aden has a special butt-plug with his name on it.


And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Tuesday 1/3/2061, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752 Time 10:00
2. Aswon - suggestion, we just caused a horrible natural disaster. Commune with the avatar, fix things up.
3. Shimazu - we could go to the amusement park. Aswon - you already suggested that. Tads - I have something I want to do, will take a few days. Kai - Shimazu might have an idea, if we go clean things up, maybe it will help - the dragon will kill us slower than he might other. Tads - he trashed Tehran, I don't think he's that bothered... Aswon - I could get behind declaring that as a deed for our group. Just have to work out what we do to reward Hunter / Marius. Aswon - not concerned about the dragon, we did the best we could, short notice, no supplies - aint worried about him. Worried about the stain on my soul.
4. Marius goes upstairs to be with Nadia and the baby...
5. Saito - calls, what does he want. Shimazu asks about over the border - Saito, no, Moving Company not avaialble. Team horrible feeling. Much confusion and giggling. Then they get details about the job, realise its the same job, Saito very confused.
6. Shimazu asks about the border (after Aswon nudges), and the theme park.
7. Kai asks if Tads could make the vehicle invisible - yes. More discussion, still turn the job down.
8. Kai asks about putting a hook on the bottom. Engineering tests. Possible cut holes in the bottom of the tilt-wing.
9. Aswon - we could - and I hate this idea - open both side doors and the rear door and drop straps out the sides, and we can carry stuff like that... It would be super hard, because we'd be so visible and detectable, and very magically reliant.
10. Kai - but tads, can we do it. Tads - I can help.
11. Aswon - we might be able to talk to Johanna / Dekita to see about if she would pay for shooting up Esprit stuff as well.
12. Much discussion about loading all the pressure onto Marius / Tads, feasibility and possible options.
13. Steering away from that, Kai asks Shiamzu about the theme park again. "It's fun", right?
14. Go back to the border crossing job - we keep assuming air. Int checks, Aswon remembers crossing the border previously - tripple rolls of razorwire and minefields, probably the assumption that the team needs to be in the air to avoid it.
15. Hunter announces he's going up into the hills to chill for the next week or two. Aswon suggests getting to a phone position twice a day, just in case, just in case.
16. Team declare deed for clearing out the theme park
17. Kai makes a call - arrange a boat, drive to Baku, boat to Kum-Dag, drive to Turkmenabat. Tads suggest they take a bag of her stuff, she'll catch up. Kai etiquette checks for boat transfer. 3X6s on etiquette test to arrange transport - 750Ny transport fee for the truck, on a Maersk oil freighter.
18. Tads summons F9, headache, rest, eagle, 300kph due west.
19. Marius no doubt threats of doom and gloom, then team magic head to Baku, to get boat over to Maersk terminal
20. Morning of the 3rd, across the caspian, over to the Maersk terminal. Do not stop at Kum-Dag, in case they get a job, push on to Ashgabat. Takes until the end of the 3rd.
21. Drive to Turkmenabat 576km. Random roll is good, quiet and easy day, handling check ok, meet with 2 artics heading the same way, Kai talk on radio - they want to know what the team is doing, Kai explains heading to Turkmenabat. Sleep in the truck
22. Morning of the 5th.
23. Random roll for Tads travelling over - 1 then 4. Team get up, get breakfast, eagle on the front of the truck. Aswon lets it in, Tads shifts back.
24. Go for a walk around the edge of the theme park. Feeling of malevolence, coldness, hatred. Drops off quickly. Team assense and keep looking carefully.
25. All team spot the ghost of a small boy watching them. Stalks towards them, head flips back and is destroyed - WP2 test. Team try to communicate Aswon - "What would bring you peace" Ghost uncertain. It moves to attack and is easily defeated. Team moves on.
26. Onto path - see girl, looking down, feral grin, Kai - commanding voice - stop! She doesn't stop, bounces up and down. Screams - Tads has resistance up though. Psychic scream ineffective. Team deal with her, keep walking. Find the carousel. One horse feels "cold" and has astral bloodstains over it. Tads sterilises, just to see if it helps.
27. Tads - what can we do? Aswon - clean it - physically, say a prayer for the girl. Tads - starts looking for chains / links. Aswon cleans and prayers, then they move on. Team at the split, go left. Find the "runaway mine train" wooden coaster, decrepit death trap, probably where the boy came from. Team repeat the same - sterilise, clean, pray, move on.
28. Round corner, teen boy, ripped clothing, eyes electric blue. Instantly becomes angry, lurches to attack, static finger. Kai pulls out taser, the zombie comes straight at him. Force 3 ghost, Tads casts influence. Gets 11 successes, open mouth, static from the teeth. Tads tries to speak, no comprehension. aswon tries (1), transfers anger to him, held by Tads influence.
29. Kai tries to close, sit, be inoffensive, stare at him, be calm, use facial sculpt to be similar. After 20 seconds it attacks, Shimazu deals. Finds dodgems, one car with burn marks in astral, Aswon up on roof. Looks for something that has common line of sight to all the rides with ghosts.
30. Looks in astral spots the faux fairytale castle, freefall ride, or the biggest coaster - Aswon says the castle is the most likely target...
31. Tads checks if anyone wants static field up - no, too hostile, affects investigation a little.
32. Find the drowned girl on the way to the castle. Investigate, frog cab on the chain water ride, clean the ride, then head into the castle. Stop for the night.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 249 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Back up to full strength this week, though we started off with Team Magic at the amusement park. They very unsurprisingly managed to make it up to the top of the castle, and blow their way through the locks to get at the paydata and clues that would lead them on to the next section of the adventure.

If they’d been at the “level appropriate” part of this, they almost certainly wouldn’t have had the skills / power to do so, and would have had to go exploring further into the park, constantly being harassed by the low force ghosts – gradually being worn down and picking up the odd box of stun here or there, until they discovered the key for the lock in one of the buildings, and worked out how to get some power on and get the mag-lock working elsewhere – then it would have been a race to get back before the ghosts got lucky with their rolls and managed to make it difficult for the team.

However, as we’re now doing this quest 3-4 years after it was originally placed, the team are MAHoosively over-levelled and geared for it, and just nuked their way through. If this was World of Warcraft, it would have been a grey quest in the zone just outside the starting area, and a bunch of raiders dropping in on their flying mounts with tier sets and just mulching their way through with no concerns. They even got Kai with his negligible weapon skills to do the killing this week, as a good training exercise where he’s unlikely to get hurt.

I could have “up-gunned” the events and ghosts to make them meaningful, but I didn’t for 2 reasons. One is that the ghosts had effectively driven off all the locals, and thus starved themselves of food source – with nobody to prey on and kill, there was nobody to drain karma from and increase in force. The second was as a reminder to the players for just how far they’ve come, and how crazy powerful they are when compared to “normal” people.

Otherwise, things went pretty much according to plan, they got the information they need to follow up on, and can now discover the park CEO living under his new identity, drawing from his various funds to enjoy his party lifestyle, all earnt on the back of appalling safety violations and manslaughter. The players will no doubt deal with him harshly – but it’ll be interesting to see if they redirect the various funds of accounts to themselves, or if they throw any at the families of those who lost children – or the permanently disabled staff that were savaged by the poor maintenance. Their call on this one – do they want lots of Nuyen and little Karma, or vice-versa!

Tomorrow night we’ll have about 2 days of downtime to get through, then they’re off to see Aden and get the “device” implanted into Hunter. This is his campaign special unique item, and is an enchanted doohickey that gives him a bit of draconic essence, boosting his essence from a starting value of 6 to 9. With the various implants he has, that will then lower back down to 5.2 (or effectively 5) – but it gives some interesting options. If he stays where he is implant wise, it means the target number for magical healing is 5 (as opposed to 4 for the magical members) instead of the previous 8 – making him *much* easier to deal with. Or, he can go the other route and look at getting 5 MORE points of cyber/bio installed, and really become a monster at what he does! Choices, choices… There’s also some “unlocks” in a similar vein to the others, that will become available as we progress through the campaign – these are simple enough stat boosts for him, as they will directly buff his combat potential.

That will leave only Tads still to do – which will probably take a while as it’s coming as part of “Survival of the Fittest” due in 2064 when they graduate from messing with just a few great dragons to messing with a whole BUNCH of the big scaly buggers.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Wednesday 9/3/2061, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752 Time 09:00
2. Walking up slope - looking at portcullis, once painted red, spot the little kid they first dealt with, hiding at the top of the portcullis. Aswon - hmm - LOS looking more likely. Tads - he might have died high up on the ride?
3. Move up towards the castle, portcullis drops on Aswon, he combat rolls out of the way. Tries to lift it - fails. Shimazu tries - fails. Tads moves up and tries - and that works! Kid does a drop-bear attack, easily killed. BGC1, Team look in astral, trail of little kids energy rising up into the castle. Castle cafeteria, souvenir shops, then a door marked "staff only", fibreglass surrounds. Lightweight door. Shimazu charges, partial success. Dodgems guy attacks - easily defeated. See frame of 3m square sections on skeleton frame, bare concrete. Switchback, up into darkness. Repair rooms, gutted, CCTV room - Tads catalogue, nothing useful.
4. Drowned girl out of bathroom, Kai defends, gets 4 success, does a D, kills her. Go up, odd shaped larger rooms. Gutted, Shimazu takes newtons cradle. Gutted more carefully. Go up.
5. Carousel girl attacks down stairs, Kai one shots again.
6. Get to top floor, glass door, antechamber, security door and heavy structural material. Aswon suggests Shimazu attempts physical lockpick - does on first attempt. Maglock still closed, unpowered. Tads, does F3 lightning bolt at D Aswon suggests - Tads prefers S, gets 2 success, Reaction check for others. Shimazu gets 6s, catches and levers door open. Find desiccated bodies in bags, + unlooted room, lever arch files, storage boxes, random tat. Check for ID, looks sanitised. Kai checks for ward, F5 on inside of storeroom. All 4 ghosts animate.
7. Kai attacks, only a moderate, but kills next round. Tads one shots, Aswon and Shimazu kill theirs easily. Kai looks for magical societies stuff - nothing. Tads looks at ward - how are the ghosts getting out. Aswon - they're off this place, I guess?
8. Tads does catalogue, gets hit on "heavily encrypted data chip" Aswon suggests finding local authority figures to investigate. Take bodies to somewhere to deal with respectfully, local town.
9. Kai - we can leave them here, few more days won't hurt after a decade of haunting. Can look into who committed the atrocities.
10. Aswon - I'm all for extracting them if still alive, and making them come here and face the ghosts.
11. Tads - not comfortable leaving this, it took ages to deal with at first, don't want to leave it again.
12. Kai - most important is laying the spirits to rest. Tads - once we deal with Aden, we can come back with tilt-wing, will cost in fuel, but be a lot faster, bring whole team.
13. Aswon - definite cover up, all trashed below, carefully hidden up here, no bodies to account for, just missing people. Aswon finds chip hidden behind a box. Read on a p-sec, readable but encrypted. Squirt back to the ranch. 4 ghosts apparated, lacking hostility and malevolence this time - just watching. Couple of metres from team. Aswon lowers spear a bit, Kai puts dagger away. Kai tries to communicate in Azerbaijani, "Hello I am kai", look at him, but no answer. "We want to help - what are your names" No answers, but recognition. Aswon suggest asking if the bodies should be taken outside. No response. Aswon carefully picks up body and takes outside. Aswon takes little boy out, ghost follows. Aswon "Keep going then, find some quite woodland, head down." Shimazu grabs one, Kai grabs one, Tads levitates one. All followed by appropriate ghost, go to secluded area, Tads earth shape dig graves.
14. Marius gets data squirt with message "unwrap this for me will you" - treats as dodgy, firewalls up, analyses. Marius gets a 16 on decryption, then analyses file. It was top end civilian security - at the time. Start to analyse - dodgy books, heavily cooked. Massive embezzlement to local "contractors". Ongoing banking instructions to pay Cary on an ongoing basis, 10k per month. Turkmenistan bank.
15. Aswon - Kai, could you sleaze your way into the bank, fake being a bank investigator?
16. Tads - would be ironic if the last payment had just gone out...
17. Marius on the phone - advising locals might have to comply for terrorism. Aswon - maybe find the owning bank. Tads - maybe influence + Kai doing talking?
18. Shimazu - Shinto background, need meaningful burial rites. Tads does Nenet one, Aswon ritual making of grave markers. Magic background checks - each of the 4 team members need to do a little ritual for "their" ghosts. Shimazu does a sword rite and kneels, Kai great horses of the plains to take them to their ancestors. Ghosts disappear back into the bodies.
19. Kai - lets head back home. Tads I need to sterilise first. She goes and does that, takes us to midday.
20. Aswon suggests coming in as tax officials, investigating money laundering. Can't reveal information, can't tarnish reputation, go in at end of the day when they want to leave. Kai - and also investigate missing children. Aswon - later, that's a much longer and more painstaking search, due to age and area. Lean on the bank and get info on the account and look for current info. Kai - we need suits. Tads - got you covered, makeover, high force.
21. Kai - what's the worst that could happen. Aswon - the guy finds some PI/investigators to start looking for whoever is sniffing around - but not top flight, at least not to start with.
22. Leave the park, no sense of being watched. Death sites are still cold and icky, but team are unmolested heading out to the truck. Find the bank on the main drag in Turkmenabat. Bank is warded, F1 including door when open. Tads checks if managers name matches either of the names found earlier - no.
23. Customer service looks up, grabs tablet. Say hello, are you setting up a new account. No, we have megacorp accounts. Here to investigate possible fraud. Not on the part of the bank. Go fetch branch manager. Bank manager, investigate some "irregularities". Kai = Manooj, bank manager is Tahwar. Irregularities, subtle investigation. Cust serv drone goes to follow, put back in their place, Nateen - two more chairs. Closes blinds - do you have some details. Yes, we have dates and account numbers, amounts transfer. You are aware of amusement park - yes, very sad - it's to do with that, sensitive nature, can't reveal any details. Asks for ID. Tads influences - no you don't. Kai goes for embarrassment for corp, megacorp politics and leadership. Politics none, RR, 1. Leadership 2. Does a lookup, live account, house in Ashgabat. Kai keep details to your yourself, told to come to you personally, keep it quiet. Account is for a penthouse suite, 16k per month. Kai checks days off - just the weekend. Treats him with respect, then team leaves.
24. Look at map and discuss - could ask Hunter and Marius to fly over and meet them at Ashgabat, possibly go to meet Aden directly from there. Team head back to the ranch via the boat, very smooth, meet back up with the rest of the team.
25. Arrive back at ranch 17/3/2061 midday

No game this week as we were two players down – so I got to relax this weekend with no writeup either, and get some good quality painting time in for my 40K scenery as well as play some games on the PC, along with a bit of planning for the next section – when the players go to see Aden, returning 1 calendar month after dropping off the strange device with him.

They have of course assumed there’s some enchanting going on (correct) but have no idea what it’s for… So, they’ll land on the mountain, at the same spot they’ve met him before – about 2,500m up, near an old climbing waystation. He’ll do a monster shape-earth spell to put Tads’s efforts into perspective, opening up a tunnel into the mountain itself, and then revealing the interior of his lair – or at least part of one of his lairs. I’ll be going with this description:
“You reach the end of the access tunnel and come across an oddly shaped room – an octagonal shaft drops down vertically below you, disappearing into the darkness, with no handrail or safety barrier between you and an indeterminate drop. The room at your level though has three other tunnels branching off, each of which has an octagonal profile too, extruded from the complex geometry of the room you are in, with equilateral triangles formed to make a perfect mesh in-between each of the octahedral tunnels. Several of the triangles glow softly with a pearl light, casting an even glow around the room, perfectly lighting it from all sides.”

They need to get down the shaft, and after some discussion with a drake NPC, they probably will end up having a floating disc style platform created for them to drop on…

“Descending, the disk or platform of force drops quickly, the smooth walls blurring past you, and the lit chamber above quickly diminishes to a tiny dot. At an estimate you’ve dropped at least a thousand metres, maybe more – it’s hard to tell. Cell signals, sat-links, GPS – all electronic signals have long since faded away, blocked by the mega-tons of rock surrounding you, and even cybernetic spatial recognisers are glitching out, confused and disoriented by the perfect geometric shapes and lack of identifying features. Far below you a speck of light starts to grow as you quickly drop towards it, revealing the bottom of the shaft.

Arriving at the bottom you find a mirror of the room far above you, with four access tunnels leading off, all again carved as perfect octahedrons. Your guide leads you down one tunnel, and as you enter the tunnel the topmost part of the rock begins to glow, casting the same even light down into the space. A quick check in the astral plane reveals a simple light spell anchored to a detection spell of some kind, both fairly low in force.

Progressing down the tunnel, you spot some irregular holes in the sides, the first signs of imperfection you’ve seen since your arrival. Drawing level you see the holes appear to be caused by pyroducts, roughly spherical tubes of roughly gouged rock with steps and serrations at the bottom marking the flow of different heights of lava. These are dark, the light quickly being swallowed as you stare into the stygian depths as the tunnels fade off into the distance, curving and twisting gently in accordance with the natural makeup of the rock.

Finally you reach another of those unusual geometric junctions, but this time instead of tunnels, it appears that the exits are into a series of rooms – each of the main facets is closed by a door, some of which are at unusual or odd angles that could only be reached by flying or levitating travel – or creatures who can just move in three dimensions naturally. Inside the room you are led to is a large stone slab, smooth on the top but with jagged hewn sides. Laying on one corner are a set of bronze tools – knives, pliers, retractors, rib-spreaders. The design looks refined, but the metallurgy screams of ancient techniques and there’s an indefinable air of antiquity to them…”

Then I’m going to go with “the doctor” entering, and give a description and share an image – and see how many (if any) of the players spot the image of Hippocrates. Having re-read Aden’s entry in Dragons of the Sixth World I noted that he had no known metahuman forms, and of course his dealing with Tehran showed that he had a ‘testy’ side to him.

My brain, being what it is, went off on a tangent then, coming up with all kinds of ideas. What if Aden had originally been like Dunklezhan, quite on the side of metahumans, helping them along and working to better them and advance their civilisation. What if Aden, in the form of several ancient Egyptian and Greek mathematicians, philosophers and doctors was one of the key reasons that so many of the advances in ancient civilisations sprang from the area? And how annoyed would he be then if despite his prodding and manipulation his efforts had been thwarted or derailed by the subtle machinations of other draconic agents, the manipulation of the immortal elves, or just sheer human bloody-mindedness. I’d imagine that everyone has a limit to their patience, and having ‘your’ people that you’ve helped and guided for thousands of years, and shown huge numbers of advances to suddenly turn on you and refuse to accept yours and theirs rightful places in the grand scheme of things could lead to you losing your temper…

So, that’s where I’m heading – I think. The father of modern medicine, Hippocrates himself, will be doing open-heart surgery on Hunter, and both Kai and Tads had better be ready with the medkit and healing spell afterwards.

I’m also going to have Aden turn on Kai, and suddenly pick him up and fling him into the wall, holding him there by this throat, with one hand raised warningly to Shimazu not to interfere.

‘The doctor leans forward, until his nose is almost touching yours, and his eyes are locked upon your own. He blinks, and for a moment the pupils change shape, elongating and becoming reptilian.
“I made a promise that I wouldn’t kill you. I never said anything about maiming you. Do not be so quick to test my patience again.”
Then he lowers you to the ground, and turns away, giving a vague smile and a slightly bemused nod to the rest of the team before returning to the stone slab to collect his instruments, sliding each one into a slot in an ancient leather roll…’
I’ve already made the open test for his intimidation check, and let’s just say that Kai is going to have a hard time making that target number. More than anything else though, I’m hoping that the players will latch on to the fact that he’s promised not to kill them – and be wondering *WHO* he’s made that promise to, and why…

But – does anyone know any more info about Aden that would run counter to this, or mean it wasn’t going to gel with his personality / background from some other source???

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 250 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Huzzah! Here’s the pre-christmas writeup, now I’ve managed to get a day sorted out to actually write it up. It’s been looming over me for a week or so, but work has been crazy busy with upgrades and network changes that needed to get done while the factory was shut down and I could rip the network to pieces without people screaming. Anyway… we’re done now and ready to go!
With the last side quest finally complete, they were off to see Aden in his secret volcano lair, including his adorable sidekick Scottish Drake ™. I spared my players my attempts at a Scottish accent, and as I type this realised that his Scottish typed-accent probably disappeared on the way out of the lair as well. Not sure if it’s worth going back to edit, or if it can be safely left to the readers imagination to put a good twang to the voice. That seems safest… But hoping that will create a suitable memory for them that was unexpected, along with discovering that the 5.4km high active volcano in Iraq is riddled with a surprisingly complex fully functional dragon lair with all sorts of stuff going on inside.

So, in they went, and Tads specifically and some of the others got to see Draconic style magic for the first time. In particular I’d designed a variation of the levitate spell that could carry more weight than 100kg, but only travelled between two distinct, fixed points for them to look at and wonder about. Down into the mountain and to the operating room, and then in walks the doctor.
Here I showed them a picture – using this: https://theconversation.com/hippocrates-did...-medicine-32334

I had no idea if they’d recognise it (after all, it’s an idea of what he looked like, and I’m not sure there’s any actual descriptions) so I doubled down with the toga and ancient bronze instruments. There was some bickering about if Hunter should be unconscious, until they persuaded him that yes he should be, and then on their went with the operation. A “hibernate” spell over the body during the operation to stop having to deal with the blood seemed like a nice themed thing, and gave Tads and the others another chance to get a view on Draconic style magic, emphasising the difference between the normal Hermetic/Shamanic flavours, and hopefully adding more flavour to the encounter.
At the end of the operation, I told them that Hunter had taken an effective deadly wound from the “open heart surgery”, so Kai got busy with the medkit and rolled ok, reducing the damage level from deadly to serious. Then it was time for Tads to roll, and she started to work out the TN based on what she thought Hunter would be on – 10 minus essence, so normally 8s. I told her to roll against 5s. She was confused, but then rolled badly anyway, only getting 3 – which would leave him with a moderate wound to heal naturally. A quick reroll and boom – 9 successes, leaving some free to go into the base time, and a sudden click of “oh, Dragon magic. I think I get it! Oh, and this place might be a power site, or aspected or all sorts of things.

At this point they’ve still not clicked on what’s happened. The device is the “Heart of the Dragon” and is Hunter’s campaign special item. The base effect is to instill his soul / aura with draconic essence – raising his natural essence from 6 to 9, and marking him out as a very unusual ork. I updated his character sheet and sent him a new copy, and it took him a good few minutes to work out what the change was, then I saw eyes go wide as he worked out the possible options…
1) Stay with the new essence and current cyberware, but now be *way* easier to heal magically after taking damage.
2) Oh look – more space. Now we need to earn several million Nuyen so I can become Robocop!
It remains to be seen which way he leans. He also was asked if he wanted to spend 5 karma on a random upgrade, which he eventually said yes to, and now has a +1 Body bonus – hence the tight fitting safety harness and clothes. He might need to get those adjusted some time soon… *grin*

After that, I had a more serious moment where Hippocrates / Aden tells Kai to behave – in this case it wasn’t Kai himself, but Kai as the team leader and person responsible for the teams behaviour, in particular winding up Yez and threatening to cut his hand off. Only Aden gets to threaten his minions! And Shimazu either hadn’t twigged that the doctor was Aden in a human form, or just didn’t care….
Aden doesn’t really want to damage the team, they’re still going to be useful to him – but he’s not going to take any shit from them either, so a high force bind on Shimazu to keep him out of range after he decides to get involved. Unfortunately for Aden, Shimazu has been working for months on his modified distance strike phys-ad ability that he can use with his sword.
Equally unfortunately for Shimazu, was Aden using “twist fate”. I think both Jez (Aswon) and Lee (Marius) knew exactly what was going on, but stayed thankfully quiet. But after Shimazu had to reroll all his hits, enough of them turned into misses that Aden could dodge, like a ninja grand-master, without breaking a sweat, and effectively just ignore Shimazu despite him giving it his best shot. While taking note of the new ability and reminding himself to keep an eye on these upstarts!

And Shimazu was left wondering just how he’d managed to miss. And despite that he still complained to the drake on the way out (who I then played as having only seen some of the jigsaw and being confused, and this was the missing piece – or at least a big enough part that he could guess at the picture) and tactfully stay quiet and definitely not say anything that might be seen as going against Aden.

But, they made it out of the lair. Tads is salivating at the idea of learning some spells from Aden’s drakes. And hopefully they’re ready to go off to the steppes and get involved in at least one mission to do with the probe race and some of the main timeline plot for the year. It’d be a shame not to at least do something, after all.


And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 17/3/2061, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752 Time 12:00
2. Nadia asks Kai about money - team have 245k, she wants to do cut and cover, steel box, Kai offers 100k, Nadia takes the money and runs to order stuff.
3. Tads does digging, makes food. Hunter long bath, rest of team training. She raises secrecy aspect for crane operators. Discussion about alter memory on crane operators - tads, not polite. Others not fussed.
4. Fast forward to 19th, off to visit Aden
5. Over the Caspian sea, easily slide into Iranian air defence, head over to the climbing station.
6. Tads asked - can we get codes from Aiden to allow us in past the borders. They won't want to upset him, surely. Kai - you might not be wrong... Aswon - maybe, but possibly not, it might be a minion problem.
7. Team head to landing spot, Marius spots the drake that "guided" them down the first time. He tells rest of team - Kai, we didn't piss that off did we? No, all good.
8. Team getting out, Kai respectful nod/bow. It walks over, returns head nod. Thick Scottish brogue, right on time. Kai - hope you're well? Aye, aye... Opens shaft on 10 degree slope into the mountain. Tads assense - triggered spell, shape earth, very high force.
9. Can you see in the dark. Tads - no. Casts a light. Tads asks, confused by draconic magic somewhat.
10. Description of top room. Drake - whenever you're ready. Hunter - for what. Kai - we're confused. Turns to tads - aren't you going to float people down. Tads - only one at a time. Changes, kilt, asks about levitate.
11. Drake creates disk, Aswon assense room, all natural, BGC of 1. Test gecko crawl for a moment on disk descent.
12. Descent description. Into the surgery room. Kai antiquity check - 2 successes, 2-2.5k years old, very valuable.
13. Tads asks - Hunter, would you want those sterilised if they're actually going to be used on you? Hunter - don't ask me, ask whoever is going to use them.. Doctor enters, Kai greets. "ahh, you're here, let's get on with it." Kai flicks into astral to assense. Hunter - why what's going on. Doctor pulls out box, with the device - implanting this.
14. Hunter, where is that going, there's not much natural left. Doc - plenty of room, don't worry. Hunter - where? Doc, in your chest. Hunter - it won't interfere with stuff? Doc - it won't affect your primitive machines. Hunter - you've not answered my questions. Doc - dismissive. Hunter - accent detected, but can't place it.
15. Hunter gets undressed, passes clothes to Marius. Quick argument with Hunter about sedation. Hunter doesn't want any. Kai tries to convince Hunter to be knocked out, increases healing chances. Tads - and we're here to look after you, unlike Marius. Sedate Hunter. Operation begins. Aswon watching in Astral - something magical over Hunter. Tads checks - health domain, - super stabilise spell. Checks for Biotech/medicine. Marius recording the surgery. Check - very competent surgeon.
16. Kai biotech - lowers from D to S. Tads does magical healing. Gets 3, RR 9 - enough to do quickly. Tads feels it was an "easier" cast than normal, maybe the room is aspected towards healing. Aswon - or the tunnel design and layout.
17. Figure warns Shimazu to stay there, stalks towards Kai with knife. Kai uncomfortable. Shimazu goes to intercept, bound to floor. He assenses feet. Very high force bind spell.
18. Shimazu threatens to put Kai down, or lose the hand. Tads also intervenes, tries to cast levitate.
19. Pins Kai to the wall, “I made a promise that I wouldn’t kill you. I never said anything about maiming you. Do not be so quick to test my patience again.” Kai is very definitely intimidated.
20. Shimazu uses attribute boost strength, and tries to use distance strike. Gets a bunch of success - twist fate. Halves the number of success. Dodges to the side subtly, creating a miss.
21. Aswon - please, Kai, apologise for whatever you've done. Kai - he's said his piece, I'll see him again some time in the long grass.
22. Doctor wraps tools, starts to leave - tads thanks for his assistance. Turns and gives her a smile. Tads- do we have post operative care. No - he'll be fine. Aswon - what does it do? Makes him better. A-but how? IT just works, stop with all the questions.
23. Assensing, get 2 successes.
24. Drake knocks on door - ready to leave? Team head out, Aswon asks "What's next". Drake - you just carry on with what you were doing? Tads "what about the horror?" What horror. "Tads explains. Can you pass on feedback." Err. no. You can ask, but no. "Tads - but we need more experience, info, but thanks for listening."
25. Shimazu - "do you deal with rebel fighters". What fighters? "The PKK, we have a formal complaint." Shimazu recounts story, future jobs need more courtesty and respect." Ahh, that's what that is about. Hmm.
26. Deepest condolences for dealing with a serious situation and saving many lives and dealing with the situation. And I'm owed a hand." Then Shimazu goes to leave. Kai "he's not wrong." Drake giggles to self in Gaelic, leads the team out. Tads - "do you need permission to share spells?" it depends on the spell. "Light, seen you, want it." Tads offers mass oxygenate / static aura - he sounds intrigued. Tads offers to come back, Drake says he will need to arrange.
27. Get back to tilt-wing ok. Kai nods respectfully to the drake again. Tads asks for number - he says use the one they already have.
28. Test getting hunter in through the ward - no difference.
29. Getting back over the border ok, returning to the ranch.
30. Medical and cyber systems check on Hunter. Cyber works ok. He appears holistically more healthy. Tads assenses - it's like he's a shapeshifter, stronger healthy field.
31. Team starts prepping for trip to Baikonur. Kai asks Shimazu to call Saito to confirm details.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 250 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Huzzah! Here’s the pre-christmas writeup, now I’ve managed to get a day sorted out to actually write it up. It’s been looming over me for a week or so, but work has been crazy busy with upgrades and network changes that needed to get done while the factory was shut down and I could rip the network to pieces without people screaming. Anyway… we’re done now and ready to go!
With the last side quest finally complete, they were off to see Aden in his secret volcano lair, including his adorable sidekick Scottish Drake ™. I spared my players my attempts at a Scottish accent, and as I type this realised that his Scottish typed-accent probably disappeared on the way out of the lair as well. Not sure if it’s worth going back to edit, or if it can be safely left to the readers imagination to put a good twang to the voice. That seems safest… But hoping that will create a suitable memory for them that was unexpected, along with discovering that the 5.4km high active volcano in Iraq is riddled with a surprisingly complex fully functional dragon lair with all sorts of stuff going on inside.

So, in they went, and Tads specifically and some of the others got to see Draconic style magic for the first time. In particular I’d designed a variation of the levitate spell that could carry more weight than 100kg, but only travelled between two distinct, fixed points for them to look at and wonder about. Down into the mountain and to the operating room, and then in walks the doctor.
Here I showed them a picture – using this: https://theconversation.com/hippocrates-did...-medicine-32334

I had no idea if they’d recognise it (after all, it’s an idea of what he looked like, and I’m not sure there’s any actual descriptions) so I doubled down with the toga and ancient bronze instruments. There was some bickering about if Hunter should be unconscious, until they persuaded him that yes he should be, and then on their went with the operation. A “hibernate” spell over the body during the operation to stop having to deal with the blood seemed like a nice themed thing, and gave Tads and the others another chance to get a view on Draconic style magic, emphasising the difference between the normal Hermetic/Shamanic flavours, and hopefully adding more flavour to the encounter.
At the end of the operation, I told them that Hunter had taken an effective deadly wound from the “open heart surgery”, so Kai got busy with the medkit and rolled ok, reducing the damage level from deadly to serious. Then it was time for Tads to roll, and she started to work out the TN based on what she thought Hunter would be on – 10 minus essence, so normally 8s. I told her to roll against 5s. She was confused, but then rolled badly anyway, only getting 3 – which would leave him with a moderate wound to heal naturally. A quick reroll and boom – 9 successes, leaving some free to go into the base time, and a sudden click of “oh, Dragon magic. I think I get it! Oh, and this place might be a power site, or aspected or all sorts of things.

At this point they’ve still not clicked on what’s happened. The device is the “Heart of the Dragon” and is Hunter’s campaign special item. The base effect is to instill his soul / aura with draconic essence – raising his natural essence from 6 to 9, and marking him out as a very unusual ork. I updated his character sheet and sent him a new copy, and it took him a good few minutes to work out what the change was, then I saw eyes go wide as he worked out the possible options…
1) Stay with the new essence and current cyberware, but now be *way* easier to heal magically after taking damage.
2) Oh look – more space. Now we need to earn several million Nuyen so I can become Robocop!
It remains to be seen which way he leans. He also was asked if he wanted to spend 5 karma on a random upgrade, which he eventually said yes to, and now has a +1 Body bonus – hence the tight fitting safety harness and clothes. He might need to get those adjusted some time soon… *grin*

After that, I had a more serious moment where Hippocrates / Aden tells Kai to behave – in this case it wasn’t Kai himself, but Kai as the team leader and person responsible for the teams behaviour, in particular winding up Yez and threatening to cut his hand off. Only Aden gets to threaten his minions! And Shimazu either hadn’t twigged that the doctor was Aden in a human form, or just didn’t care….
Aden doesn’t really want to damage the team, they’re still going to be useful to him – but he’s not going to take any shit from them either, so a high force bind on Shimazu to keep him out of range after he decides to get involved. Unfortunately for Aden, Shimazu has been working for months on his modified distance strike phys-ad ability that he can use with his sword.
Equally unfortunately for Shimazu, was Aden using “twist fate”. I think both Jez (Aswon) and Lee (Marius) knew exactly what was going on, but stayed thankfully quiet. But after Shimazu had to reroll all his hits, enough of them turned into misses that Aden could dodge, like a ninja grand-master, without breaking a sweat, and effectively just ignore Shimazu despite him giving it his best shot. While taking note of the new ability and reminding himself to keep an eye on these upstarts!

And Shimazu was left wondering just how he’d managed to miss. And despite that he still complained to the drake on the way out (who I then played as having only seen some of the jigsaw and being confused, and this was the missing piece – or at least a big enough part that he could guess at the picture) and tactfully stay quiet and definitely not say anything that might be seen as going against Aden.

But, they made it out of the lair. Tads is salivating at the idea of learning some spells from Aden’s drakes. And hopefully they’re ready to go off to the steppes and get involved in at least one mission to do with the probe race and some of the main timeline plot for the year. It’d be a shame not to at least do something, after all.


And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 17/3/2061, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752 Time 12:00
2. Nadia asks Kai about money - team have 245k, she wants to do cut and cover, steel box, Kai offers 100k, Nadia takes the money and runs to order stuff.
3. Tads does digging, makes food. Hunter long bath, rest of team training. She raises secrecy aspect for crane operators. Discussion about alter memory on crane operators - tads, not polite. Others not fussed.
4. Fast forward to 19th, off to visit Aden
5. Over the Caspian sea, easily slide into Iranian air defence, head over to the climbing station.
6. Tads asked - can we get codes from Aiden to allow us in past the borders. They won't want to upset him, surely. Kai - you might not be wrong... Aswon - maybe, but possibly not, it might be a minion problem.
7. Team head to landing spot, Marius spots the drake that "guided" them down the first time. He tells rest of team - Kai, we didn't piss that off did we? No, all good.
8. Team getting out, Kai respectful nod/bow. It walks over, returns head nod. Thick Scottish brogue, right on time. Kai - hope you're well? Aye, aye... Opens shaft on 10 degree slope into the mountain. Tads assense - triggered spell, shape earth, very high force.
9. Can you see in the dark. Tads - no. Casts a light. Tads asks, confused by draconic magic somewhat.
10. Description of top room. Drake - whenever you're ready. Hunter - for what. Kai - we're confused. Turns to tads - aren't you going to float people down. Tads - only one at a time. Changes, kilt, asks about levitate.
11. Drake creates disk, Aswon assense room, all natural, BGC of 1. Test gecko crawl for a moment on disk descent.
12. Descent description. Into the surgery room. Kai antiquity check - 2 successes, 2-2.5k years old, very valuable.
13. Tads asks - Hunter, would you want those sterilised if they're actually going to be used on you? Hunter - don't ask me, ask whoever is going to use them.. Doctor enters, Kai greets. "ahh, you're here, let's get on with it." Kai flicks into astral to assense. Hunter - why what's going on. Doctor pulls out box, with the device - implanting this.
14. Hunter, where is that going, there's not much natural left. Doc - plenty of room, don't worry. Hunter - where? Doc, in your chest. Hunter - it won't interfere with stuff? Doc - it won't affect your primitive machines. Hunter - you've not answered my questions. Doc - dismissive. Hunter - accent detected, but can't place it.
15. Hunter gets undressed, passes clothes to Marius. Quick argument with Hunter about sedation. Hunter doesn't want any. Kai tries to convince Hunter to be knocked out, increases healing chances. Tads - and we're here to look after you, unlike Marius. Sedate Hunter. Operation begins. Aswon watching in Astral - something magical over Hunter. Tads checks - health domain, - super stabilise spell. Checks for Biotech/medicine. Marius recording the surgery. Check - very competent surgeon.
16. Kai biotech - lowers from D to S. Tads does magical healing. Gets 3, RR 9 - enough to do quickly. Tads feels it was an "easier" cast than normal, maybe the room is aspected towards healing. Aswon - or the tunnel design and layout.
17. Figure warns Shimazu to stay there, stalks towards Kai with knife. Kai uncomfortable. Shimazu goes to intercept, bound to floor. He assenses feet. Very high force bind spell.
18. Shimazu threatens to put Kai down, or lose the hand. Tads also intervenes, tries to cast levitate.
19. Pins Kai to the wall, “I made a promise that I wouldn’t kill you. I never said anything about maiming you. Do not be so quick to test my patience again.” Kai is very definitely intimidated.
20. Shimazu uses attribute boost strength, and tries to use distance strike. Gets a bunch of success - twist fate. Halves the number of success. Dodges to the side subtly, creating a miss.
21. Aswon - please, Kai, apologise for whatever you've done. Kai - he's said his piece, I'll see him again some time in the long grass.
22. Doctor wraps tools, starts to leave - tads thanks for his assistance. Turns and gives her a smile. Tads- do we have post operative care. No - he'll be fine. Aswon - what does it do? Makes him better. A-but how? IT just works, stop with all the questions.
23. Assensing, get 2 successes.
24. Drake knocks on door - ready to leave? Team head out, Aswon asks "What's next". Drake - you just carry on with what you were doing? Tads "what about the horror?" What horror. "Tads explains. Can you pass on feedback." Err. no. You can ask, but no. "Tads - but we need more experience, info, but thanks for listening."
25. Shimazu - "do you deal with rebel fighters". What fighters? "The PKK, we have a formal complaint." Shimazu recounts story, future jobs need more courtesty and respect." Ahh, that's what that is about. Hmm.
26. Deepest condolences for dealing with a serious situation and saving many lives and dealing with the situation. And I'm owed a hand." Then Shimazu goes to leave. Kai "he's not wrong." Drake giggles to self in Gaelic, leads the team out. Tads - "do you need permission to share spells?" it depends on the spell. "Light, seen you, want it." Tads offers mass oxygenate / static aura - he sounds intrigued. Tads offers to come back, Drake says he will need to arrange.
27. Get back to tilt-wing ok. Kai nods respectfully to the drake again. Tads asks for number - he says use the one they already have.
28. Test getting hunter in through the ward - no difference.
29. Getting back over the border ok, returning to the ranch.
30. Medical and cyber systems check on Hunter. Cyber works ok. He appears holistically more healthy. Tads assenses - it's like he's a shapeshifter, stronger healthy field.
31. Team starts prepping for trip to Baikonur. Kai asks Shimazu to call Saito to confirm details.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 251 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Very late this week – work exploded, and I’ve been doing lots of out of hours support, working over the weekend to try and get things back to operational status. For anyone vaguely into IT – our finance system relied on a Server 2003 instance. We’ve warned them for years it’s unsupported and a massive risk, and they’ve ignored us. Well, we’re not being ignored any more…

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Quite a simple one this week – from being back at the ranch, they just had to head over to the smuggler stop and pick up the gear and final briefing, and then head to the space port to do the job. They were so focussed on how scary it was to be traipsing into the back-yard of SK and messing with one of their rockets, that they just assumed the smuggler stop would be easy peasy.
Off they go, into the arid plains of the ‘stans. Little did they know, that purely by chance only a few weeks ago I saw a great little video on the tubes titled “Why Russia Destroyed the World's 4th Biggest Lake” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp0Sxn42TGs if you’re curious.

Oh look – it’s *exactly* the area the players are going to now. Let me see….redirecting water, exploitation of intense farming, ecological collapse, the lake shrinking and leaving coastal fishing villages high and dry in the desert with rusting hulks. That sounds like *exactly* the kind of shit-show that causes massive background count and mana warps. Ok – so that’s what we’ll have then.

And when you have an environment like that, where clean water was plentiful and now is incredibly rare – the price goes up and the importance is magnified greatly. And that’s where the second punch came in – the local economy has swapped over from Nuyen and other intangibles, to “bottles”. A sealed bottle of water has an inherent value and worth to *everyone* that lives or works there, and they need them for survival (or a mage with create water!). And, as a result, the cost for those in Nuyen in nearby places will have risen considerably, leading to hording, rationing, price gouging and smuggling. Lots of fun stuff!

I don’t know if Kai’s player had had a bad day/week, but he wasn’t that keen on engaging with the smuggler and doing some charisma based stuff, and nobody else stepped up to do the negotiations either. They did have alternatives, and it wasn’t enough to stop the adventure – so I didn’t relent and drop them down to “easy difficulty” either. These are all veteran players now, so they shouldn’t need to have to handed out freebies either.

So, with a surreal air of crazy, and the Benny Hill music playing in my head, they burnt through thousands of Nuyens worth of fuel and hours of time going shopping for water, discovering the local town which was awful, and eventually revisiting Ashgabat, as the closest place they *knew* would sell what they wanted, before heading back to meet the smuggler and pay him. And then he just points them into the hut to where the team is waiting.

I’m just glad they didn’t decide that violence was the answer – they could have just blown him away, and still gone and met the contacts – but then lost access to the smuggler stop. Now at least they know about it – and that they have to bring some water with them for their landing fee!

Finally, a quick bit of RP with the other team and they got the laser designator, and could be on their way to the spaceport!


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

1. Sunday 20/3/2061, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752 Time 08:00
2. Tads - nightmare of bonfire again, wakeup just before dawn.
3. At breakfast - tads says she will need some time off. Aswon - what's next anyway? Kai - the spying job, then that's it. For Saito wasn't it? Shimazu - yes.
4. Saito message - go to Muynak, ask for Meester Grok, he will put you in touch with the other part of the team.
5. 842km from ranch to Muynak. Kai - anything we shouldn't take? Aswon - depends on the politics of the area I think. Kai has a think - mad max style lawless barren wastes, preying on the new silk road. Kai suggests taking all the winter camping gear. Aswon magic background check - destruction of the Aral sea and ecosystem, millions of deaths.
6. Check on shadowland for toxic threats and stuff like that - yep, all of that. Borders will be soft as nobody cares about it.
7. Team pack up and go, via Baku, get acid resistant gear and facemasks, filters and some spray paint to hide the neon colours
8. Tads explains to Nadia about how alter memory works and needs to be done at the time, not later.
9. Hunter contacts Julius for Marius, to get appraisal of Muynak airport. Tads offers to go. Marius - but it's super toxic? Tads - well, I can look and give it a go, and come back if it's too much. Tads goes and does a standard loop around. Discovers BGC4, gets some recon and back via east exit. Team make sure all the survival gear is topped off.
10. Team head off over the caspian, handling check ok, spot fuzzy signal right on the limit, divert south to avoid, disappear off sensors. Head into Muynak, come in for conventional landing, despite good runway, hick airport. Marius int check - emergency stop, easy to find location.
11. Meester Grok comes out of the building. Hands on hips. Kai goes to back up Shimazu as his contact. Marius keeps engines ticking over.
12. "You need to pay landing fee!" Kai mentions "say saito sent" "Ahh, ok, 20 bottles then!" Broadcasting to team. Kai asks if he has containers - no. Kai - Shimazu, can I take over chat now you've said hello? Yep. Hi, I'm kai, team leader. It's still 20 bottles. We need a tank to fill. What? No, need bottle. You have a tank? No. Need bottles! Back and forth...
13. Look for nearest place - Nukus, 160-200km south of Muynak, team thinking about heading there to buy water. On the river Amu Danya
14. Perception checks on arrival - shrunken city, dried up river, chemical plant, mana warp. Massively shrunken river, now like a stream.
15. Head to service station at edge of town, 10Ny per bottle of 500ml, max 3 per customer. Also chemical smell and *everyone* is wearing facemasks. Hunter Chemistry check - heavy industrial processes
16. Agree to fly south to Ashgabat, 520km, to get supplies. 2ny per name brand, 1.5 per supermarket brand. Slabs of 24. Buy 1 pallet for 1.5k, takes bird to load limit
17. Now used 1500km. Top up at Ashgabat airport - 1512km of fuel, median price
18. 645km back to Muynak. Give him 2 slabs, 8 bottle tip. Hunter asks for info - Kai interupts. Starts trying to trade water for Nuyen
19. Aswon - just get the info you need for the job - sent into the hut.
20. Go in, meet the team, very guarded. Kai passes off to Shimazu. Shimazu assenses - spell defence on dwarf. Mention Saito, immediately chill out, Invite to sit, Shimazu stays standing but Kai sits.
21. Talks through briefing pack and explains each slide. Kai asks about magic, expresses bad area. Hoshimo confirms Devron is sad.
22. Go around back of hut, get the LTD in case, see the vehicle all shot up.

Glad to see a GM using BGC so well! An oft-forgotten, easy tool to humble the magicians.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 252 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Back on track – the issue with our finance system got sorted Saturday and the business is back in operation – at least for now. Let’s see if those obsolescent systems get replaced any sooner! But, enough work nonsense, back to the Shadows…

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
One player down this week – stranded in town when multiple buses failed to turn up – but thankfully Shimazu’s skillset wasn’t really going to be called up in this one, so we cand play on – and the advantage to doing the story writeup is that he as a player should be able to be all caught up with what went on, and also probably read between the lines on how the session actually played out regarding the interactions between the players, so he’s not going to be surprised next week.
The team were suitably careful with the designator, bug-scanning it thoroughly and checking it out magically, before taking it away to test and determine the tracking speed. Now they know it will move quickly, I think they’re planning on getting quite close to the rocket to give it a bit more tracking time.

I dangled the “mysterious sensor blob” in front of the pilot again and this time they went to investigate – and found the Kuchuk Horde on the move. I have not worked out how feasible it is to keep an entire tribe / small town in the air, even with suncells and advances in power – but it sounds cool as hell, and hey when the story gets adapted into a multi-million pound film franchise (what – I can dream…) it’ll be a headache for the Director of Photography, not me as the author of the screenplay. I wanted to go for a “Mad Max in Airships” feel, and the reaction was just about what I hoped for – the players want to make sure they are on *their* side in the future, but also don’t want to go near them at the moment as they’re potentially a run-ending variable if it goes wrong. Having them air-mobile also changes the threat-parameters for Marius, and might provide some interesting contacts in the future.

Still, they made it past the horde and the space base, landed and got stealthed up, then started to head into the perimeter, on foot. They’ve found the first barrier, and will soon run into the second – the *actual* main security perimeter for the facility.
My notes / plan for this is as follows: “Beyond is a SOSUS-like line, running around the perimeter. Microphones every 50m, capturing engine noise/footsteps/overhead engine noise. Computer working out speed/distance/altitude using trig. 204km boundary, 4080 units. There is a bunker with power/processing/subnets every 2km, also containing R2 medkit, some water, distress flares, 4 clips reg rifle ammo and an emergency phone, protected by a R4 lock with AT1.
Sensors give an effective swarm detection rating of 7 for any non-silent approach.”

On a site as big as this, regular patrols just wouldn’t work, and a passive fence isn’t enough – so I figured this would be a good technical barrier for the team to cope with. Tads does have a stealth spell, but in a background count 4 area, that +1D drain code becomes a serious impediment, and the casting target number rises from 4 to 6. It’s also a single target spell, so she might have to cast multiple times, taking more modifiers there too. So magic is possible, but it’s nowhere near as easy as they would normally have it. Her spirits are not going to be much help either (that’s if she would even try and call them after dusk – I suspect not because ‘it would hurt them to be here’ and Ali takes that side of her RP seriously – so they will have to maybe rely on their stealth and guile. Chances are that someone is going to goof, and a security patrol is going to be sent over to investigate, and we’ll have to take it from there.

And heaven help them if they raise the alarm and get the elite unit coming after them – because they will be tooled up for hunting piasma and ready to chew gum and take names.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 20/3/2061, Location: 40.02442, 48.95752 Time 12:00
2. Hunter - nobody touches the gear with bare skin, must be gloved. This feels dodgy as all hell. Team generally agree.
3. Hoshimo unloads the box, then unloads 2nd heavier box from underneath, leave on floor - ok, we good to go? You guys know what you're doing?
4. Aswon - know anything about the facility? Hoshi - no, far away from home. Make Devron sad. Aswon to Kai, don't ask the smuggler guy anything, don't trust him. Hunter gets bug scanner. Check bottom box, stuffed full of power cells. No bugs. Tads checks magically, looks clean.
5. Hunter - Kai, do you realise what this is? Kai - yeah. Hunter - really? Shall I spell it out? Kai - targeting dohickey for military ordinance. Hunter - I could do the maths, but only range of 12.5km, long enough time for very long range missiles. Aswon - it *would* work for science gathering - don't look at me like that, it would. I don't think that's what’s happening at all. But it would.
6. Kai - is this a manned flight do we know? Nobody does. Hunter - does Saito know what this is - is he being set up?
7. Hunter - I don't like this at all, I'd rather get frakked directly by a dragon than this.
8. Aswon - going to be on SKs shit list, AAA corp looking - we shouldn't go home after this. Need to plan an exfil that is hot and cold. If its data only, we can sneak. If it blows up, we need distractions and contingencies.
9. Marius - got to assume the worse, it's gonna fuck the rocket.
10. Kai - we can check the device, see if it can transmit. Can it actually send info, or just gather info.
11. Aswon - we can do some testing, we have storage and cables, we can just set it up and test it. Also - we could be the decoys, they get a laser ping and send goons after us, while the "real" team do the job.
12. Tads - and we need to find out about medical expenses. Team snigger. Aswon - and if it's probe race, it's prestige too, that'll REALLY get us on his shit list. Kai - can we check on SN on device, maybe find out something about it. Aswon - dangerous, could lead back to us. Maybe we should put demo on it so we can blow it if we have to abandon it.
13. Hunter thinks about maths and dwell time and trig.
14. Tads - suggestion to fly up and around the north, penetrate outer perimeter and then stop outside the inner, get more time for foot penetration
15. Team talk about where to enter, look at maps, Hunter navigation check. Look at maps, generally agree to enter from the north.
16. Aswon - if there is rocket debris from previous launches, improvised shelters to be giving us cover.
17. Hunter thinking about range and dwell, Marius suggest footage will be on the matrix for the vehicle launching less sensitive payloads.
18. Aswon - if we're at max distance, do you have the reflexes/aim to keep the laser on target?
19. Kai - do we know the weather for the next few days? No. Check - steady for next few days, n-nw winds, dry, cold.
20. Fly north to test /look at the LTD. Break it out, discover extra actuators and computer support.
21. Are you in final position? Y/N
22. Are you performing systems test? Y/N - Y
23. Slew and yaw, warning test for GPS. Confirm location.
24. Hunter confirms it's more than fast enough to track.
25. Try and examine for it holding / storing / supplying data - perception checks. Spot that it's been doctored with, well fabricated.
26. Aswon plugs in data cartridge - do you wish to output... downloads, then analyse. Massive amount of data, dwell time, angular, flex, vibration, roll, inclination, etc
27. Pack back up and takeoff, head around to the north.
28. Checks batteries and weight, used 1%. Tads - why so many batteries then? Aswon, don't know. But it's a bit weird. But maybe in case launch gets delayed.
29. Aswon - after tads suggest check orientation, works out how to check pad and tower orientation. Work out that they need to be on the NW side of the pad.
30. Take off again, fly north, Marius picks up the sensor bulge of the horde. Team heading north, they are heading ne at 40-50knts. Check in case they're being flanked, but no. Tads offers to recon for more info. Marius rotorcraft check - spot a-b line
31. Tads - the wolf tribe were ground based, could this horde be air based? Team land, then tads does a recon, good roll.
32. Kai - could we blag to go along with them? Marius, maybe, but drinking fuel in vtol mode.
33. Mad max style small town / large village in the sky, ramshackle,
34. Aswon - we should assume they have a deal / pay fealty to SK and avoid. Maybe make friends later. But not now.
35. Tads - check for cannibalism first. Marius - avoid fucking with the locals. Hunter - it's an intercept route with the new silk road.
36. Aswon - can we just burn past? Tads - or go around the other way. Marius EW check, NOTE flying should be able to get through. Handling check - absolutely fine, get around to 25km north of site and land. Get cammo nets up. Move forward and spot the fence.
37. Aswon checks demo - minefields? Almost certainly not, rocket debris and wildlife. No animals visible, BGC 4. Check survival, some life - hare/rabbit/fox maybe?
38. Kai - astral check? They check, get good rolls - nothing here. Nothing to alarm. No sign of any spirits.
39. Check with Marius - would the security forces be armoured up and wear helmets? Out here, yes. Team move in a bit. SK background roll for Marius - info on SF, mix of skills. Remembers carrying something that matches the description. Aswon - probably live at the airfield and move to the pad on the launch day.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 253 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
One player down again this week – this time it was Hunter, sent to Jersey with his work.
I’d devised a suitable sensor net for the cosmodrome, based on the size and the environment, and had given it a number of dice that should provide a challenge – but not be insurmountable. The team spotted it, analysed it and then went WAAAAY out on left field to come up with a….novel…. solution.

Who am I to argue with lunacy? So, off they went, playing piggyback rides and spending several hours to cross 400m of open terrain. I guess “if it’s stupid but it works, it’s not stupid” applies here. It did however cost Shimazu 5 rerolls on just this one section, along with another two from Hunter and Aswon – but because of that the sensor net didn’t get a sniff of them on the way in.

One random encounter with an empty animal burrow to keep them wondering, and then they spotted a tower and decided to head up to it. I’d actually mapped out all of the pads at the Cosmodrome, and noted that some have had bad accidents – this one wasn’t actually one of them, but I decided to put in a pad-fire that had caused some deaths and a bit of warping on the top level, both as some background flavour, and also as a possible tactical use later – if they went up there and hid in it, with all their powers turned off, then they’re pretty much immune to being spotted by mages, spirits or being tracked or detected by magic. Let’s see if they figure that out…

Otherwise the run went pretty much as expected, and next week I think we’ll be able to burn through the 24 hours of laying low and doing observations pretty quickly, then get to the launch countdown and the main event – and wait for the fireworks.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 20/3/2061, Location: 46.18711, 63.07211 Time 15:00
2. 1.5km from fence. BGC 4, team discuss hardness of ground, making scrapes, cover with cammo net.
3. Aswon - wait to cover the ground to the fence after dark. Expect sensors, but it's a big perimeter, if we blow up the rocket, they will jam - but otherwise they definitely won't, would interfere with their ability to control.
4. Marius - if it does blow up, I don't fancy our chances of getting out.... if it doesn't, we just walk out.
5. Kai - I don't think it will have a transmitter, so we have to walk out, trust in the Johnson that they actually want the data, unless the Johnson is being burnt as well, I think they would have told them it was a suicide mission in case they wanted to get rid of a team.
6. Aswon - what if we get discovered, and can't take them out quietly? Marius - just leg it. Aswon - not over 8-10km of open ground, we'll get caught for sure. If need be, we look for anywhere where the BGC is less than it is here, and Tads digs us a hole and we hide - for days if need be.
7. Tads - is it likely to be less near where people are living? Aswon - perhaps. Some of the bgc is the lack of life, and life makes more mana - but some of it is toxics and pollution. Thinking this is our plan if we get tagged by security or something. Lone maintenance worker - maybe we just put up with the BGC and deal with the alter memory drain.
8. Aswon - save a bullet for you Marius? Marius - ask me again when we're closer. Not keen. Aswon - well decide, just in case, if we see you being dragged off.
9. Aswon SUT roll, maybe move in on the fence to make spotting stuff easier. Spot the microphone line and freeze, about 500m inside the outer fence.
10. Spot the patrol vehicle doing 40kph from W to E, getting good air. Aswon - we potentially have a new evac strategy. Crawls back, gets back to group about 16:00
11. Aswon - how secure are they likely to be? Marius - top end, but practical. Tech heavy, but cost/benefit analysis.
12. Check electronics + SK + security systems. Details on system, good roll. Thinking about Shimazu giving piggybacks, being stealthy, walking without rhythm, listening for metallic noises, check rucksacks for rattle, bind cloth around boots etc. Aswon - wind might stop this. Hunter - many point sources, noise cancelling. Tads - get people together to simulate a 4 person beast. Aswon - good call, but tricky. And have to remember it on the way out otherwise we draw a line showing exactly which way we're heading.
13. Aswon - maybe get Marius piggybacked to the device to try and spike it, they can't have anti-tamper worth anything, not when buying thousands and thousands of them.
14. Tads - how about going to the bird and flying in. Aswon - fake engine trouble and have Kai blag us a way in? Marius - I'm not convinced. Kai - neither am I!
15. Aswon - do you think they sell tickets to the launch, with observation stands? Dress up the LTD as a sick child... team... nahhhh.
16. Team go with the piggyback plan, having to go about 200m either side of the microphone line. Hunter thinks mics would have 100+ range, to allow 3 sources and triangulation.
17. Hunter - not happy losing gear / being carried - suggest Shimazu carry his gear.
18. Hunter and Shimazu sneak in first, both get 11s on stealth, sensor net 7s - make it, shallow defile. Shimazu back, gets Kai, slightly different route. RR, 2nd RR, burn one karma and RR - get an 11.
19. Marius next - RR and then an 11. Tads next - RR, 9 - ok. Aswon going self - 9, RR 11 - all good.
20. Aswon - get Shimazu to lay down in the defile and cool off, rest of team spread out a bit.
21. Spot the first pad on the horizon, occluding stars. Team discuss using that as a spotting point to their own target. Check map - it's about 9km away, right side for lasing. About 8km from current position
22. Just taking first steps, dune buggy appears, team drops. IR headlights, still motoring, don't spot the team - just. About 5 hours since the last patrol - set a reminder for 5 hour cycles.
23. Head for pad 171, find an abandoned den for something wolverine sized, Shimazu combat rolls out of the way. Abandoned, paracritter role - maybe badger sized.
24. Get near the pad, description, fence about 200m out, chain link, rusty barbed wire. Examine, abandoned for months, check it out. Still toxic, but manageable for a few days, take some precautions. Check out the area for Tads digging. Spot the warp at the top of the tower. Investigate - find memorial for the pad-fire, long list of names. Dated about 30 years ago, but no lairing creatures. Pad has been used since the disaster. But not used for a long time. Tads digs a hole - hard work.
25. T minus 27 hours or so...

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 254 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
The team were in position in the abandoned launch tower, had left the mana warp area well alone and had not been spotted on the way in, or while setting up their camp – though burning a copious number of re-rolls and some careful planning. And I’m all about actions having consequences, and not making stuff happen “just because” wherever possible (unless it’s a truly critical plot point), so they get a pass – a full day of boredom and nothing happening, and no corporate investigation or response.
I’d written up the final activation sequence beforehand, making sure I had the text ready to copy and paste into Discord and used it as an interactive bit of activity for Marius – it also meant I could listen in on their conversation and make notes, but drop in my next line of dialogue at appropriate time points – whether the team was ready or not.

It was very interesting listening to the discussions about *when* to activate the sequence, with Aswon arguing for last minute, because they’d already calibrated the device, while Kai – normally mr “seat of my pants make it up as we go along” was the once arguing to take the time and do it early, because otherwise it would blow the whole mission. It was a real change of dynamic, and with my pre-knowledge of how long it would take to set up and do the diagnostics, I was trying VERY hard not to give the game away or say something.
Fortunately for the team, they listened to Kai and left enough time to do the checks, working through. I could see a bunch of reactions when power pack five showed as faulty, with them wondering if this was the “last minute glitch” that would require heroic electronics tests with them needing lots of successes to get the base time down../ then to relax when at the end of the sequence it went “all fine thanks, kk bye”

Always good to keep them guessing, and it’s nice to see them actually being relieved rather than very blasé about the whole thing.

When the rocket exploded, it didn’t come as a surprise to anyone – not even the ever optimistic Tads, so there was a degree of urgency to getting away. That all changed when I described the escape pod arcing in their general direction, and estimated to land about 800m away from them. Aswon’s player looked directly into the camera and said “Really Kren? REALLY? For fucks sake… ok – run FASTER then!” and then it turned into a bit of a scramble as I was describing the scene, trying to keep things short and punch, and making sure everyone only got a few words in or a short run – almost like we were in combat time, but without having to roll initiative or get into the book-keeping side of things. Hopefully it gave a sense of drama or pressure to the players.
Having them decide to hide down in the depression under the launch pad was not what I expected them to do, so it was time for the random roll – and they lucked out with a 6, so I gave them the smoking hole – I figured that those oppressed citizens of the Soviet Union back in the 60s would probably have wanted to skive off for a craft cig just as much as modern workers, and they could have dug a hole like this without their commissar noticing or finding out.
Tads suggested they check out the cigarette packages from my description, and I realised that if they *were* the original diggers packs of smokes, they would be just over 100 years old – and that’s almost certainly going to make them vintage / rare and worth something – so she’ll be getting a karma point for that at the end of this run!

Then, once they were safely tucked away, they decided to risk a shape-earth spell (or rather Tads agreed to run the risk once asked) and they walled themselves in to avoid detection. That meant that they were all safe and sound, but missed out on some VITAL information.
You see – it *was* a manned mission (hence the escape pod) but included with the men was also some new missiles and offensive systems that they were also taking up to put on their probe. When the pod crash landed, these were going to be damaged and highly unstable. The surviving crew would spot them realise they could blow at any moment and decide to use them rather than run that risk, look around and spot the players hiding place as a good target point and fire off some MAW equivalent missiles at them – completely ignorant of the players presence. Of course it would have been dodge and soak rolls all round, and potentially some nasty wounds for them to deal with, that would have then made the exfiltration much harder.
However, the players missed all this – so all they *heard* was multiple missile strikes hitting their tower. From that limited information, they drew the somewhat logical, but entirely wrong conclusion that they’d been spotted or left evidence somehow and that a helicopter gunship was now strafing the position they’d just abandoned, and that SK was on to them.
Time to practice that poker face again!

It remains to be seen how that will affect their exfiltration plans from the site and what they think was going on. It also means they can’t tell their employer what kind of weapons SK were launching into space to deal with the OTHER probe missions either. C’est la vie!
Still, they managed to get away with things quite well, a bit of light damage and light stun, which will soon disappear – mostly by being very careful and taking a good while to plan, and coming up with some novel solutions to the problems. Let’s see how they do on the way out, and where they intend to go next.

And more importantly – what they spend the pay on – especially as they *STILL* don’t know how much they’re being paid for this one! How a team can be this careful and this dumb all at the same time amazes me sometimes…

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 21/3/2061, Location: 46.10413, 63.00804 Time 07:30
2. Set up on level 4 of Baikonur Pad 171, two levels below the "fire" nexus.
3. Aswon on watch while rest of team sleep. Advises to do minimal effort, conserve food and water. Limit exposure. Tads doesn't summon spirits.
4. Train arrives 10:00, glacially slow installation. Aswon takes some snaps. Thinks - checks local gate - secure and locked.
5. Sees APCs about 1km out.
6. When team wakes up, Marius listens - double checks, Passive only - no chance of emmisions. Hears message saying airspace is closed on repeating loop.
7. Tads thinks about putting up a masking ward - the team has enough mojo to overcome the BGC, may help against any critters. But would leave evidence, clean spot. Decide not to in the end.
8. News check items
9. 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.
10. March 21: The Corporate Court founds the Grid Overwatch Division as a cross-jurisdictional Matrix law enforcement division.
11. Night falls, searchlights, continued patrols. Bitterly cold, Aswon suggests one level down, leave the designator as a "lookout post". Survival check. Rotate people from the side on the wind into the middle. Lots of stars visible, all twinkle.
12. Get to dawn, no issues, Aswon starts getting people packed, checking for debris, scuff marks, any evidence.
13. Some news about probe race, science shows, crazy counterpunch
14. Get to 9:15 am, activity at the tower, pixels moving. Aswon trying to see if it's a manned launch - tries to spot, can't make out detail.
15. 9:45 - alarm klaxxon drifts over. Spot APC coming their way. Perception checks all round, Aswon worried, Tads sees other APCs in other directions, fanning out.
16. Jet overflight, 3km altitude, 3km separation, from N to S, Marius electronics check - massive flux and full sweep.
17. Aswon checks the LTDs. T minus 15
18. [ARE YOU PERFORMING A SYSTEMS TEST? KEY 1 FOR YES, 2 FOR NO]
19. Talk about doing it just as the engines start - no, might have a test routine. Marius blocks the emitter, just in case. Note the current bearing for the calibration test routine.
20. Kai - don't we need to do the systems test, so we don't fail the mission
21. [PHYSICAL CALIBRATION COMPLETE. DISABLE ANY JAMMING FOR GPS SIGNAL LOCK. SYSTEM TEST WILL TAKE 15 SECONDS]
22. [SEEKING SATELLITE. SATELLITE 1 FOUND. LOCKING SIGNAL.]
23. [SEEKING SATELLITE. SATELLITE 2 FOUND. LOCKING SIGNAL.]
24. [SEEKING SATELLITE. SATELLITE 3 FOUND. LOCKING SIGNAL.]
25. [SEEKING SATELLITE. SATELLITE 4 FOUND. LOCKING SIGNAL.]
26. [TIME UPDATE COMPLETE. DRIFT COMPENSATION FACTOR COMPLETE. ALTITUDE CORRECTION COMPLETE. JITTER COMPENSATION COMPLETE.]
27. [LOCATION ACQUIRED 46.1041334, 63.0080462. CHECK LOCATION ACCURACY IS ACCURATE. KEY 1 FOR YES, 2 FOR NO]
28. Team waiting impatiently... Hunter and Marius check and confirm
29. [GPS SYSTEM TEST COMPLETE.]
30. [ATTACH ALL BATTERY MODULES. KEY 1 WHEN COMPLETE]
31. [CHECKING CHARGE LEVELS.]
32. [CELL 1...97% CAPACITY. CELL 1 ONLINE]
33. Tads - what would it do that it needs that much power?
34. [CELL 2...100% CAPACITY. CELL 2 ONLINE]
35. Aswon For the laser, 9k, long way in atmos
36. [CELL 3...100% CAPACITY. CELL 3 ONLINE]
37. Aswon, with the scatter and amount of fuel and stuff in the air
38. [CELL 4...100% CAPACITY. CELL 4 ONLINE]
39. Marius - depends on the type of laser and stuff as well
40. [CELL 5...ERROR READING CELL LEVELS RETRYING... ERROR. CELL 5 OFFLINE]
41. Marius - shit, checking.
42. [CELL 6...100% CAPACITY. CELL 6 ONLINE]
43. [CELL 7...100% CAPACITY. CELL 7 ONLINE]
44. Cell 5 has plenty of volts, but no amps - must be a manufacturing downside.
45. [CELL TEST COMPLETE. POWER LEVELS EXCEED REQUIRED THRESHOLDS.]
46. [CONNECT EXTERNAL DATA STORAGE UNITS]
47. [I/O DEVICE FOUND. FORMATTING STORAGE. FORMAT COMPLETE.]
48. [ARE YOU READY TO ENGAGE FINAL SEQUENCE? KEY 1 FOR YES, 2 FOR NO]
49. Marius - is this lighting up the target? Aswon, I guess so... Marius - I shall have to wait then! Check -
50. [LASER ACQUISITION MODE. PREPARING LOW INTENSITY SPOTTING BEAM. KEY 1 WHEN READY]
51. Aswon verifies aim, one tiny sliver off.
52. Tads - can we leave the batteries?
53. Aswon - not worried about pollution, given the area - am worried about evidence.
54. Tads - can hoof them off the side if we're spotted, use them as missiles if nothing else.
55. Double check the APCs - all stopped half way between towers, about 5km out.
56. 3 mins to go.Aswon adjusts position using previous co-ords.
57. [DETACHING KEYPAD. ENSURE ALL PERSONNEL REMAIN >1M FROM EQUIPMENT. KEEP VIBRATIONS TO MINIMUM. DO NOT STARE AT EMITTER]
58. Team step back apart from Marius.
59. [ADJUST LASER TARGET TO MATCH MISSION PARAMETERS. KEY 1 WHEN COMPLETE]
60. [TARGET IDENTIFIED. PATTERN RECOGNITION MATCHED - TARGET IS VALID. RANGE IS 9116.45983M]
61. [AWAITING FINAL COUNTDOWN. KEY 9 WHEN LAUNCH KLAXON IS HEARD]
62. /play 31580
63. /stop
64. [FINAL SEQUENCE MODE. KEY * WHEN MAIN ENGINE IGNITION IS SEEN]
65. [GATHERING TELEMETRY]
66. [.]
67. [..]
68. [...]
69. [HARMONIC VARIANCE DETECTED. TARGET WILL REACH MAX=Q IN 5]
70. [4]
71. [3]
72. [2]
73. [FIRING]
74. [1]
75. Team spotting
76. [POWER CELLS DEPLETED]
77. [TELEMETRY GATHERING COMPLETE. PLEASE KEY IN THE NUMBER OF MINUTES FOR SELF-DESTRUCT CHARGE]
78. M: How long do we need?
79. T: take it down and put it in the hole I dug!
80. A: do 15 mins, then put it in the hole
81. Two large cracks from the rocket, very loud. Top of boosters flame out. Hovering. Spinning wildly.
82. Team heading down the stairs as quickly as possible.
83. Down two levels, top of rocket launching in parabolic arc towards the team. Will land about 800-1000m from team.
84. Main rocket body explodes 5kt explosion. 4S soaks. Tads takes a light, Kai takes a light. Equipment shredded, on the spacecraft one parachute drops, others shredded, drops at much faster velocity.
85. Get under the launch pad and hide, find the smoking shelter. Tads enquires about cigarette packs - antique value. Kai examines - 100 years old, good spot.
86. Hunker down, Aswon suggest trying to block off the front a bit. Survival checks, build two holes in for air circulation.
87. Spell goes off, but drain is nasty, takes a long time.
88. Explosion at 8 minutes. Aswon perception - definitely a missile attack. Then another hits 20 seconds later. Then 1:40 another crump as the LTD goes off. Demo check for Aswon - cell 5 was full of C12...
89. Chopper, t-bird, then APCs, t-bird goes. Crews looking for isotopes. Hunter thinks - isotope for either science gear or fuel cell.
90. Tads moderately stunned, about 45 mins of rest needed.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 255 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
The team were clearly confused to start the session off, with Aswon raising his thoughts and the team having a good old chin-wag about what they thought might have been going on. I’ve cut this down a chunk, as there was lots of bank and forth, wild assed guesses and speculation, but none of it was either a) character defining or building or b) actually added to the story in any meaningful way and c) trying to catch the nuance and details of dialogue in note form mid-game and keep track of other stuff is pretty tough. Where it’s important RP, I try harder – but when it’s just the team chewing the fat with little information, it’s not worth the effort.

So, after a while we got to dusk, and they set off on their escape route. I sent the SK goons back to base for at least the first night as I really didn’t want to have the players living in a hole and shitting into plastic bags for 4 days straight while they went over the terrain with a fine tooth comb – it would have been more than a little boring, and again doesn’t serve the plot or story in any way. So – daytime operations only for them, and a chance for the players to escape. After all – I knew what was going to crop up in their path!
They make good time on the way out, and I ask one of the players for the “random travel encounter roll”, then look down at the chart and go all quiet for a minute, before looking back up and saying “oh. Oh dear.” That makes them all sit up and pay attention, as I share out my screen and put out two columns of three circles on a powerpoint slide, each with the first letter of their names in, just to confirm the marching order and positions. Then I slap down a picture of some kind of armoured spiny lizard thing I found on t’interwebs, that takes up most of the screen, dwarfing the players. Two of them are right over the top, and we roll for surprise – and unfortunately most of them are!

Into combat time we go, and Aswon gets to roll his paracritters, gets a good roll and is told it’s a juggernaut – of some kind or variant, but with a few visible differences from what he knows from other types.
Straight away Aswon is shaking his head in despair – as a long time GM he knows that a Juggernaut is going to be tough for the weapons and abilities on hand at the best of times. In a BGC 4 area, that’s nastier – and with the “it’s a variant of some kind” he just *knows* I’ve sprinkled in some mutations or new powers to keep things interesting and him and Marius guessing.

The fight kicks off, hampered by 2/3 of the team not having offensive first actions due to being surprised, and the Juggernaut ‘Sandy’ goes off trying to munch a few people, leading to some frantic melee rolls and declarations of “full defence” mode where possible. The team manage to get through without injury – but also without causing any injury, and start to engage, but keep finding their weapons just can’t get through the armour and body combo. Aswon manages to stab it into the mouth, and I go with a much lower armour rating for the attack – it is *inside* after all, and he manages to get some damage in, then Shimazu has to go all out on an attack – activating his improved strength (the drain for which is coming next session), and then throwing everything he has into the attack, including multiple re-rolls, and manages to get high enough with his damage to overcome the armour and actually hurt it – at which point it starts to leg it.

Everyone is relieved – especially Aswon – when Shimazu starts to give chase, wanting to finish it off. There were multiple face-palms all around and cries of dismay – but he is resolute and tries once more. But, without the combat pool for the next attack, he can’t get a high enough damage roll and it gets soaked – and I figure as the Jugger is disengaging anyway, it’s time to hit them with the third type of attack, which they haven’t seen yet.

Shimazu suddenly realises that a 6D sonic attack (so no armour) could seriously mess with his magic, and has to blow yet more karma on taking it down to a serious, meaning that the guy they are relying on to get them over the microphone network on the way out is pretty much out of re-rolls now, and seriously stunned.

Oh no. 😊


And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Monday 22/3/2061, Location: 46.05769, 63.03197 Time 11:30
2. 1 hour after the explosion. Sound of vehicles above them still there, but less frequent and close. Tads has healed her stun.
3. Listening in on the noise - looking for fragments and shrapnel.
4. Aswon - so *what* were the missiles about? There was definitely missile whoosh-bangs. Marius exports audio record from his cyber-ears, gives to Hunter to analyse. Confirm - sounds like a MAW.
5. Aswon - maybe that was someone *else* - another team? Someone hired to wipe us out? But we have their data... Sato?
6. Tads - he's the middle man, he doesn't want the data, or us dead. He wants it for someone else
7. Or shimazu needs to prepare for Sato being dead - he wouldn't be a willing particpant for this.
8. Hunter - he was bessie mates, right?
9. Aswon - yeah - either massive duress, or he's dead, or he's on the run or something.
10. Tads - on a side note, keep all the shredded bits of kit to fix later. Aswon - and for not leaving evidence!
11. Marius - human nature to boggle when shit goes wrong, maybe they could get away with rocket attack.
12. Aswon - maybe they just don't want the data, just the rocket down. Hunter - doh, really? Much sarcasm
13. Kai does biotech on Tads, gets rid of the light wound.
14. Aswon asks Hunter to analyse the fragments.Heat treated rocket components, skin, fairly clean from being in the explosion, not too toxic.
15. Kai - we want to look for this other team, if there is one - though they should have trouble getting out as well.
16. Hunter - works out that missile trace came from the direction of the escape pod.
17. Aswon - ahh, maybe the other team were trying to take out or destroy the escape pod. Maybe kill the crew, if it was manned. Maybe they just missed the pod and it overflew into the tower. We need to get out and try to contact Sato - if he's still alive.
18. Shimazu - didn't that other team have a rocket - the ones we got the equipment from? Aswon, maybe, but not two rockets in quick succession, surely.
19. Kai - they think we're dead though, probably. Aswon - we should try to keep people thinking that.
20. Tads - think about ward/water/food. Aswon - only when we need to, we've got days yet. Cross that bridge when we need to.
21. Wait about 6 hours, search winds down as it gets dark. Aswon asks Marius to check for drones. Can't hear anything. Aswon asks Kai when he wants to go? Kai - lets go now, before they analyse too much footage. Tads - go as far as we can over the pad to avoid a trail. Think about position - 10km to fence, another 10 to bird. Slightly west to avoid the same route back as in.
22. Tads - plans for the sensor net? Aswon - like what? T-animal noises? A-I'm not sure...
23. Pad lit up like a xmas tree, tent over the escape pod all lit up, spot the aircraft way up high orbiting. Marius - slow moving, keep electronics signature low, mask like a biological, Hunter does nav check, head out, bitterly cold, keep moving.
24. Head out over the desert - 75% to fence, reaction checks. Tads+Aswon 2, Marius +shimazu 1, Hunter+Kai 0. Monster 2
25. Aswon critters check - good roll, oh shit...
26. Shimazu 21 11 1
27. Hunter 17 7 0
28. Marius 16 6 0
29. Tads 16 6 0
30. Aswon 15 5 0
31. Kai 13 3
32. Sandy 9 -
33.
34. Shimazu backs off with traceless walk, Aswon sprints and jumps to grab tads, Marius runs away, Tads tries to land safely, Hunter, moves away, Kai tries to get off right and back, Sandy goes to bite Marius - Marius does full dodge and wins, backs away, Claw on Hunter, he wins too and backs off.
35. 2nd pass, Shimazu charges in as fast as he can, Aswon throws Tads out of the way, grabs spear and looks for a weak spot. Marius tries to GTFA, runs fast. Tads - back off, thinks about spells, delays then prepares slingshot. Hunter GTFA as well, Kai backs off and stays out of sight line, Sandy turns to attack Shimazu. Shimazu 14 hits with centering, Sandy gets 5, beats by 9. Soaked. Shimazu last action of the phase. Disengage and great leap towards throat.
36.
37. 2nd combat round, Shimazu tries to slide under the neck and tries echo location to look for less dense spots. Gets about 1m under. Hunter called shot eye - on 8s, 2 hits+rr=6 - soaked, but bellows in pain. Marius continues to run. Tads backs away. Aswon called shot for a weak spot, gets 1,rr, buys 1, 10L , soaked. Kai tries taser - 5 successes, 10D, then 2nd shot, 3. Saves damage, takes +4 from taser for a round. Sandy turns to bite Aswon, Aswon beats it by 10, but soaked
38. Shimazu shouts to stop it moving, slides to underbelly. Hunter standing still, trying not to be seen and aim with launcher. Marius moves to side to get out of LOS and puts hunter between him and it. Tads - called shot with slingshot to eye - misses. Aswon spots fibrillation, shouts to kai to hit it again. Stabs. Does M damage to inside mouth - fear power. Aswon backs off. Kai shoots again - two more hits.
39. Shimazu - attribute boost Str, 9 combat turns of Str 12, called shot soft underbelly, 22 dice-1 success. RR 4 in total.2nd RR, 6 total. Buys 2 for 8. 15m base 17D hit. It takes an S. It turns and legs it.
40. Shimazu called shot on the tail as it legs it, buys successes to win by 1, base 15m - it has to RR but soaks. Tail splits and sonic slap.
41. Team head north, leaving it to run NEE

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 256 is now published, and added onto book 9.


Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Oh boy – a fun one for me this week! But I’m getting ahead of myself… so – we ended up last week with them facing off against a Sand Juggernaut, and managing to do enough damage to it with called shots to actually drive it away – with not having taken too much damage in return. Very definitely a win for the team, given the size and power of it!

They did realise that with Shimazu down to his last two re-rolls, AND having a serious stun, that crossing the sensor net was going to be a lot more difficult on the way out than on the way in, and started to discuss contingencies. Throw in the complication of an AWACS above them, and they were feeling a bit miserable and up against it – exactly as they should feel when playing in Saeder-Krupp’s back yard in my view!

They got the first two people ready to go, and the sensors got a hit – but just one – on Marius, so they sent a unit to investigate. And then of course, Marius managed to get a sucky stealth roll, and it didn’t get better even after a re-roll, taking a second re-roll at double cost to get a score that wasn’t awful.

So, they managed to get away with that, and after nosing around, the patrol vehicle headed away, declaring it a “false alarm”. Then they got to see the t-bird from the elite unit take out the Sand Juggernaut as it blundered into and set off the alarms further east – and let me show the players the kind of firepower they would be up against if they DID get discovered, and just how bad that would be. They did seize the moment though and use the sounds of the jet hammering back and forth over the sensor line and the long ripples of gunfire as cover while the rest of the team got over the sensors as quickly as they could – which seemed like a really good idea, and with the stealth rolls they all managed as well, very effective! So – with that problem down, they just had a 10km jog back to the aircraft, and to get away.

So, of course, it’s time to “enhance their role-play experience” AKA make life interesting for them – and I described how they suddenly turn around and find Aswon face down in the dirt. Jez (Aswon) gives me a quizzical look, as he’s not been asked to soak anything, then spots that I’ve sent him a DM, and settles back to read. This is the “vision” that he received – as he didn’t explain much in-character to the rest of the team, given the situation. I’m not sure he will unless asked directly – so will have to see how that goes.

***Aswon - dream sequence***
You open your eyes to see Urwan the elder, sitting at the head of the circle. Around him the tribe sit quietly, legs crossed, swaying back and forth in time to the beat. He wears a large ceremonial mask, carved with the crossed spears of a Hunter, a carving of Lion, the rising sun and a rain cloud, bringing together the disparate members of the tribe. As the drummer finishes his piece, Urwan lifts his mask, but instead of his face, you see Cukwu the creator. His gaze pierces into you, then he gestures to the drummer. When you turn your head to face him, he too lifts his mask, revealing Amadioh the god of thunder. He raised his drumsticks to beat upon the ekwo, but instead of the standard drumming noise, a massive thundering noise blasts your ears - it's the *second* loudest thing you've heard this year. A sudden shock overcomes you as you hear the noise and realise its one you heard only a day ago - the sound of a rocket taking off.
Surroundings suddenly blur around you as you find yourself running down a track at an impossible speed. Barely glimpsed on either side of you are members of your tribe, your neighbouring tribes, other Igbo tribes. The path climbs and winds, and you find yourself staring at the Mountain of Death. With a suddenness that jars you the motion stops and the world ripples around you as time returns to normal. Gazing up at the peak, huge explosions rip through the mountain top, blowing gigatons of earth high into the sky. Ala, the spirit of the earth wails and sobs to your left, while Idemili the water goddess is striken to your right, polluted as her waters are filled with choking earth and pollution.
Atop the flattened peak, a mighty tower rises, ghostly now but becoming more and more substantial, while an army of labourers carry materials up the winding path to the summit, building the metal monster.
Around you the jungle dies and withers, the animals fading away as their home is destroyed by rails and roads, the animals fading away as their spirits weaken and diminish. The vision blurs again, and once more you find yourself back at the tribal circle, sitting amongst the centre of the circle, with concentric rings of your people reaching in to touch you, all chanting the same thing - Bia N'ulo! BIA N'ULO!.... "come home"...

Jez being a good egg nods in understanding, accepts the plot stick upside the head and then immediately runs with it and embraces it as an important character moment for him, presenting the team with the fact that HE is going home, with or without them, but he won’t judge them if he has to go alone. As they’re taking off (just – with the piloting roll that Marius made, they could well have looked like they were rolling across the ground, he was flying that low) they’re already looking at the situation and planning how to get to Nigeria and working out the logistics and costs. So – mission accomplished on that one by the looks of things.

I give them a few minutes to discuss, and some IC team to clear the previous mission area and get back over “neutral” ground, then pull out the second plot stick and twat Lee (Marius) upside the head with it, relaying a frantic message from Nadia about the sick baby. Now the pilot is determined to get him, and he makes it clear that this is what’s gonna happen first, regardless of who want to go to Nigeria. So, increasing speed, they head back and arrange a meet out in the wilds to avoid tracking anything back home and discover Nadia and a very sick baby, and begin to deal with the situation. I’d had a chat with a doctor friend of mine about the illness – wanting something that would be dangerous and COULD have been deadly if left untreated, but that would be very easy to treat and recover from – the main thing I needed was for the medical people in the team to have a good reason to run a full set of diagnostics on the baby.

Which they did.

*** big cheesy grin***

Nadia got pregnant back in episode 92, when the team stopped in Sochi and Marius ended up going out for a massive bender with her and some friends. They got completely shit-faced and rocked back up the following morning with no memory of the night before due to drink/drugs, and with throbbing hangovers that made the next day “interesting” for them.

In episode 237 I told them that I’d randomly generated eveyones blood groups, as they were about to head out into the wilderness, and it was a just in case anyone needed a blood transfusion – as the medics on the team were more than competent enough not to make mistakes about who could have who’s blood etc. That caused a few raised eyebrows, but when nothing came of it, I’m pretty sure it went out of their minds as they had other things to think about. I even added the blood group generator to my tracker:
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=101582...127696150847352
I spent a bit of time on this trying to make sure the science worked, and checking the distribution – as Ali (Tads) has a biology degree, and if it wasn’t right I *knew* I’d get moaned at!

And now in episode 256 the team doctor finally gets to see that the blood type of the baby indicates that Marius *CANNOT* be the father. *cue blinking and looking at me silent in the webcam after I sent a DM to him telling him this*.

Then I get back a message via return:
:open-mouth-emoticon:
Holy Shit
Saying nothing.
Hooooooooly shit!

It remains to be seen if he WILL ever reveal this to Marius. Or if something else will happen that might give the game away. Or if Marius would actually care at all – I *suspect* that he’d approach it as shit that’s happened, he has to deal with it, Nadia is his wife now, and just move on. But hey, I’m not the only one that can throw curveballs – and it might be the start of a one man crusade to find the dad and deal with it. And of course, Marius having a “photographic memory”, if there’s anyone that would remember exactly who he went out with that evening before they got trashed, it’s gonna be him!

But, I’m hoping that the player really enjoyed this sudden plot reveal and the knowledge that they now have a REALLY important secret about one of the other characters and could make life really interesting for them!

Anyway, with the cosmodrome behind them, here are the stats I used for various encounters:
First of all the perimeter fence-
Single wire fence, 1m high poles, signs saying SK property, entry prohibited, punishable by death - cheapest way to demark area possible
Beyond is a SOSUS line, running around the perimeter. Microphones every 50m, capturing engine noise/footsteps/overhead engine noise. Computer working out speed/distance/altitude using trig. 204km boundary, 4080 units. There is a bunker with power/processing/subnets every 2km, also containing R2 medkit, some water, distress flares, 4 clips reg rifle ammo and an emergency phone, protected by a R4 lock with AT1.
Sensors give an effective swarm detection rating of 7 for any non-silent approach.

This was backed up by
Standard patrols
4 man patrols, HK416 battle rifles, 9M, SA,BF,FA, smartlink 2, 40 round clips. Melee 5, Rifles 5, 1 X SUT 5, 1 X medic 5, 1 X Nav 5+Heavy 5, 1 X Radio+Demo 5.
Riding a VW Sandstorm (P165R3) with HK HK21 MMG on ring mount
Will drive at 40kph as standard, covering a half perimeter in 2.5 hours, then stopping for 2.5 hours as "backup" while a tag team drives the other half.Repeat again, to mark one shift.

And on call from the local airport was the elite unit:
LAV-62A1 light t-bird Handle 4, Speed 250/850, Accel 30, Body 7, Armour 20, Sig 2, Auto 3, Pilot 2, Sensor 7, Cargo 30, Load 750, Seating 5, Entry 2 (pilots door, rear ramp) Fuel Jet 7,500L, Econ 0.06km/l, L/T VSTOL, Chass T-bird
ECM 3, ECCM3, RAM2, Thermal Baffles 2, Gas EnviroSeal, Light Launch control, 2 missile launchers, Medium nose turret (1CF ammo bin)
2 X 4 Rhienmetal Hetzer-B (Ballista Mk 2) missiles, Int 6, Damage 14D (AV), -7/m blast, 2d6 scatter
1 X HK Franz-autocannon (Ares Vigilant) - SS/FA, 6 round burst, 18D, belt fed
4 elite troops, R7 skills,
1 X sniper (HK MSG54A3, 14D, 5 rounds, SA), 1 rifleman (HK416 battle rifles, 9M, SA,BF,FA, smartlink 2, 40 round clips), 1 gunner (MMG on ring+SMG (MP5), 1 comms/demo/nav (shotgun/machine pistol)

And finally the sand juggernaut was statted as:
Sand-jugger - 20m long,
B15, Q4, S16, C1, I1/3, W9, E7, R4, CP 8, Armour 14, Init 2d6+4
Enhanced quickness (14D6 turns, once per day), Hardened armour (counts as vehicle), enhanced senses (hearing. motion sense), Fear, immunity to cold/fire/pathogens/posions
Attacks
8D Bite, inflicts a str 8 acid attack on armour/clothing if successful.
12M claw, with a body check vs 10s for knockdown/back
8S tail slap, does a 6D (stun) sonic slap on the split attack.


And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Wednesday 23/3/2061, Location: 46.13499, 63.04016 Time 00:47
2. Aswon - merc roll and SUT. Should we hunker down or run? Run and move away from loci, get away from SK strongpoint.
3. Shimazu test for SS - 15 mins rest.
4. Paracritters roll - Juggernaut likely a solo, large range, likely to have been encountered by SK before. Team discuss and go stealthy, pushing on. Reach the 500m mark from the sensors at 01:45, BGC4. Awacs is still up and circling, no sign of perimeter patrol.
5. Aswon thinks hunker down and wait for Shimazu to recover - Hunter and Marius seem to agree, find a defile. Improvised shelters roll, get the best position they can. Rest up, 15 mins for first box, 12 mins, 15 mins. Patrol in the distance - stealth checks ok, all hide well, patrol goes past. 30mins. 20mins, 20mins, 1:52 rest in total.
6. Tads suggest splitting up a lot more than the first time, so any noise might hit multiple sensors? Shimazu wonders about getting Marius and Hunter over first and them making a fast move to the tilt-wing. Aswon thinks this is a good idea. Team discus how to get people across in best order, secure their packs etc. Hunter thinks about Marius making a run, and doing a hot pickup - but worried about SK response.
7. Hunter and Marius crossing first - Hunter stealth=10, RR = 11. Array gets a 17. Visual perception check - spot the patrol vehicle doubling back. Athletics then stealth from H and M
8. Stealth Hunter=15, Marius 5 after double RR. Good roll from patrol, 1 success, start a slower search.
9. Marius tries to re-hide as they do their cone search. Manages to reposition and avoid the patrol. Gets close, but then veer off, while Hunter is tracking the driver.
10. Everyone back at camp, audio perception - catch the noise of the t-bird approaching.Hear the fire of 30mm autocannon. Turns, another burst, the waiting team run and use the noise for cover.
11. Shimazu no noise, Aswon 19, Tads 21, Kai 10 - Microphones don't pick them up under the echoes and noise, and they make it. Team slow to a jog, move at a sustainable rate back to the tilt-wing
12. Back to the tilt-wing at 6am. Pre-dawn. Get rest of cammo netting in, and then plan to leave. Magic test for Aswon - gets nothing, passes out, dream sequence message. Rest drag him onto the tilt-wing and get away.
13. Vehicle stealth for the tilt-wing to avoid the AWACs = 9. AWACs gets a 10, but EDs. Fly out towards the Caspian, then down the centre in " international waters", back to the TCL and then to the ranch. Kai does Biotech on Aswon to determine what is going on. Reports as a coma, Kai has seen before, checks, he's on a weird metaplane quest. Ten mins later, Aswon awakens.
14. Tads - you didn't get bitten by anything toxic did you?
15. Aswon - hmm, I need to go home. Not the ranch, home home. Marius - which is where? Aswon, Nigeria. Might be connected to the rocket, might not. But the gods are calling me home. Tads - if you give me directions, I can go check it out. Aswon - I would appreciate it. Tads - if they speak to me. Aswon, I'll give you the shamens name, they will speak to you.
16. Hunter checking route - bad countries for the first 2k km, then 2k km over the sahara, so no fuel for miles.
17. Aswon - this seemed urgent. Explosions, corporate slavery.
18. Marius - head back to the ranch, get refueled.
19. Aswon - is that wise? Leading them back to the ranch? They think we're dead.
20. Marius continues to fly west, decide on destination later. Marius gets a text from Nadia - urgent. Calls her on the sat-phone. Marius Jr is ill, dry papery skin, gunk at both ends. Has she taken him to the doctor. She doesn't trust them. Marius checks the points and plans a place about half way between her and Baku to head to. Marius tells Hunter, and they plot route.
21. Looking for landing spots / refuelling - too far to get to smuggler stop in Iraq/Sochi/Mt Ararrat. Think about Baku airport landing commercially, need Hunter to get permits up to date.
22. Tads -can we get a favour from Germaine? Aswon - no, don't want to involve her, she has lots of reach. Marius - agree, need to keep a low profile. Tads - Shimazu, can you contact Sato by a non-standard method. Shimazu - no, not really - payphone maybe? Airport?
23. Marius - well, we're going to help Junior. Aswon - I agree, that's a given.
24. Computer check for Hunter. Gets alternate permit for Zabrat Airport / Silkway Helicopter services.
25. Tads checks the back for a disguise for Nadia - Hijab. Tads suggest doing a thorough sweep on the tilt-wing for bugs.
26. Head for the mud-volcano. Nadia in bits, baby looks proper poorly.
27. Kai biotech test - check the baby over. Relaxes as tests results come in.
28. Gasto enteritis, explains - serious but very treatable. Hunter checks with medicine - sounds legit.
29. Hunter bug-scanned the tilt-wing 11. Aswon doing overwatch from 1/4 km away. Marius comforts Nadia, she starts to get herself back together. Marius reassures her it's just a bug, one of those things, nothing she did was wrong. Hunter "you should see when I get it"... Good charisma check, helps Nadia smile and laugh - and then throw something at Hunters head.
30. Tads goes out of earshot, then calls Marius - offers to remove memory, but Marius says no, it shouldn't be a problem.
31. Make Nadia and Junior comfy and get some sleep, clear out the car, make breakfast etc.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 257 is now published, and added onto book 9.


Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
With the cosmodrome adventure behind them, and the baby now treated, the team had a bit of breathing space and could work out how they were going to get down to Nigeria to sort out Aswon’s dream-vision. I’d prepared smuggler stops that they could have been referred to by some of their contacts (for a small fee, or a favour perhaps) – but instead they decided to trave legit. So, several hours of computer work for Hunter building up fake documents and permits, but no trouble crossing borders and it helps build up their legit business front a little more.

They also got a phone call from Sato, Shimazu’s fixer – who was alive, well and worried that the team hadn’t called in – as he’d heard from the Johnson that the job had gone off well and the rocket was destroyed. The team were suspicious, relating that they’d been burnt, so I played off Sato as being genuinely confused as he’d been paid, and had the money for the team as well.

This one really does seem to have thrown them a bit of a curveball – mostly because they “missed” clues as to what happened, made assumptions that were *entirely* logical based on what they knew, but happened to be *very* wrong – so that has really skewed their thinking.

It’s a tough call – part of me is tempted to explain so the players are less confused, and don’t think it’s just me making up random crap to throw at them along the way (though I hope they don’t actually think that – they know I put in a fair bit of effort into the writeups and the plotline) or some weird inconsistencies. On the other hand, I don’t want to give them information they really shouldn’t know (it’s one of the reasons why the writeups go the way they do – sometimes incomplete, and nearly all entirely based only on what the team can see/feel/experience…)

I think this is one of those perennial GM challenges – what to do when the players don’t “get” something, either because they missed a vital clue, or just didn’t put two and two together and get the right answer. On one hand, we game to have fun, and making things not-fun should be against every GM’s ethos (IMO). On the other hand, if you make things easy, and there is never a challenge – then there’s unlikely to be a reward.

I’m reminded of a video that Josh Hayes did on “League of Angels: Heaven’s Fury” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNcmfFQeEAQ) – where at one point you just see him take his hands off the keyboard and just describe how the game was ‘auto-battling’ and quite literally playing itself, and ‘winning’, and he was just watching the pretty animations and seeing his level increasing with every few characters being ‘defeated’. And how as a game it was utterly bereft of challenge and achievement, and once you realised this, the dopamine hit vanished in an instant…
But, anyway – they were confused, and it was behind them, so probably not going to upset them too much, as long as they had something else to distract them soon. The journey down to Nigeria went fairly smoothly as a result of their legit flight plan, with the only point of interest being them spotting a smuggler coming out of one of the smuggler stops I’d prepared for them – just to clue them in that there was *something* there to investigate.

Once at Aswon’s village we did a little plot exposition, and they got the info that a corp was building a railroad to the site, that they had some pictures to determine which corp it probably was, and that they might be building a space facility.

At which point the team started looking into the geology of the mountain, trying to determine just how big a spirit might be required to “wake the volcano” and deal with the problem! Nothing like shooting for the moon as plan A….


So, time for me to do some more in-depth research on the mountain range to find out a bit about the geology of the area, and for see how likely they are to be able to kick off some sort of instability. Otherwise it’s going to be a guerrilla campaign against the corporate guards, making the building site so expensive to run that eventually it becomes unprofitable to develop further and the corp pulls out. Or, they find some other way to “solve” the challenge that sounds vaguely plausible. There was mention of calling Aden and seeing if he’s up for a second razing – not that I think he’d be up for that, but at least they’re being creative!


And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Wednesday 23/3/2061, Location: 40.24407, 49.52073 Time 10:13
2. Aswon - we need fuel - either the airport, or the ranch. Once Nadia is recovered. What do you want to do Marius. M - once she's rested and recovered. Aswon has looked around - looks very quiet, off season - and not busy to start off with. Maybe just kids coming up for a smoke - and alter memory is always available.
3. T-not if I've gone to your tribe. Discuss translations and spell. Tads works out a route and gets some local knowledge from Aswon.
4. Local is surprised, Shaman is not, Aswon needs to come, wing winged bird of fire and friends. How many are coming - we will carve you masks. Tads asks for messages - none. Comes back and mindlinks journey to Aswon. Aswon - right, if you need masks, you need an animal. An African animal. Think of one for you all, maybe Ali can return with your choice. Tads - I got the impression the next time they expected anything it would be you...
5. Shimazu gets a call from Sato. you haven't called yet. I've been waiting for a payphone - we got burnt? Did you? Got rockets fired at us. And the rocket got blown up, then non SK missile fire. Don't know - I've got a stick with Nuyen for you, been paid fine - and I got my brokerage fee. Shimazu - we don't want any more work from them. Oh - hmm, well it seemed to go fine from their POV, think they were playing cards close to chest. Brief discussion with team, pay to front company. Within ten minutes there is a deposit. Hunter logs in - 750k extra. Aswon - frak, have to be careful moving that around, tax laws and things.
6. Hunter - don't worry, I have plans for at least half of that - upgrades to my ware. Marius goes to see Nadia - crashed out after 2 days+
7. Shimazu will drive the car back to the ranch with Tads after concealing the tilt-wing, rest of the team fly back. Load up the tilt-wing with toys, bike and drones, but no room for cargo.
8. Hunter - it's 5200km to get there. Aswon - only one refuel then. Marius - no, need two, safety margin, need fuel when we're there.
9. Thinking about a legit route - towards Khartoum (fuel stop in Sudan), then to Zaria in Nigeria - check route for mana storms and such like - should be clear. 5800km total.
10. Tads - Nadia will probably want some money as well for more upgrades. But we should have another hidey hole somewhere with some fuel and stuff.
11. Team spot steelwork, concrete, cabins and windmill/solar.
12. Marius - wish you could design a "create avgas" spell! Some discussion on how that's not feasible... not yet.
13. Nadia asleep until about 18:00. Family ok, they were worried about baby but Nadia was "firm opinions".
14. Family also warn about the vendors on the main road. Discussion about sending Shimazu up to assess - Aswon, don't draw attention just before we leave.
15. By 6pm baby is back to normal, Nadia is a bit discombobulated, but Marius explains they all need to go to Nigeria, all Aswon's fault. When are you going? After dark. How long for? Two days to get there, but don't know why we're going. Just important that we do. Well, the concrete and steel, it'll wait until you come back, we can dig later. Tads - dig? Shown the blueprints, nuclear bunker style with multiple tunnels.
16. Hunter has got permits and flight plans sorted - took most of the day, to do (2 successes).
17. Split up some of the money to credsticks and distribute around the team.
18. First leg - 3100km to Khartoum, no trouble on the way, 27467 costs. Get to the airport around midnight, rest until dawn, leave Khartoum at 8am arrive Zaria, 12:30. Hunter cramming Nigerian en-route.
19. Mid-way to Zaria, vehicle stealth roll for Marius - gets a ping, but not a lock, but nothing there. Marius informs the team look around, spots a tilt-wing leaving to NE going stealth, and Aswon spots a BGC4 area. Record - but move on. Land at Zaria, refuel, 24,167 Aswon calls ahead to warn them.
20. Arrive at the village - people waiting, area clear for landing, shaman and elder waiting in the middle.
21. Describe, make and make do, mix of old culture and new tech, Aswon goes first. Whistles on thongs,
22. Shaman explains about railroad, corp, they have lawyers - laughing - Aswon, no - this is important, it's how they do business - Not mitushama or Aztechnology. Look at imagery from mobiles - corp started to use tech to defend. Same dream for multiple shamen, close,
23. Marius image analysis - Novatech. Botched politics - massive bribes, no defence for the land?
24. Go looking for Novatech / mining / space launch in the news.
25. SK announce their Duccio probe will launch from their facility in Kourou, French Guiana "as planned", sudden activity in the area.
26. Some details on mining in the area, over the border into Cameroon, 999 year lease for the mountain, building railroad.
27. Team do research and spitball ideas - geothermal, computer checks. Mount Kilimanjaro previously tried - Aswon wants clippings and history.
28. Team agree to go check out the mountain...

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 258 is now published, and added onto book 9.


Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Having arrived at Aswon’s village and with the situation explained somewhat, the players had indicated to me they wanted to do some research – so there was a chunk of info dump for them. Details on the geological makeup of Nigeria, and letting them know that they probably weren’t going to be able to do a mini-ghost dance and make a volcano explode, some info on construction rates and costs to put stuff into context and establish a timeframe for them, some details from the local scouts to let them know what they were up against, and a bit of flavour on the local area.

With that sorted, I also then gave out the “masks”, which are going to be there mostly for RP flavour – they might come up in some minor way in some ceremonies or rituals, but that’s very dependent on the player action. Otherwise it’s just a “nice souvenir” item for them.

Once the info was dumped out to the players, there was a *LOT* of talking, as I’d expected. I captured most of the key stuff, but there was the usual amount of silliness in places, along with the “if Novatech catch us, we are so fucked” kind of chat. And they’re not wrong… if they do cause some serious damage, then Novatech is probably going to be majorly pissed – but they are taking that threat very seriously, and I’m sure they’re going to cover their tracks carefully.

One of the players asked about maps and locations, so I gave them an out of game steer on how I was going to be handling this one. With the remoteness of the terrain, and the activity going on, I wasn’t likely to be finding stock images or documentary footage to use as a reference, or any similar projects that would quite fit – so a lot of the stuff was going to be handled abstractly. If they do a raid on a location, I’ll put together a tactical map of the locations to facilitate combat – but probably not on a strategic level. Instead it will be small-unit tactics, or other skill rolls that will provide information to them, and let them get into the right positions to carry out their plans.

Partly this is to keep the logistics simple from my side – no need to prepare intricate maps showing the 6 different construction locations and progress of the 12 teams in detail, no need to try and track progress through a jungle environment, and partly to avoid inflicting my crappy MS-Paint or PowerPoint graphics on the players when ultimately it doesn’t really matter. With the team being relatively powerful now, their efforts against the rent-a-cop style security forces are going to be a pushover, and it’s only the elites that they need to worry about. So, in the coming week with the first raids against Novatech, the players are probably going to have resounding successes and cause huge amounts of damage to the corp. With good attributes and skills, spirit concealment and protection, modern high power weaponry, good force magical weapons and plenty of drone support and knowledge of modern sensor systems they’re going to trounce the enemy – I’m thinking this is going to be like the Rebels vs the Galactic Empire – the players can choose the engagement site, and as long as they’re not sloppy they can sting and fade, and the Empire can’t be strong everywhere.

Once the losses mount up, the corp is going to escalate of course, and *that’s* where we’ll roll out the battle map, when we’ve got some elite special forces with drone and magical support to put them in shouting distance of the players, and we’ve got a combat that will actually give them a challenge or represents a risk.

One of the things I wanted to do this week was have a bit of a “hero” moment. The team are used to going up against reasonable force enemies – after all it needs to be a challenge – so they don’t really appreciate the kind of power level they’re operating at. So, with the friendly NPCs they were going to meet, I gave them three shamans – which represents ALL of the magical users in the area – and some guards/scouts to work with. They are all quite weak, relatively speaking – on the basis that they’re just villagers going about their regular business, not carrying out high level missions in a globe-trotting campaign. So, the hunters have decent stealth/survival/spear skills, but not much else, while the shaman were all quite low power. Two haven’t initiated yet, while the third has – to grade 1.

When I assigned the totems and put Snake for the grade 1, it created a chance for what I’d hoped would be a nice little moment. They would summon and invoke a F3 great form, demonstrating their “secret knowledge” to the other two shaman and having a moment to be smug – but take a bit of stun from their efforts. That would really firmly identify the power level to the team, and set things up for a nice reveal.

I’ve gone through the maths with Tads, and now we have an agreement – unless something stops her, I assume that she has summoned 8 X force 3 great forms at each dawn/dusk, and each has 3 services – without her needing to roll. When we looked at her dice pools and made some sample rolls, this proved to be entirely feasible with only random average rolls, so it cuts down on a massive amount of admin time for her and me, and makes life a lot easier. So when the NPC shows off his 1 spirit that made his nose bleed, Tads could firmly put him in his place by displaying her stable of 9 great forms, none of which gave her a nosebleed.

But, it didn’t quite work out like that. Tads being Tads – or rather Ali being Ali, she felt uncomfortable in the spotlight, and sorry for the NPC, and kept want to apologise to him for embarrassing him!

Oh well!

Still, they’re in position on the mountain now, have established their bona-fides with the natives and are starting their recon, and can soon move on to a campaign of wholesale destruction that’s going to poke the Novatech ant-hive, and we’ll see what happens to them…

The last thing I did, in case the team progressed that far was to randomly roll up a free spirit and see what I got, as I know that’s one of the primary plans. It’s going to be sympathetic to their plight, and somewhat helpful – rather than an avenger/prankster style spirit, and it’ll have 60% of force as spirit energy – so not too bad, though a little under average. However, it’s the two starting powers it randomly got that made me chuckle – hidden life and personal domain.

With hidden life, the spirit has a connection to a thing, somewhere in it’s domain that acts as a hoarcrux effectively – while the thing exists, the spirit can’t be killed. Disrupted and inconvenienced – but not gotten rid of. And the second one – personal domain – sets an area as the particular stomping ground of the spirit, in this case the top of the mountain. And inside that area, the spirit counts as TWICE as powerful as it should be, based on force.

So, if the team go for something like a force 9 spirit – which I think they may well do, given the possibilities and the potential dice spread from Tads’ pool, then it will have a spirit energy of 6 – but the personal domain will boost the force from 9 to 18 – which the spirit energy then adds to. So at the top of the hill, we’ve got a spirit blasting out magic with a rating of 24… Novatech won’t know what hit them! Assuming the players go for that of course…But Tads has got 11 re-rolls available, so there could be a monster spirit incoming!


And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Thursday 24/3/2061, Location: 11.41811, 6.63024 Time 13:38
2. Masks
3. Hunter - Hyena
4. Aswon - Lion
5. Marius - Cape Buffalo
6. Tads - Barbary Stag
7. Shimazu - Dog
8. Kai - Chamaeleon
9. Aswon - brief discussion on tribal area to the south, generally treat the same.
10. He briefs on stuff from the scouts
11. Talking with the scouts
12. Initially they scouted out the corporate activity, so they have good maps / understandings of where they are and what kind of activity they are performing, along with rough numbers of workers and amount of machinery in use.
13. While shamans and their representatives made the initial protests and complaints, the scouts kept a passive watch on the construction. When it became clear they didn't get anywhere with the protest route, the shamans "let them loose" and they started with acts of sabotage and theft - stealing a lot of food, and materials they saw as "key". They have some stashes of blasting compound and explosives, det-cord and the like, but one attempt to use it caused a bit of an accident. They also took things like oil filters and machine parts and threw them into the valleys, making them hard to recover.
14. The corp responded with rentacops from the local area, who were dealt with reasonably easily - they were city boys, and struggled in the local environment, and were only armed with pistols and light body armour. It slowed down the sabotage, but didn't stop it.
15. The corp then bought in some much better trained security forces, armed with SMGs / rifles, better trained and with a lot more tech. It's the tech in particular that has been catching the scouts out - they're not sure how it works, or what methods they're using, but they've been intercepting or ambushing hunting parties with ever increasing hit rates, and inflicting mounting losses on the locals - unsustainable losses, and the local tribes are already facing issues with loss of hunters and food for the locals.
16. The corp has also started to offer "jobs" down in the lowlands for the women / older men, with food and benefits, and the tribes are seeing a trickle of people starting to leave, further impacting their viability.
17. Aswon suggests using this to infiltrate the enemy, send spies / saboteurs in.
18. Mentions shamans MAY not be magical, but should be respected.
19. Tads - but also wake up the spirit of the mountain. Aswon, why not both. Tads - can we negotiate with local shaman / lodges / spell sharing. And also need consent for waking the local spirit of the mountain.
20. Hunter - how easy to unify the tribes? Aswon - they are against the threat. H - not working cohesively though. Aswon - they can't afford to go to war, they need training / info
21. Kai - can we make the air / space above the mountain unusable? Aswon - magic, maybe. Some discussion about spirits, summoning, magical response from Novatech. Spirits will have free will, can't rely on them being aligned, may need to kill them if they go mental.
22. Aswon - get down there, and build a warded area to have a space to retreat to. Tads asks about BGC - Aswon, near the blasting site yes, away no - there might be glare though.
23. Marius - it does sound like we need to set off a volcano. Aswon, if we can make it look "natural", the insurance won't underwrite stuff like that...
24. Marius - because of the investment, almost no amount of resistance will put them off. Might lock the natives into a perpetual conflict with the corps. Might lead to their decimation.
25. Aswon - need to train the locals so they have the options to fight - but their choice. But otherwise we do whatever we can to make it look like the land uprising.
26. Hunter - what about publicity? Aswon - of what. Ripping apart the jungle? A - we'd need an atrocity - one that WE didn't cause, otherwise people won't care...
27. Marius - One possibility that might work - is if you can hit REALLY hard REALLY quick, and make the costs spiral out of all projections - before they spend too much and get into the sunk cost fallacy. If you can make a 1.5 billion nuyen project suddenly look like a 5 billion project, they might bail on the big plan - and say just do some local mining to recoup the costs put in so far... but we can't leave ANY evidence, or we get hunted to the ends of the earth.
28. Tads - not sure if this would work, but the quoll? Locals having lots of stories. Maybe persuade them to act in the same way.
29. Team agree to go, the sooner they recon, the less roads are built.
30. Fly down and make contact, get hidden. Set up a force 10 warded area
31. Local shaman arrive with 24 warriors. Team explain, pandering to aspects of the shaman based on totems:
32. Hit Novatech with something that looks like the land itself objects to their efforts.
33. It needs to make a clear impact and look like it could be big trouble for the long term, but with nothing to link back directly to the tribes. We must not start a war here, its not one we think you can win, and we can't stay forever.
34. We also will investigate their security and new security, and do what we can to teach you how to evade and defeat these things, if that is possible - and most things are.
35. First, does the mountain have a protector - in legend only maybe? We would prefer to enlist it's help.
36. Our thoughts for options here are:
37. Spirits - a lot of spirits - to attack the construction sites, particularly the machinery, not the people except for those who resist. We do this for a few days/nights. Whilst that's going on, we are calling, negotiating with, and freeing powerful spirits to protect the mountain in a similar way, starting with a big splashy, showy combined attack once we have enough of them ready.
38. OR, AND
39. Possibly, looking to call up magma, or make it look like magma has been called up, from the mountain - this will be very hard, and may not be possible at all without the aid of a very powerful spirit, but if we can this is almost guaranteed to make them at least reassess. This is partly why we asked about any ancient protectors.
40. Second, when it comes to learning how to defeat the enemy technology: our shaman has many useful spells. It would help us to know what spells you have. Sometimes you already know what you need to know: you just didn't know you it was relevant.
41. Hunter - explain about weaknesses of machines in targeted sabotage.
42. Tads - when do they work? Scouts - daytime only, not nights. Tads - infiltrate at night for sabotage then, imp-invis will work great.
43. Kai - what is your level of commitment? What is on/off limits. locals explain they are willing to fight
44. Tads - they're following terrain - land slips would be a good option.
45. Aswon - are you prepared to sacrifice access to the mountain to drive them off. Locals - yes. Aswon - warning that spirits may wander.
46. Snake shaman look at my powerful spirit - F3 GF, Aswon asks Tads to drop masking. She does and mentally pokes them. Snake blanches. Monkey makes trid-entertainment of monkey pack around them. Tads masks up again. Snake wallows in his own hubris. Others still laughing, but Aswon explains about the level of force involved. They still agree it's worth the risk.
47. Kai - what about calling in dragon allies? Some laughing. Aswon - maybe... I mean Aden just because he's angry? What about the others? Eastern friends - they want to play games. I mean... *edges away from Marius* - what about someone else who has an interest in space? Marius face palms.
48. Settle down for food, get tales from the local area - general background fluff, but nothing specific indicating a major power. But - get explanation of the "mountain of death" and hidden "children of the lost valley"
49. Parrot shaman asks what the team does. Simple intros, pumps up the values of the mundanes. Rest of team unmask.
50. Surok explains he can fly. but also that the team are clearly the big hitters. Exchange info about spells, Malik looks at Farik about trid, Aswon distracts with the spear. Marius shows vtol drone, Hunter shows gun. Tads does fix on their commlinks
51. Aswon brings them back to ground with relative power levels. Mice may scare the elephant, but can still be trodden on.
52. Aswon and Hunter want to go to site #5 for recon, rest sleep.
53. Geology research
54. The African plate meets the North and South American plates at the mid-Atlantic ridge far to the west, and shears to the Arabian plate and diverges from the Somali plate far to the east - so the area is generally fairly stable with no recent volcanic activity.
55. (You're unlikely to get volcanic activity anywhere in mainland western Africa due to the distance from the nearest plate boundaries)
56. Chappal Wadi sits on the Benin-Nigerian Shield, part of the West African Craton, a tectonically inactive region forming the late Precambrian era. It consists of two Archean centres juxtaposed against multiple Paleoproterozoic domains made of greenstone belts, sedimentary basins, regional granitoid-tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG) plutons, and large shear zones.
57. (The shear zones explain the formation of the deep sided valleys in the mountainous areas and the sharp drops, but the mountains are pretty old (200 million years+) and a mix of different granite types mainly)
58. The geology of Nigeria formed beginning in the Archean and Proterozoic eons of the Precambrian. The country forms the Nigerian Province and more than half of its surface is igneous and metamorphic crystalline basement rock from the Precambrian. Between 2.9 billion and 500 million years ago, Nigeria was affected by three major orogeny mountain-building events and related igneous intrusions. Nigeria has tremendous oil and natural gas resources housed in its thick sedimentary basins, as well as reserves of gold, lead, zinc, tantalite, columbite, coal and tin.
59. (The country does have natural resources, but much of it is deep - below 600m thick bands of rock formations for instance, which makes extraction expensive and less desirable to the corps. It's also hard to drill/blast - but does make for superior foundations and seismically stable areas)
60. Construction research
61. Cost for the railroad is approx. 1 million Nuyen per kilometre. The railroad extension is 156km long.
62. Expected construction time would be approx. 2 weeks per km for a prepared route, giving 300 weeks of construction for a single crew.
63. Novatech have employed 12 separate crews, working from staging areas along the route, each responsible for one section of the build, giving an approx 0.5 year build time
64. With the time taken to construct the railroad, along with the actual launch facility once the railroad reached the plateau, catching *either* of the comet passes are going to be almost impossible
65. The track gauge is planned at a massive 2140mm, presumably to carry the large rocket sections up to the spaceport, which requires extensive sweeping turns and lots of grading
66. Rockets can most easily reach satellite orbits if launched near the equator in an easterly direction, as this maximizes use of the Earth's rotational speed (465 m/s at the equator). Such launches also provide a desirable orientation for arriving at a geostationary orbit.
67. Normally mountain railroad construction goes for a narrow gauge to reduce construction costs. However due to the geography of the area and the nature of the plateau, they have a relatively easy climb without sharp turns - but they do have a number of narrow but deep valleys to cross which will require bridging.
68. Construction equipment
69. Surveys are apparently complete, and a major road-building effort is underway in 6 locations, corresponding to the 6 track building efforts - they are driving in dozers and drillers and construction compacted gravel roads - only sturdy enough to last 2-3 seasons, but long enough to complete the railroad.
70. Crawler dozer: https://www.constructioncost.co/images/img/...nstruction5.jpg
71. Loader tractors: https://www.constructioncost.co/images/img/...nstruction8.jpg
72. Mega-dozer, 1 X 180 ton https://cranemarket.com/blog/wp-content/upl...per-dozer-2.jpg
73. 100t crawler cranes: https://b7c9z6m8.rocketcdn.me/wp-content/up...awler-crane.png
74. Liebherr LR 11350 - 1350 t crane with 150m boom for bridge laying https://www.liebherr.com/external/products/...350-DSC0300.jpg
75. The local shamans
76. Not all villages / tribes have magical shamans - some just have "wise men" who follow the traditions and live the lifestyle (but are accorded the same respect). None of the local shamans are willing to leave their tribes uncovered to make the journey south with you, as they're needed to administrate and protect their own people.
77. The tribes around Chappal Wadi *are* prepared to send immediate aid - up to 25 hunters/warriors, and 3 shaman from the tribes surrounding the mountain and threatened by the railroad.
78. Shaman NPCs
79. Malik, Human male - Monkey shaman, uninitiated (stealth, detect enemies, heal, detox, trid entertainment)
80. Surok, Human female - Parrot shaman, uninitiated (vocalise, translate, heal, levitate)
81. Farik, Human male - Snake shaman, G1 with invoking (mindlink, mindprobe, treat, trid phantasm)
82. 24 Hunters
83. If they summon and free a mountain spirit: 60% of force as spirit energy, 2 powers - Personal Domain, Hidden Life
84. Novatech standard sec-forces
85. 3 man teams, Colt-Cobra TZ-115, Armour vest with plates

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 259 is now published, and added onto book 9.


Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Unfortunately a bit of a boring session for 3 of the players this week. We were down one (Kai), but Shimazu, Tads and Marius were pretty much spectators while Aswon and Hunter went off to do some recon. As a general thing they try not to split the party too much, but it does sometimes happen – and I try to keep things moving along when it does happen.

In this case though it unfortunately dragged out to most of the session before we got the team back together. At least when they got back to brief the rest on what they’d found, the players knew exactly what had gone on – having sat and listened to it.

It’s always a difficult thing when the party splits, especially if you have time limited events happening. Most of the team were getting some rest, so they weren’t going to be doing anything that would test their skills or give them interest. If I’d put in a “random paracritter attack” (which I’m not a massive fan of, in terms of ‘oh I’ll put this in to give this half of the player base something to do’ then it would have been soundly whooped by the team remaining at the base – with either Shimazu turning stuff into kebabs, Tads stunning stuff into the ground, or a pack of 24 angry natives with excellent ratings in spear going all stabby on it. It would have been obvious ‘filler’ and I don’t like that kind of thing at all. If it had been a corporate team, then it could have been more challenging based on what tech was used – but then the base would have had to be abandoned in case their position had been made, and that wouldn’t really help the story along either… so, they ended up having a quiet night, with nothing exciting going on.

Meanwhile team sneaky-bois got to meet two NPCs who are definitely just run of the mill eco-warriors and definitely not a pair of Drakes working for Hestaby. Honest.

They made nice, acted with restraint and as a result got a meeting arranged, to at least bring them to meet the rest of the team, and get the rest of the players involved. What they didn’t do was assense the pair, at all, not wanting to appear “rude” – which is fair enough, and entirely in character for Aswon.

It remains to be seen if the rest of the team will be so restrained!

Meanwhile, I had a chat with Tads to find out her intentions, and she confirmed that she was going to have a look at summoning a big spirit and then setting it free. I’d thought that was likely, based on the discussions the team had had, so I’d gotten one of the players to do me a bunch of random rolls at the start of the night, working through the “free spirit creation tables” from Magic In The Shadows” – and got a monster result. The spirit got 2 powers on a 1D3 roll, and those powers were…. Personal Domain, and Hidden Life.

Awesome! That makes the spirit *ridiculously* resilient in it’s chosen area, and almost indestructible without some serious magical effort to discover its source of life and deal with it – without the spirit knowing of course. Tough work!

And tonight, while doing the writeup I sat down with Tads and asked her about the spirit, and worked through the maths with her, and had her do the summoning rolls now, so we can just go through the RP of what happens on Tuesday night. She ended up going for a force 9 great form spirit, which is pretty monster at the best of times, and would be a serious challenge. Add in the hidden life and personal domain, and that becomes very stronk! At force 9, it has an effective armour rating of 18, so any normal weapons with a power of 18 or lower *automatically* spang off – so that includes the Panther Assault Cannon, often seen as the pinnacle of Shadowrun gun desires. On top of that, Tads had chosen to use her extra bonus grade powers all in armour, giving it +3 armour… so that means you need to hit it with a power 22 weapon or higher to avoid an auto ricochet! That means that even a chunk of air-to-ground missiles are now going to bounce off the spirit, before you even factor in spirit energy (of which it has 6), and the personal domain boost. And with Hidden life, the spirit now has regen, so if you don’t wipe it out in one turn, it’s gonna get back up and be *really* pissed with you…

We went through the summoning and Tads ended up coming out with a bunch of drain which she’ll have to nurse next session – but she made the numbers for the summoning and great form test, and got one service – which is all she needs to get it in front of her and set it free. And then the personality from the table takes over – so now the mountain has a “Guardian” spirit that will eat 90% of mages for breakfast and can sow untold havoc on mundanes that have no magical defence, while the corporate issued weapons spang off and do absolutely no damage at all. Once that’s released upon Novatech, things are going to get very, VERY, expensive for them!


And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 25/3/2061, Location: 7.03486, 11.71462, Time 00:15
2. Hunter asks locals for advice on moving quietly. They tell him to take off arms and armour. Sigh. Warn about boars and snakes - Hunter ask if boars in packs? No - too nasty for that, they kill each other. Nothing major, few minor bits of advice.
3. Start being really stealthy at about 6km from camp. Burnt spots from VTOL. Get about 500m out, guides want to stop - very nervous. Team go full spectrum on senses. Y shape path split, up to spit of land, 200m up, or down to camp. They go up, stealth 10 for Hunter and Aswon. Spot the bright light of the compound, perception check. Hunter spots the sensor pod - small IR camera and microphone brick. USB style interface on the brick, probably detects only specific noises like metallic clinks,
4. Nova-Eye Bl94-6/5. Look for similar, keep eyes open for trip-wires and pressure pads etc.
5. Hunter shows pics, they ask to come up, look at it, shamefaced, then head back down.
6. Spot someone on the crane. Aswon spots demo attempt on crane. Hunter spots a tiny loop of webbing, points out to Aswon, they look, 2 X rucksacks. Check the contents, Hunter looks at laptop, it's "secure". Fence is 3m high, spot the pair in the camp moving around, Hunter penetrates the invisibility. Spot them moving around tactically, covering, does NOT assense. Watch for 1 hour. Invis drops on orc, levitate straight up. Aswon - let's go sit in a non-threatening manner, not pointing guns. They appear, freak, pull guns, team waves at the others. Offer water bottles, put guns down, they drift in. Drop invis and levitate, unclip. Look quizzically. Hunter says hi in Sioux, ork says "what's that chummer?" Long way from home.
7. Aswon - nice op, we're not on the clock - anti Novatech, or just what... mischief or paid for.
8. takes a drink - 1 for 1. Who are you guys? I am Aswon, came to plan a job, seems the job is done, who wants to work hard if they don't have to? She turns to look at H, "I am hunter, or at least the name I'm know by. Part of a team." Aswon - we have strategic goals in this area. "Hmm, ok, your question." A-Are you hear on campaign or just the pretty lights.
9. Who are you working for? A-We're not on the clock, P-what do you mean A-we got a call for help to come here. A - the trick is to help without causing a war. Where does this leave us? Wherever, we're not going to stop you. Maybe joint operations perhaps?
10. So you were coming to look at this place - thumbs over shoulder. Saw quite a lot. So what are your intentions. Well, what you've been doing is one of your options. Depends, we have lots of options, evaluating, working out scale.
11. Leans in close, intense, what other options do you have. Aswon - part of a team, I can't do them, but others can. Hunter internal call to Aswon - give them Kai's number? Aswon, no - might make things complicated.
12. So where are you from - Aswon, I'm local, my friend is not.
13. We're from a fair way away, but eco damage, they have to be stopped - do you agree? A-yes. We thought about doing things like this, but shooting war, maybe dangerous.
14. A- have you done this elsewhere, we don't want to ruin your plans. P - we should leave so we can set this off.
15. A - options again. P - sudden realisation about locals being blamed. Ask to meet team, A - not rendezvous. Near the teams hideout, move a bit into the treeline.
16. Ask for 1 hour, Hunter warns about the cam, they went around. Introduce as Phoss and Ury, arrange to meet at dusk, then head off.
17. Aswon asking hunter - not head back to camp, maybe go hide, maybe watch - or play it honest. Sneak past the camera, get back to the hunters, tell they we need to get out, going to be very noisy soon. GTFO quickly. Check for trails and watchers. After an hour, big badda boom. Climb a tree - spot troop carriers and attack choppers arrive on scene in <10 mins. Troop carriers came from the top of the mountain, attack choppers from the lowlands.
18. Back to camp for about 6am, meet team.
19. Marius - choppers will need proper base, especially the attack birds, heavy maintenance. Tads - and pilots probably want better sleep / quarters. Marius - agree, probably a base down in the valley / lowlands somewhere. Aswon - but we know about response time now. Interested in scouting top of the mountain now, maybe they have troops up there.
20. Aswon and Hunter brief the rest of the team. Tads asks for mindlink for spell signature. Suggests getting in touch with Fang about eco-warriors. Aswon - yeah, he called me chummer.
21. Marius starts a thorough check of everything on the bird, asking Kai and Shimazu to help. Aswon gets kip, as does Hunter. Tads calls Fang in Seattle. Squints at screen -oh, you, hello. Tads, sorry to bother you, maybe run into people you know, wanted to check. What? Explains a bit more. Gives names. No dice. Gives details. F-can do you a datasearch. T - don't know if we need that, will get Kai to get in touch if we do.
22. Aswon - maybe go back tonight - maybe not, probably all the sites will be on alert. Maybe best to give them the night off. Talk to Marius, find out where the microcams are to do surveillance next time.
23. Tads - if I go with you to see them, I can send spirits to go pick them up later if that will help.
24. Hunter - maybe take Marius next time, they have a network to hack.
25. Tads - I'm going to spend time talking to the shaman today to learn about magic, offer to share her F1 spells to them in her lodge. Aswon - worth looking for the spirit of the mountain, or seeing if you can find it? Tads - maybe, it might come anyway, whether we want it or not. A - hmm, yeah. Maybe teach them a low force spell to get all in tune together.
26. After sleep Aswon scouts with Shimazu the meet point for that night. Nothing special, but gets the lay of the land.
27. Marius looks at quality of gear, part of a range, 3 camo types, flux 1, sensor net about 1km wide, encryption 1 on civi models, anti-tamper 1 on most models. the one they have is towards top of the range.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 260 is now published, and added onto book 9.

First of all a quick note – there’s no play session for the next 2 weeks, maybe 3, so there’s not going to be an update to the story / BTS for several weeks either. Tads and I are off to the Netherlands to go hang out with our World of Warcraft guildies, in villa and spend two weeks, drinking, eating, playing board games and Rping with an awesome bunch of people. They’ll also hopefully be a couple of games of Shadowrun – one for my “Dockland Yard” group I run on a Wednesday which has three Dutch players and 2 English, all of whom will be at the guildmeet – so a rare chance for a face to face game. We also normally fit in one or two one-shot games with some pre-gen characters – for the last couple of years its featured a special forces team going to rescue a bona-fide Princess from a Bavarian castle, or breaking into a terrorist held London Underground station to defuse a bomb. This year they’re off to Rotterdam to reclaim an LNG tanker that’s been captured by religious extremists who are threatening to destroy the port unless a number of their captured comrades are released.

So – it’s likely to be quiet from me for a few weeks while we get some R&R, and we’ll be back to playing mid-april.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
First of all - a picture of the Mighty Pebble: https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:563/1..._P9WvIk_oQ.jpeg
So – off to the meet with Phoss and Ury. I checked with the players if they wanted to do the summoning first (wondering if they would want to show off their magical nuke as part of the negotiations) but they declined, choosing to do the summon later.

Unsurprisingly they took precautions heading to the meet – not knowing who or what Phoss and Ury are, they assumed there was a good chance for a double-cross and were on their guard. As it happens P+U are trustworthy (at least at the moment), but also equally suspicious of the player team. So – time to add a little wrinkle to the plot by having the snake shaman try to sneak up on the meeting to learn stuff he wasn’t supposed to know. Unfortunately when I rolled his stealth, he got an *awful* roll, and there were corpses in shallow graves that could hear him coming – so unsurprisingly the phy-ad with exceptional hearing had no problem picking him up and confronting him.

They managed to convince P+U it wasn’t a problem and got down to negotiations, making good points and generally having a good old RP session as they tried to make friends and sound each other out. They also ended up dropping masking to show the newcomers that they weren’t noobs, and impressing the otherwise quite professional team of two – and of course they dropped their own masking revealing them both to be true drakes. The plot thickens!

Phoss and Ury are working for Hestaby, noted for her green agenda, and my way of bringing in another of the great dragons into the mix, for future use (we have the dragon conclave coming up in our timeline, and I intend to have the players wrapped up in that – no doubt to Marius’ disgust) and giving them some potentially very sound allies in their eco-war against Novatech.

With the drakes now convinced the team are worth having as allies, they got to making tentative plan for massive destruction, and I had Phoss become very interested in Marius, realising that the rigger gives her significant options for carnage. This was something I wanted to throw in to make sure it didn’t turn into another magic-fest, with the two mundanes feeling somewhat sidelined as weird magical shit went on around them. Sure, they’re going to use magic – but P+U work more on the physical side of things, with a touch of magic to augment their skills, and they were unable to do much with the rigger-only machinery. Hopefully the two non-magic characters will be heavily involved in the camp assault, and will have their skills tested and valued, showing that there’s still a place for them in an operation, even when drakes are knocking around. Of course both players are well aware that P+U are drakes – but the rest of the team haven’t informed them in character yet, so it's going to be interesting when that is revealed!

Finally it was back to the camp and time for the summoning, as explained in last weeks notes. This went through fairly quickly, as we’d already done the rolls and established what the spirit was – so it was just needed to work out the teams reactions. With all three of the local shamans providing karma to the spirit at summoning time, I wanted to weave in some elements of their personality – so I thought about the three totems (monkey, parrot and snake) and how that might combine together to make a weird gestalt creature. I have to admit that there’s a certain amount of my sense of humour leaking through into this one (which may not be everyone’s cup of tea), with iddy biddy rock having phenomenal cosmic power – but I’m looking forward to getting to write up in a couple of weeks how the spirit goes on a rampage and utterly trashes an entire camp and everyone in it, before reverting back to cute little rolling rock that wanders off to go and boop some trees or play with the monkeys…

I did have someone from the Dumpshock forums asking about the concept of setting spirits free and where this was from. This is the explanation I sent to the player, but probably worth putting here as well, so you can see what we’re doing:

1. Most of what we do sticks exactly the rules in Magic in the Shadows - page 113 for the section on free spirits, or page 184 from the SR3 rulebook.
2. But - it has always - since I started playing Shadowrun about 21 years ago - been a stated thing that a mage who has services left on a spirit - whether that be a nature spirit or elemental (or other type) can use that service to "grant freedom", turning the spirit into a free spirit. It then becomes an NPC under the GM's direction, and may act in any way at all.
3. This is not stated anywhere in the core book or MITS, and I don't know if it's a holdover from SR1 or 2, or taken from a novel or lore book, or just a house rule that has stuck from the people that I learned the system from.
4. But - the people setting it free give it that "spark", but then have no control over it, and I always make it clear that this is both dangerous and risky. If you free a big spirit, and I roll up a trickster spirit on the table - or you've just not treated your spirits well, then they're likely to be hostile to you, and you could be in trouble. Get a "player" motivation free spirit that has the astral gateway power, and your entire team could get sucked into the metaplanes and find themselves fighting for their existence...
5. It's also generally warned to the player that leaving a trail of free spirits behind their travels would get noticed sooner or later, and does establish an MO and makes them both noticeable and traceable, something most Shadowrunners try very hard to avoid of course...
6. As such, we have tended to find that it's mostly a nature shaman that would do stuff like that, leaving behind F3-4 spirits in parks or natural enclaves where they might spontaneously form anyway, hoping to get guardian type spirits to help preserve them, or on rarer occasions a hermetic with a favoured and much summoned & re-summoned type of elemental that they favour over others to guard their magical workshop or lair - almost functioning like an ally spirit, but without the control.
7. From a GM point of view, I normally make it one of my first questions to the player releasing a spirit of "how much karma do you give it then?" to set the expectation that they *ALL* desire karma (as they can't earn it themselves), and that there is an expectation as the summoner, that you'll provide the first meal. That drain on karma generally limits player summoners from getting out of hand with their summon + release plans, as they don't want spirits following them and bitching/moaning/bad-mouthing them for being tight, or the spirit being spiteful and malevolent towards them, and neither do they want to use up all their karma they so desperately need for spells, initiations, enchantment and raising skills and attributes.

So – not something that is RAW, but from our point of view it seems to fit a RAI interpretation, and isn’t that far from the creation of free spirits when summoners get wounded / knocked out in a lot of the books / fluff.

Tads ended up with a F9 great form mountain spirit with:
B13, Q7,S13, C9, I9, W9, E9(A),R7, Init 17+1d6 (physical) or 29+1d6 (astral) doing 13S base damage in melee, with spirit powers of Accident, Concealment, Guard, Materialisation, Movement and Search.
When it went free, it gained 6 spirit energy, and the powers Personal Domain (90,000 square metres of the mountain) and Hidden Life, with a motivation of "Guardian". So it's pretty pissed off with Novatech too, and is going to go have words with their construction crews.
Because of the spirit energy, all of its physical stats are boosted by 6, and any spirit powers that are based on force are likewise 6 higher - so we've got a Body 19 spirit with Strength 19 to deal with. On top of that, is has immunity to normal weapons (like all spirits) at twice its force - so if you hit it with a power 38 weapon or lower, it auto-spangs. On top of the on top of, the summoner spent all 3 points from her grade giving it +3 armour...
And then, just because that wasn't nasty enough, in the area defined as its personal domain, it gains double bonus from its spirit energy - so that's ANOTHER 6 on top... eek.

With the 6 karma donated by the 3 shaman at creation time, it’s only 1 good karma off being able to raise its spirit energy from 6 to 7, pushing its stats even higher… It’s a really good job this thing came as a guardian and not something more malevolent!


And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Friday 25/3/2061, Location: 7.07039, 11.62383, Time 18:00
2. Marius thinks do the meet first, they may have intel that will affect our plans. Kai agrees. M - they've been here longer it seems, they know more about conditions. Might be worth knowing what they know, before we decide. A - might be worth organising before they bomb other sites, give them a signal, something mythic - but do the meet first. But mention the plan. T - it appears manageable, but may leave me drained for a while. K - let's go do the meet then.
3. Team take a circuitous route, get to meet site. Tell natives to stay behind, so not get involved or make you vulnerable, but let them know where the meet is.
4. Meet Phoss and Ury with small kit, obviously have a stash of their own somewhere. Examine the rest of the team. Aswoon introduce Kai, Shimazu standing in bodyguard position, and brief intros to others in the team.
5. Hear something coming - Kai - that's not one of ours, Ury and Phoss pull weapons, Shimazu covers 6 o clock, noise stops. Then noise resumes. Kai - can I address them? Phoss shrugs. K - "you're not very good at being stealthy! come out!" Farik appears. Kai - apologies, introduces him, reveals a "secret". Farik sulks in the corner, Aswon stands behind him with spear. Kai tries to tell him to go guard and watch the jungle. He argues, but then does, ish.
6. Kai resumes. How do you do. P-remains to be seen, met team, two ends of possibility. Kai maybe will of the gods. Phoss scoffs. Kai - can reveal our plans a little. P-1 for 1 worked earlier. Aswon scoffs. K - helping the locals, preventing construction, stop the land being destroyed. Been tasked to do that. If that aligns us - absolutely fine, happy to work with that. If that goes against you, happy to negotiate - there's room to discuss. Kai is not using any skills to boost his powers.
7. P - the same, work together against the enemy. K - without being specific, this is a spiritual thing. Is that how you've been tasked? P - so you're on a spiritual journey, how much are you willing to risk. K - pretty serious, we like money, we don't want to die - but we're serious about this. We don't want the natives to die either, but they've got more skin in the game, and they're willing to sacrifice a lot. A - they may be willing to die, our job to see they don't have to.
8. P - looks at shaman, back to kai - I appreciate that, but sometimes you have to sacrifice things to reach your goals.
9. K - you willing to share then? P does jungle briefing after clearing the floor, explains. A - so your employer is willing to get into a protracted fight. P - yes, clarifies. A - our plan is to do stuff that doesn't tie to the locals.
10. U for the first time, the locals don't have det kit like this.
11. A - we have some magical power, your approach appears to be physical, with magical support.
12. P - will adapt to keep up with their changes. A - choppers responded quickly. P - can you help with that? A - not really, not that much firepower. K - do you know where they came from? P - up and down, quick response. A - can you help us stage attacks then.
13. P - we hit #5, if you pick a target, we can go elsewhere. A - you've been here longer, we need to scout. Explains sunk cost shock. We have a plan for permanent action. P what is that? A - glances at Tads, we have more mojo than first appears, we have something big planned. K texts T, are you ok discussing this. A - but it will look natural, nothing that corrupts the manasphere. T responds to K - safer not to talk yet.
14. K - sounds on an accord for now, would you like to meet again, talk more, co-ordinate. Might be safer when we go back to our respective camps.
15. P - do you have encrypted sat-phones? K - yes. A looks shifty. K asks Marius for opinion.
16. M - still not convinced we have the firepower to go direct action like these have already. Don't get me wrong, we can take out a camp or two and cause millions of damage, but no direct action we do will do more than slow this down. Only way to sink this project long term is to throw their resource assessment off completely - free spirits or wake the volcano. Might need to take delaying actions. But we don't win this with normal shadow activities.
17. K turns to P, generally this is our attitude, thought about doing the same as you have already done, but looking at something more final. Willing to help with camp attacks, but need to get a resolution at some point. Ok to discuss that in more detail? Marius - you happy with communications, with encryption and stuff - can talk securely? M - got encrypted short range, couple of km with the terrain, and a sat-phone, but long range is tricky and electronic traffic is more likely to get picked up, and if the corp turns their attention, they WILL break it. Security at the moment is through obscurity. Could hook up the power amp from the bird for comms - but the corp will detect the transmissions, and once they know about it, they will crack it. P&U looking around VERY intently when Marius mentions free spirit. K offers to drop masking, Shimazu does as well. P studies. Aswon watching Snake shaman, just in case. Spot that Ury is also assensing.
18. P - impressive, much more inclined to work together, than apart. K - we should work together. Can whichever of you deals with comms talk to Marius - maybe microwave or things? P - proposes watcher dead drops to communicate. M - how difficult to summon a wraith? Been reading about them... he gets dirty looks from everyone.
19. T - if we go with the summoning plan. Are you happy to let us look at your auras, spirits wandering around, need to not kill each other. P - hmm. you show us all of you, we'll share.
20. A - before we get into that, our plan is to make the mountain an awful place to be. We don't have to co-ordinate that much. You do some, we'll do others, not interfere, no trust needed.
21. K - working together, sum greater than the parts. A - but more chances for being caught / implicated. A - some of the things we're discussing here we can't guarantee - we could *ask* a free spirit not to affect them, but not guarantee. Think of the stuff we have to do to stop other people hunting us down. K - have to respect our team members choices. Happy to leave it up to them, for sharing. Going to go talk to the shaman, get him to look away.
22. Tads drops masking, Aswon stays masked, waits for their response. They drop masking, reveal true drakes. Aswon swaps to watching Marius - just in case... Shimazu and Tads assense P+U. Tads offers to share useful spells, if they have time and availability.
23. P - you are an interesting bunch of people, looks at M, you're equally skilled in your own area I take it. M - i like to think so. Kai - pays backhanded compliment, don't get too used to it. M - nothing you do excites me.
24. K+snake shamen, we're going to have chats, you're going to mindlink with Tads, reveal what you're up to, make sure it's legit. He has seen power level, and nods emphatically.
25. K - so I think we have an accord.
26. P - talks to Marius, we have plans, your rigger jacks, not nefarious. Hunter shows equipment, she looks at big crane. WE can get you into that maybe? Tads mutters - it doesn't have wings, not interested. P - explains plan to use big crane to fling stuff about. Marius - I'm onboard with this. Lots of options - we could trash the camp. T - can you get it to disassemble itself so we can bury. Marius explains various ways to sabotage things. Only crane this size in Africa - let's do that. 47.5m nuyen, weeks to get a replacement. A - can we do it without it being obvious it's a rigger, even better.
27. A - how long to summon the spirit Tads? T - not long, though it will take me time to recover. P - crane is at site 4, 15km. Can we do free spirits as well? A - oh yes, do both. Explains about natives willing to lose access to the mountain. P - suggests they recon 4, summon spirit to attack 6 in 2 days, giving time for recovery and travel. P - meet at dusk, tomorrow night to discuss. K - yes, and happy to go separate ways if required.
28. P - swaps calling card with Marius - picture of Hestaby, swap info. Then leaves to go down the mountain. Tads offers food. U whispers in P ear - "really" - chicken nuggets, Tads flashback to chopper, WTF, never mind. Makes 1 bucket of chicken nuggets. Phoss - anything for you. No, need to keep hands free. Take the boy out of Seattle.
29. Team head back to the bird, roundabout route. K pulls Shimazu aside, you had a look at people, if you had to kill them all, how easy. Shimazu - don't know until we have to try, but can try. K - I know you'll go full bore. S - inside 15 metres or so, I'm confident. K - worried about what they are, and how Marius might react. S - i'll watch them anyway, only people that can betray you are the ones you trust... K - let's get back to group. Shimazu - under breath, it's my job.
30. Get back to camp ok, both other shaman looking pissed at Farik. Team "brief" the other shaman and reveal everything except the assensing, cutting out the secret from Farik.
31. K takes Farik to one side and builds up, but need to behave better and think more. Long term gain for secrets. Tads also gets him later and explains about being a liability, someone else to defend. Team is used to working together. He needs to help himself more.
32. Malik - we going to summoning, discussed, tribes will support, we speak on behalf. tads - you have a name? Malik, no, can't pick unless we have seen. But Surok will name.
33. Kai - there's some time, combined resources will make us stronger and more effective. We have negotiated with them to get a good result.
34. Tads asks the adepts to start outside the warded area, her and the shaman inside. They start to chant, fingers touching around Tads, she tries to time summoning to it. Pebble appears. Malik leans in and studies, then falls back having a fit. Both other shaman looking, also start laughing.
35. Hello friend? You called, I came. I know what you want. Oh, that makes it easier. Can you tell me to make sure the message is over clearly. Gives brief. Tads - yeah, thats good enough. There will be people trying to help, and other people trying to help. Share aura. Will consider. Mindlink and shares auras and ideas of locals. Looks at ward, you've got me in a box. Happy to let you out and wish you good luck. Gets permission to assense, Pebble rolls around out of the ward and examines the camp.
36. Tads to team - it has some of the same properties as the quoll, don't fight it, we can't win? Shimazu looks at size, is it broken? Surok calls out name in Nigerian between laughs Aswon translates - "mighty pebble" Shaman laughing. Aswon - not worried about disrespecting. Shaman sober up a moment - not at all. Surok blamed Malik, he says yes.
37. Hieroglyphs - not actual size..

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 261 is now published, and added onto book 9.

And we’re back! Batteries somewhat recharged by the holiday, with some great games played at the villa. We had an excellent face to face game with our campaign group, and some of the in-jokes got to the point where one of the players was in tears and unable to speak properly (which felt like a win, regardless, in terms of having fun). Between games of Vampire, Imperial Assault, Battlestar Galactica, Salem, Codenames, and a whole bunch of other stuff, along with BBQ, the pool and the event, we didn’t get to run the other game of Shadowrun – but at least I can save that for next year!

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
So, on to the assault on Novatech, with the high force spirit providing a “distraction” for the team to get in and rip the camp to bits and do some damage to stop the construction project.

We had a bit of a recap at the start of the session, based on the time between game sessions, and that evolved into a bit of planning on how they were going to do the job, but it didn’t go on too long and then they were off through the jungle to the camp site.

I also went for something a little different here in the assault, in that I ran the first part of the session more like (as I understand it) Shadowrun Anarchy than rolling for skill use. At this point Novatech have had the natives launching attacks, and have responded by bringing in sensor / rigger style drone defences that the natives weren’t equipped to deal with, which ‘defeated’ them.

After that, it had gone pretty quiet for them, with the camps being mostly left alone for a bit while the natives were scared off, until Phos and Ury turned up with a backpack full of C4 and made their presence known – but that was only a day ago really, which isn’t a long time to adapt. The choppers and air-mobile forces were already on site, so they were boosted in alert status, and a report in to head office was *requesting* more support, but I figured that should still be in the pipeline, especially for a site as remote as this.

So, the assault on the base would be against tech sensors (which the team are equipped and experienced with dealing with) and against rent-a-cop style security that were using decent armour and weapons to compensate for only basic training. And against them are a team of runners who’ve been on fairly high intensity ops for more than a year, with powerful magical support and karma pools in double digits. It should be a white-wash.

So that’s how I ran it.

We made a stealth check for the entry – which actually went really badly, and Shimazu and Marius got spotted almost straight away – so I took that as their “really bad roll” for the night. That trigged the first stage alarm and the squad of guards sent to investigate – but then they’re up against a sniper and a soldier with magical backup. They just were not going to make it – so why bother rolling? Instead I just went with a narrative flow, and as the team described to me what they were trying to achieve, I looked at the odds each way, and gave a narrative response to hopefully cover things.

It was only when we got to a stage where failure might have consequences – hacking the mag-lock on the crane and dealing with the attack choppers, that we dropped back to actually making skill checks and seeing how things fell to determine success. And as it happened, Marius managed to get in (almost beating the anti-tamper – he was short one success!), and shooting down the attack choppers in the same initiative pass with catastrophic kills – enough to prevent mayday calls from the first warning the 2nd clearly on what they were going up against.
So, that gave us a nice gently session back into the swing of things, without it dissolving into a night of endless dice rolls to prove how pro and well trained the team are at their respective specialisations - which they should be, because that’s their bag…

It was also helped of course by the team generally having a solid plan, with reasonable expectations and precautions taken, not trying to do anything too crazy and being aware of how long they were staying in the assault phase and not pushing their luck. They had their objectives, they got in – did the job and got out before there were too much heat drawn back from the major distraction at the top of the mountain – so pretty much a textbook Shadowrun.

And now, as the narrative describes, we get to see how Novatech will respond to a major financial loss…

Something that did pop into my mind as I was finishing this writeup though – was that I wonder how “obvious” the gaming elements are in the narrative. For anyone reading this, you’re obviously aware that the story is based on the actions of the players, with their own goals, aspirations and styles – but that unless you know the actual players in question, you’re probably not going to know anything about them personally. And it did make me wonder…

Do you think you can tell anything about the players of each of the characters, by how they play those characters?

Do you get a sense of how the game *actually* goes down from reading the narrative? Are there moments when you think “well, they must have rolled to do X and got a handful of 1’s, because that quite clearly didn’t work!” or “ahh, someone must have used a re-roll to get that to work, because he wrote that they had to concentrate *extra hard* on it”?

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Planning talk - hitting the crane site, while the spirit runs distraction elsewhere. Marius - don't want to walk in and go straight into the strike - especially as we might have a hot evac. Aswon - do you have the flux to do it remotely? M - if you can lump it in. A - how heavy is it? Some discussion amongst team about strength/stamina/jungle moves. Discussion about getting the bird to come and pick them up, or from nearby, after the job. Warn the shaman about what the bird flying on its own means. H - go in the day, safer than travelling in the night. Don't tell the shaman where they're going - op-sec. Plan for the natives to bug out. Pebble outlines "the plan". Show the locals how the security devices work. Aswon - use bird calls to communicate, not speech.
2. Sleep until just before dawn, get bird ready, travel saturday day, get ready for strike saturday night. Team planning on going heavy - 50 cal, panther cannon,
3. travel down during the day with local guide, levitate over rivers / chasms, get close to strike site. Phoss and Ury arrive, a little tidy.
4. Hunter has done several hours of surveillance of site 4, set up fibre optic, got good read on the camp, full layout - rammed due to presence of the crane.
5. Dusk - Tads does check in with other shamen, resummons spirits, gets ready. Discussion about overwatch - Hunter and Aswon on overwatch, Tads on magic support. Shimazu and Marius heading in. Phoss and Ury head out to outflanks, burbling watcher.
6. Fireball at the top of the mountain. Team starts to move in. Attack birds fly past heading to top of the hill. Shimazu gets down and cuts through fence.
7. Supervisor taken down by Aswon, teams scatter. Hunter takes out one team, Tads stuns the other. Phoss and Ury start doing demo prep and working towards fuel tanks.
8. Marius sets off alarm opening crane. Rigged reaction, gets control, starts using the crane hook to dip into the buildings. People boil out and scatter.
9. Watcher spirit comes for a look-see - Tads pops it. Security forces try to get to hut - more stunballs.
10. Assault chopper coming back - Aswon hears, warns Hunter. Swap to big guns.
11. Chopper comes in, strafing, trying to work out what is going on. Aswon starts aiming - called shot cockpit. Hunter also the same. Marius in crane hears radio "Camp Delta, this is Badger-3, report" Marius "trying to get the crane under control, someone has hacked it." "Roger, 100m to ravine, what's going on, it's like ants down there." "There's been shooting and explosions down here, I think we're being attacked!" "Really? You don't say, all I can see is people in the underwear!" "Give me info" "Crane through the roof, nearly killed me" "Crane, swing left, swing left, we have targets to your right, engaging!" Marius passes on - team engages. Chopper down in a fireball.
12. Marius sets up the remote commands to keep driving and go over the edge. Marius steps off the back, cool backdrop explosion.
13. Mage turns up with 2 X f5 air elementals. Banishing contest - Tads vs spirit, down to f2 Mage spots tads with a 21. Lightning strikes on mage and 2nd elemental, Tads finishes first off, try to grab the mages signature - moderate success.
14. People running from the camp. Hunter suggests getting the bodies out to disappear them? Get bodies out, dozers over the edge, 2nd chopper arrives and is taken out, then teams bug out. Head back to base camp via different route. Get back to camp at about 4am. Cammo nets back up.

A: Definitely. At least I think I do. I'll keep my guesses to myself, though

B: And yes, I certainly read between the lines that Player A burned through a load of his karma pool to avert disaster here, and that Player B had an incredible roll there that allowed them to do some superhuman feat. But the narrative mostly overshadows the mechanics, which, I think, is a Good Thing ™

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 262 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
With the aftermath of the raid it quietened down a little bit, and they got chance to relax a little. Marius expressed a desire to go home, and it felt like some of the other characters were somewhat on the fence – but strangely enough it was Kai who put the brakes on and said that they should wait and see. Normally he’s the really impulsive one, and it threw the session for a little bit of a wobble with him saying to wait and make sure everything was ok. Strange times! Just goes to show that sometimes your players will surprise you, even when you’ve played with them for years – and reinforces that old adage about no plan surviving first contact with the players.

I was also not expecting Tads to get quite so pro-active and do a strike on the railroad – but again they came up with a reasonable plan, and executed it with a bit of planning. With the state of the country, there was no way I could see the rail line being fully monitored and protected any better than it was, so they absolutely got away with the first bridge with no interference. After that, the damage to the rail caused a glitch, so they sent out a watcher to check it out. Of course it was pure GM fiat to have it turn up when it did, to catch Tads at the *exact* moment when she’s shapechanging and hadn’t managed to mask the spell yet. Oh no, what are the odds and all…. But I also didn’t want to ‘punish’ the players or force them into a random combat just for no good reason. So the watcher spirit was as dumb as the ones Phoss was using, just sent out to look for damage and report back. So it did, burbling nonsense, but enough to raise the alarm.

For this, I wanted to show the players the first stage of beefing up the magical security, rather than just tell them – so it was a visual storytelling element to let them see the increase in response. First strike, an uninitiated mage and two mid-force air elementals. Second encounter was 2 mages, with the same mid-force air elementals but also backed up with higher force fire elementals. The players kept cool, and watched to see what happened, and then took advantage of the train crashing to make good their escape and report back to the rest of the team. I’ll certainly take that as a win.

Still, it was all planned as to what was going to happen next. First I dropped in the recording from the camp at the top of the hill, just to give them a nice bit of narrative story and to show them what their spirit had been up to, and to further underscore Novatech’s losses. With three camps hit and a bill of 20 million Nuyen, they were feeling good about themselves, possibly even a little cocky.

Drop pincer number 1 – the rumours about reinforcements being rushed in from Novatech HQ. Lots of new drones, new riggers and things on the move, to let them know that the difficulty level has just gone up a notch.

And just when they got comfortable with that as a concept, we go to the old standby of “wounded messenger appears with bad news requiring an immediate response” for pincer number 2. Luckily they’re all veteran LARPers, and know the sound of a Hero’s Call when they hear it and got straight into action.

I nearly stopped the session there, as we were closing in on our end time, but instead decided to push on and at least get the “surprise” round out of the way. As they burst onto the scene at high speed, from concealment, they were certainly going to get the drop on the Novatech forces – so it seemed to make sense to get that first set of actions done and worked out. And I’m glad I did, as it came with a double size helping of drama!

Shimazu has been working on ‘Distance strike’ as a new phys-ad power, and because of the attunement with his sword and because it sounds kinda cool, I’ve let him have it work through his sword. He’s not really used it yet, and he was keen to let rip on the fire elemental and give it a try. So, of he goes, and rolls his massive handful of dice – and well, let’s just say the Dice Maiden bot on discord was *not* kind to him. He got a bunch of successes – enough to kill the elemental for sure. But he also got 7 ones, so I figured *something* had gone wrong there. And that’s why Shimazu threw his sword out of the aircraft.

Tom, being an excellent sport, takes this on the chin and just nods at me, then gives a cheeky smile. “I jump out after it!” I remind him about the little problem of altitude, and he shrugs and just confirms that he’s doing what he said. Aswon makes a grab for him, Shimazu uses his “always goes first” power, and off he pops. In hindsight, I should have expected no less – that sword is a defining part of his character, and it made sense. And it was *very* dramatic – certainly he’s down for an extra karma point when they’ve finished this mission and have some downtime.

And it made for a very cinematic entrance worthy of a Hollywood blockbuster too. Enough so that Dice Maiden forgave him whatever slight he’d offered previously, as between his freefall adept power, a really good athletics roll and a decent body score he aced the landing, rolled out and just kept going!

So – next week, straight into a combat that should be incredibly one-sided as the team take on the last big concentration of rent-a-cop level baddies, before they start mixing it up with the more hardcore defenders, but get their hero points for saving the villagers from the evil oppressive corp.

I wonder what they’re going to do with them once they’ve rescued them?

Meanwhile, this is what I figure Novatech are shipping in to upgrade the defences with:
First wave Response

• Flood remaining camps with Novatech 20X (Version of Condor with stats as per the LDSD-23 but Sensor 2 and cost 15K each.) blimp drones as an outer perimeter. Each camp gets a defensive ring 500m out from the fence, so 600m from camp centre, giving a circumference of 3768m. Each camp gets 10 drones operating in a slow orbit, giving a distance between of 376.8m. Drones have enough fuel for 33 circuits. Drones orbiting at 7m/t or 8.4kph, giving endurance of 9 hours of darkness
• Cost = 150k per camp, 4 camps, 600k total
• Add 1 slow moving ELINT drone for each camp, Novatech Gallilao (version of Aztec Hedgehog), 200k each, 1m total
• Add a squadron of Novatech Punisher UAVs (version of Aztech Liebre Pursuit RPVs), 200k each, 5 drones, 1m total
• Fly in four new Riggers to run the drones in shifts, 400k staffing costs
• Bring in a 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 - value 1m
• Bring in Novatech elite security forces, with jungle experience, equipped with strike buggy or light choppers, light milspec, high-end ammo, high rating coms and detection gear - value 1.5m
• Total spend = 5.5m

And this is their current status:
Novatech response - losses from raids so far
Raid 1: Thur 24/3, Camp 5 - Phoss and Ury, 3 Cranes, 3 Dozers, 3 Trucks, Generator set = 2m
Raid 2: Sat 26/3, Camp 4 - Team, 3 Cranes, 3 Dozers, 6 Trucks, 2 Choppers, Big Crane, Camp = 6.5m
Raid 3: Sat 26/3, Camp 6 - Mighty Pebble. Six cargo choppers, fuelling facility, 3 Dozers, 2 Cranes, 4 Trucks, 3 Pile-drivers, Camp = 12m

Site Terrain
1 Bottom of the hill, rises, jungle cutback
2 First turn, jungle cutback, tunnel blast
3 Long straight climb
4 Deep chasm crossing, many midsize bridges
5 Sweeping turn and climb
6 Last climb and bridge crossings to plataeu

Site Status
1 all units functional
2 Big dozer ok, all units functional
3 all units functional
4 big crane destroyed, camp destroyed.
5 All cranes and dozers disabled, 50% trucks disabled, generator offline
6 camp destroyed.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Sunday 27/3/2061, Location: 7.07039, 11.62383, Time 04:00
2. Aswon weaving in materials from the local area into the camo nets, use spirit service to conceal tracks from the strike.
3. Marius - strike was at least 6.5m in value. Aswon - plus time, the shipping getting it here. Kai - that was the massive crane that was the only one that big on the continent? Aswon- yes. Kai - cool.
4. Tads ready for a message swap at dawn. Thinking about astral recon to find built bridges so far to use shape earth to destroy later.
5. Marius - just waiting to see when we can leave then...
6. Kai - if retribution comes on the locals, that’s our fault, we should be responsible.
7. Aswon - might want to relocate to another spot, just in case. Hunter - will look for backup spots.
8. Marius - we need a break BTW, for a full strip down maintenance cycle. Put a lot of miles on the engines, with only field maintenance.
9. Kai - did we ever get to the bottom of who fired missiles at us. Aswon - no, don't want to know. Who was the contact? Shimazu - Sato. Some general rumblings, then move on.
10. Aswon and Tads transform to go sabotage railway further down. Discussion about dropping spells and recasting, or casting while transformed, pros and cons.
11. Hunter - do you need to talk to your god Aswon? A - my god? Oh, totem. Need to wait for word to get back, mountain is protected, might be enough, might need more. Need to wait a bit I think.
12. Kai asks Shimazu if he's spoken to Sato about the other team, does he feel betrayed etc? No, nothing come back to him.
13. Tads aiming for bridges to look at them, then describe to Hunter / mind link. Good engineering assessment on bridge styles and damage. Then go do stuff.
14. Watcher spirit catches them at the transition, then zips off up the mountain. Tads and Aswon hides.
15. A minute later, two mages appear, one from the night before, still magic damaged, along with 4 air elementals F5 and 3 F6 fire elementals. Examine the tracks, elementals swirling around. T+A drops spell on the ground, hide, active mask and wait them out.
16. 5 mins pass, 10 mins, train coming. Team bug out. Hear train coming down. Keep heading out, back to camp via very indirect route.
17. Aswon - we have confirmation of their magical potential now - coming loaded up with elementals. Can't blame them, but now we know.
18. Tads - need to start travelling with more spirits
19. Rest of team, maintenance and research (Kai doing medical stuff).
20. All back together for dusk. No message from Phoss or Ury. Tads goes back shortly - watcher, I'm late, I'm late. Send it back.
21. New hunter turns up, something for you. Old commlink, night footage, camp at top being ripped to shreds. Team listen to hunters description, then feed and water him.
22. Tads makes sure people go through wards in the tilt-wing.
23. Wait through the night, until Monday morning. Kai doing detailed medical scans on people. Phoss and Ury warn about deliveries of new electronic gear to camps 1-3. Tell P&U about damaging the bridges. Warns them about the 2nd mage T+A saw and more elementals.
24. Lead news article for Hunter in the morning, train crash, several hundred dead.
25. Tads continues shamanic training for locals. Marius keeps nudging Kai - are we going yet. Evaluate area, 3-4 days for talismongering. Not spending that long. Team internal discuss about leaving after warning P+U. Waiting for dusk to comms check with them. Tads asks if Aswon has updated his own shaman, he agrees to do that
26. Mega-corp politics, comp check - looking into Novatech stuff. Info about semi-ballistic into Milan, then charter jet to Africa with several pallets of goods, management types and HTR teams.
27. Bloodied hunter turns up, talks to his shaman, Novatech have turned up and are rounding up the villagers. Tads straps into tilt wing and leaves one spirit on tilt-wing, but takes all the rest. Rest of team start breaking down the camo netting and getting ready for flight.
28. Camp being loaded into trucks, 2 X f6 fire elementals on watch, don't notice her. Tads back to body. Gets back as the tilt-wing clears the forest into the plain.
29. Aswon - could take out the wheels at range, not even see us coming. They're sending in magical stuff to try and draw us out. Or we can go in guns blazing and take out the trucks and the mages.
30. Marius - gets Hunter to look for Aztech corp-sec markings for the tilt-wing. Aswon - Kai, are we taking out the wheels? Kai - yes. Discussion about trucks and taking out passenger cabs, not risking people in the back.
31. Agree that Hunter uses Panther to wreck the cabs, Aswon loads regular in the heavy rifle to clean up.
32. First panther shot immolates the cab (non caster), elementals start flamethrowing the craft. 4 spirits on each one to swarm them. Side-slides to bring Shimazu into range for distance strike. He kills (7 hits) - but throws the sword out of the side door (7 1s). He goes to jump, Aswon tries to grab but just missed. Freefall, athletics and a soak - no damage from the ten metre fall. Superhero landing, then up and sprinting towards the sword, now quivering in the ground point down.
33. Aswon looking for mage depending on behaviour, Shimazu running for sword, Hunter swapping to AR, Marius flying, Kai keeping astral/physical overwatch out the other side, Tads also looking for mage.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 263 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
Fairly straight-forward this week – we drew last weeks session to a close as Shimazu threw himself out of the side door of the chopper chasing after his sword, regardless of the distance he was going to fall, but landing in the middle of the clearing surrounded by bad-guys.

As this was going to be potentially a complex fight, I threw together a map – now, I’m not what I would consider an artistic person. I hope I’m ok at crafting a narrative and descriptive story writing, but in terms of art / drawing / illustration, I’m firmly in the “rubbish” category. So, I don’t try to go for pretty – but instead focus on functional.

As such, my standard “go-to” package for this is PowerPoint – not perhaps the first choice for a lot of people, but I quite like it due to a number of techniques it affords. In this case there was a bunch of green cloud icons added, with some transparency set, then I just hammered the copy/paste keys to create a blob with variable transparency to create myself a little bit of forest canopy. Then select that blob and turn it into a group, then copy/paste that to throw blobs of trees all around the edge of the page. A big brown oval with a texture applied was then plonked in the middle and sent to the back layer, creating a muddy clearing, and a bunch of circles dropped in with a straw/waffle texture for the huts, scattered about. Brown wiggly blobs added to both sides show the mud road in and out of the village, and that’s good enough. Then to make life easy, I grabbed everything on screen and cut them, went to the slide master view and pasted them there. Back in the slide view, I can thus see all the terrain, but can’t accidently click/move/drag it while moving the tokens around.

Then I added a set of 9 circles, numbered 1-9 on the map showing squads of 3 rent-a-cops, who I was going to move / do actions as one unit, to keep things moving quickly. A couple of squares glued together in a group made the tilt-wing and let me rotate and move it all together. Last of all, I then added small circles with the first letter of all the players to show their positions. Bonza, quick battle map in <10 minutes that will show ranges and lines of sight good enough to do the job. All the tokens start off as the default blue, and get coloured green>yellow>red as they go through light/moderate/serious damage, and to black on death.

I’m sure this is also easy enough to do in Roll20 or TTRPG or foundry or something like that – but I don’t have any experience with those, and I do with PowerPoint, and it works – and it’s good enough. So, that’s what I use…

Now with all the tokens on, set up for combat, I got everyone to roll initiative and noted down the combat order. All of the goons went on the same roll, to keep things as simple as possible – even if it’s not massively realistic.

1. Shimazu 24
2. Hunter 21
3. Kai 19
4. Aswon 17
5. Marius 15
6. Tads 12
7. Goons 10

Oh dear, poor goons… combat then proceeded, and went at a reasonable pace. Of course, this being Shadowrun, it’s still going to take a while of game time, and this combat actually went on for 2 full combat rounds – a whole 6 seconds! At the end of which, the team emerges pretty unscathed while the Novatech forces are utterly trashed.

Being fair, they got *exceptionally* lucky with their perception rolls, spotting the first 2 APCs before they could deploy, and as they had good positions, they managed to take them out with heavy cannon fire, doing deadly damage to both vehicles in one hit. Again, to keep things simple, I just made the crew dead/non-combat effective. They might have gotten out of the vehicle with only a few injuries, but as anyone who’s played shadowrun knows, once you’re on a few modifiers and up against opponents who aren’t, it’s almost certainly going to turn into a rout. By the time they made it through the jungle into range of the players, everything else would be dead/dealt with, and the players would then outnumber them and have spirit concealment or the mobility of the tilt-wing to help them out… so pretty much they would nuke them, it would just spin out the combat. So – why bother? Make them dead, rack up the cost and keep the combat short for something that was almost certainly not going to be a challenge, even if the troops are “elite”, just due to the circumstances.

They also recovered the mages ATV, which *will* fit in the tilt-wing cargo area, being nice and narrow, and given they’ve been looking for something, they jumped on that nice and hard. It’s going to consume even more cargo space of course, and make actual smuggling or trading even harder!

But, with the camp pacified and the enemy defeated, they get a short respite from attack, learn something about Novatech’s plans and we’ll get to see where they go from here! Next session they get to interrogate the mage and find out what he knows, and see if that changes what they’re trying to achieve.

Novatech response - losses from raids so far
Raid 1: Thur 24/3, Camp 5 - Phoss and Ury, 3 Cranes, 3 Dozers, 3 Trucks, Generator set = 2m
Raid 2: Sat 26/3, Camp 4 - Team, 3 Cranes, 3 Dozers, 6 Trucks, 2 Choppers, Big Crane, Camp = 6.5m
Raid 3: Sat 26/3, Camp 6 - Mighty Pebble. Six cargo choppers, fuelling facility, 3 Dozers, 2 Cranes, 4 Trucks, 3 Pile-drivers, Camp = 12m
Ambush 1: Mon 28/3. Maliks village, 30 X guards lost, 2 X trucks, 3 X APCs, 12 elite security troops, 1 mage, 1 ATV = 2m

Site Terrain
1 Bottom of the hill, rises, jungle cutback
2 First turn, jungle cutback, tunnel blast
3 Long straight climb
4 Deep chasm crossing, many midsize bridges
5 Sweeping turn and climb
6 Last climb and bridge crossings to plataeu

Site Status
1 all units functional
2 Big dozer ok, all units functional
3 all units functional
4 big crane destroyed, camp destroyed.
5 All cranes and dozers disabled, 50% trucks disabled, generator offline
6 camp destroyed.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Monday 28/3/2061, Location: 7.18113, 11.64264, Time 19:12
2. Aswon looking for mage depending on behaviour, Shimazu running for sword, Hunter swapping to AR, Marius flying, Kai keeping astral/physical overwatch out the other side, Tads also looking for mage.
3. Roll init round 1: S 24, H 21, K 19, A 17, M 15, T 12, G 10
4. Shimazu to sword, fails athletics, but keeps running zigzags. Hunter shoots group at back of first truck, S on first guy, misses on 2+3. Kai - spots one of the ambush vehicles moving in. Aswon - SUT roll, +1 to team, spots ATV at 2 o’clock, Marius piloting, Tads static aura on Shimazu, Group 7 shoots at Shimazu, 2 hits, soak and soak, others move in, group 4 shoots at Shimazu, soak and soak. Group 5 opens up, 1 hit on Shimazu, soaked.
5. Shimazu on 14s, veer to the SE and evade, H Shoot at g4, 3 round burst - kill. 2nd target, lives with an S. Kai, blindfire at spotted vehicle - misses. Aswon door gun on group 5, suppressive. Rips half the hut open by mistake (3 botches on 4 dice). Marius finds vehicles, pings co-ords over. Tads spirit on Shimazu to conceal. Shimazu keeps running towards group 4. Hunter finishes group 4 team, drops AR, changes to Panther
6. Round 2: Shimazu, keeps running, with villagers crawling after him. Hunter semi-blind fire through trees to co-ords from Marius - kills it. Kai HMG fire with wild abandon - gets a 27, good suppressive! Aswon, 2 bursts, kills 1 in group 5, Marius flying, Tads sends a spirit to look for mages, Stunball group 6 at S, all down. Mooks chasing Shimazu, one group spots tw fires and misses, g5 flee into hut, g8 fire at Shimazu, all miss.
7. Shimazu on 14s, great leap onto hut, slide down into g9, multistrike 6/7/8, takes an S, S, hits Shimazu but soaked. H-11s, scan for other vehicles - spots 2nd APC coming in. K9s looks, spots a watcher on the wing. A7s shoots back at group 2, suppressive. Marius side slide tilt-wing to port to bring Hunter into view. Tads spots watcher, finishes mana smoothing.
8. Shimazu on 4s, kills last in g9. G3 notices carnage and gawp. H1 kills 2nd APC with panther.
9. Round 3: Shimazu S, M, L on G3. Hunter spots 3rd APC coming. Panther shot, 3rd APC down. "Got it!". K commanding voice on spirit to let go. It does, wilhelm. Aswon shifts to take g1 under fire, misses. M15, hot mike jam comms, continues turn. Tads stunballs 7+8, smoothing.
10. Post combat cleanup:
11. Shimazu - take stock, get into shelter. Natives following, awe, shock, hero worship.
12. Hunter - get to the buggy. Spots trail from the ATV, warm seat, calls Aswon
13. Kai - gets ATV recovered.
14. Marius - cranks flux up, sensor sweeps, keeps jamming on. Flux=12
15. Tads - mindprobe, operation human shield.
16. Chase the mage, Marius steers in, Tads goes after. Surrender.

Hi everyone - and welcome to another update for the Smuggler campaign. Episode 264 is now published, and added onto book 9.

Here's the "behind the scenes" from this week's run:
And now it was the time for the cleanup. After a very one sided battle (though things could have very easily gone a different direction – I seriously thought that Shimazu was going to get some hits and start taking damage in the previous week after his crazy headlong rush – but the dice gods looked after him) the team got to land and sort out what to do – and gather some intel. A good intimidation roll on the mage put him in his place, and of course he was definitely outmatched by this point. He *might* have inconvenienced someone with a fire blast if he was lucky, but he’d not have made it to the next initiative pass… So he gave up some info from talking, and then had it confirmed with a little gentle mind-probe.
Recon of the outer area led to them finding the body of the “secret agent” and them uncovering intra-corp espionage and some more information, which then sent them off on all kinds of wild theories and discussions. But, they’ve now got the names of several key players – which will come into action next week.

There was some fairly long winded discussion about what to do with the prisoners, including some quite silly sidetracks (which definitely didn’t fit into the narrative, but I think sometimes as a GM it’s best to let the players let the silly out from time to time – if you try to repress it, it can ruin a serious moment coming out at the “wrong” time), but eventually they had a workable plan and bugged out, dropping off Roderic to be repatriated and then heading to their new base.
That then triggered the next escalation step for Novatech – when Roderic arrived in camp and started to burble nonsense about invisible guerrillas, that set all kinds of alarm bells ringing, and the Novatech response force scrambled to investigate.
As part of the response force detailed last week, the “Novatech Punisher UAV” drones took off on a simple search and destroy mission, cranking up the speed to > Mach 1 and getting on location pretty quickly, then doing a line-abreast search with optical and radar sensors, looking for the team. A good passive sensor test from Marius helped them get shut down in time, and they’ve managed to stay covert so far – but now they know there are responses forces in theatre that can *easily* outrun the tilt-wing, and probably carry heavy enough weapons to bring them down without issue – so the pressure has definitely ramped up from their POV.

They also put two and two together and realised that there are likely to be recon drones out and about as well (I had them due to go up at first light, rather than overnight – to maximise the power to their suncells. But close enough, and again another reason for them to feel under pressure and to be aware that the skies are becoming more and more hostile.

And finally at the end of the session, we got to drop the next big encounter – a nice great dragon coming to them with a “business opportunity”, an offer they could (but shouldn’t) refuse. The players had already worked out when Phoss and Ury had been introduced that draconic backers were certainly a possibility, and that Hestaby was one of the two main players – the other most likely candidate they suggested was Alamais. But as soon as the colour “orange” was mentioned, there was knowing nods. When she turned up at the camp and laid out an offer to them though, there was a double face-palm from Hunter/Marius, that was very amusing, while Kai pretty much fell over himself to get the team involved.
Tuesday we get to introduce the players to her plan and see if they’re willing to engage in her strike mission, taking the fight to Novatech HQ in Nigeria to sow a bit of death and destruction at their front door, before wrapping up this part of the campaign. After that (whether they take the mission or not – though I suspect they’re probably not going to turn down a great dragon), they’ll be back to the ranch for some R&R, maintenance on the tilt-wing, probably a nice fat karma award and possibly some downtime before we head off on the next mission.
I know Tads has a bunch of spells she wants to learn, which is going to take some time in her lodge, and I think several of the others have skills they want to progress, which again is going to take some time and practice, so there may be a time-jump coming up. Depending on what they do, this might bring “book 9” to a close, as they transition to the next major plot arc segment. The next big things aren’t due until May, with more probe race stuff that I want them to potentially get involved with, and some smuggling jobs that will take them back towards the UCAS.

And as usual, here are the notes from the game session to compare / contrast with the narrative:
1. Monday 28/3/2061, Location: 7.18113, 11.64264, Time 19:18
2. Mage, Hunter and Aswon back in camp.
3. Aswon - get a spirit to do a perimeter search for live bodies. Then threaten mage with taser, would rather end you than destroy you. Just comply, all right? Tads from behind. Hunter tries to grab sword, mage tries to get away, Aswon tells him to keep still, he might even get the sword back later.
4. Team assense mage - sustaining foci in pommel, non-magic sword, G1 initiate. Tads gets details of sus foci.
5. Nova were here to set ambush (mage+apcs) to ambush the light guerilla forces. He ran away to try and report back, no comms on him.
6. Spirits come back, some live but wounded out in the forest. Kai + Shimazu to go investigate.
7. Marius - so what was the objective? Aswon - two missions, goons get the human shields, spec forces for the responses.
8. Get details from Rod, static from the radio in the ATV (jamming). Aswon - magic group, tracking, need to give sword back. Tads - can alter memory. Plunder memories and relay to the group.
9. Aswon - survival check, get him bitten and then throw back to a camp also under an influence / alter memory.
10. Kai finds some of the guards, including the one with scrambler kit. Kai - how comfortable are you mind-probing someone who is dying? T- not at all, very icky. Stabilise first.
11. Marius - we pack up and leave, leave them to the villages.
12. Kai stabilises the elite, long enough for tads to get out there. She starts to mind-probe and gets the access codes for the deck and his name.
13. Marius cleans the ATV and loads it in the bird.
14. Hunter analyses deck and get messages. Tads influences to give most negative and pessimistic reports.
15. Aswon suggests sending "final message" - they're on to me, they're working with....ahhhhh. Can do a delayed send, as we leave and stop jamming, it will go.
16. Quick discussion, Tads heals to make sure he lives. Casts on 6s and fails, retries on 8s - one success, gets him down off D to an S.
17. Marius ready, wants to go. Deciding what to do with the captured wounded guards. Alter memory on Rod, snakebite.
18. Tads - can we leave the mage and the agent with the guards. Marius - very dangerous. Aswon - but snake-bite and bound and gagged. Don't anger the initiate group. Don't kill him. Marius - just worried about the danger level.
19. Takeoff and head to new location, back into stealth, Tads summons fresh spirits to replace combat losses. Drop Rod off near a camp, but away from the
20. Get to new camp, 15km, edge of canopy, ridge tent style cammo net. Prepare to wait 1-2 days to see what is happening.
21. Hunter - do we need to let Phoss and Ury know about stuff. Tads - yes, at dawn. Aswon - yes we should tell them, and advise before we go - we have helped them loads.
22. Aswon calls his own village, gets to talk to Shaman. Explain a train accident (not deliberate), awakened spirit of mountain, Nova are starting to retaliate, so keep head down. Other corps are interested in stopping them too. Can we go.
23. Not up to us, up to you. We're just the messengers. Bring the masks, talk to the land. Aswon - will be over tomorrow night.
24. Multiple sonic booms, sensor checks - crash power down, leave magic concealment. Marius drone design - fast movers, 1900kph
25. Kai another MCP roll, Desirees trying to hide losses, having to admit defeat and co-ordinate with the new troops.
26. Tads - can we sell this info, like the shares for Fuchi
27. Aswon - maybe, sounds like there is infighting, might be useful.
28. Hunter - no shares. But can post stuff about Novatech and magic
29. Aswon - but not too specific, be very vague about the magic stuff, let them make assumptions. Maybe name and shame some of the novatech management - they're not well known.
30. Kai - how long are we waiting
31. Aswon - at least until dawn, then we can move once we've seen Phoss+Ury, then back to my village to talk to spirits.
32. Team bed down, with big guns available, wait until dawn. Repack the back of the tilt-wing to try and optimise cargo space. No more sign of the drones or other responses.
33. Tads - could they have stealthy things up for a while? Marius - very definitely, condor+solar, could have almost indefinite loiter time.
34. Tads goes to meeting, P+U waiting for them. Excited - someone wants to meet you. P leaves, comes back with Orange Queen. Transforms to Human, shimmers, I want to talk to your team. Easy or hard way. Tads explains Marius phobia. H sends Tads to group to warn them. She goes back to group, P+U employer wants to talk to us. She's a dragon. Marius - WTF. Tads - she's trying to be polite, so I' m going to go guide her in. Computer and Dragon checks, it's hestaby.
35. Tads - sorry about the delay my lady, they're warned, come with me. All 4 go back.
36. "I've got an idea...."

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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...

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....

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.