Anna looks at the window, eager to see the lindworms the entire ride in a combination of fear, nervousness, and anticipation. After perhaps 20 minutes of unbareable boring ride through the countryside she texts ">> Perhaps I can scout ahead of us and see what kind of things live there. To bnc she says a bit embaressed "Anything specific you think it may be worthwhile to search? I did not follow exactly why we are going Lindworm seeing... If I am out there alone, anything specific I should look for? Sorry for being so thick."

bnc rolls her eyes. "No, damn, we're hopefully not going to see any lindworms, and not everything has nothing in mind but fucking. I doubt they will attack us as long as we stay in groups, and if they do, we'll be able to handle them. You could, however, use that spell of yours that improves your awareness. Together with your gear, you should not only be able to spot lindworms quite well, but also Dr. Buchner, the Mitsuhama specialist who investigated the case, then probably lied to the bishop guard about what he found out and then went missing in the exact area we're searching."
bnc seemed to be furious about Anna's lack of attention, but restrains herself with all she has.

Traveling to the foot of the Kühberg was easy - there were quite a lot of empty parking spaces available. Mainly because the footpaths to the hill are closed off with red and white tape as well as signs saying: "Warning, mortal danger. Area closed for the public. Dangerous critters ahead."

Though there is no-one around to enforce this ban.

"I'll leave my meatbag behind in the van and accompany you as James," bnc says. She makes herself comfortable and Jumps into James.

"Everyone ready?"

"I guess, I'll take the lead."

Sharkboy unslung his bow and started walking forward at a calm pace, trying to take in their surroundings. He hated being out in nature like this.

Well before they arrive Anna astrally project to see qhere they are heading and understand what awaits them.
Assensing: 16d6t5 5

After taking a look at their location, Wraith had called Nova to coordinate their next steps and how to <<ask if anyone had seen Bean Si>>.
"Nova? So, I'd rather not ask the owner <<Yo, we're looking for a friend, she's a cloaked and hooded figure, have you seen her?>>. Kerstin was here, and she's been at that dumpster. Why don't we ask about folks rummaging through trash containers? Let's say we're concerned because there have been complaints around the neighbourhood, or something along that. Should raise less alarm bells, hm?"

The Kühberg is still mostly covered in snow and ice, although there are patches of green gras getting visible here and there. Despite being so close a major city, the atmosphere here is very calm and peaceful. Someone with a shamanic or naturalistic tradition would find their powers noticeably increased. As it is, Anna finds herself getting distracted by the surrounding mana. And although it's still winter, the place is teeming with life and the auras of small animals.
There is only the faintest of traces human emotion around, but no sign of active magic or HMHVV activity.
For the moment there is only one trail. bnc notices the icon of a drone ahead. It's ARO indicates that it is a patrol drone, enforcing the restriction and warning away hikers. Though she finds almost laughably easy to hack and turn it blind for their teams passing by. She'd even suspect that this might have happened a few times already.

The team reaches a fork in the road: Uphill the trail leads further into the wild, while straight on the main path leads eventually to the castle and a currently closed Gasthof / inn.

Wraith meanwhile found the dropspot well chosen: It was screened on three sites through sturdy sheet metal walls and on the fourth through a warren of parked vans, making it quite easy to slip in and out unnoticed.

As soon as Wraith had inspected the area of the dropzone, he notifyed his team, sharing vidual imagery of the spot.
"Chummers, I think this is pointless. Kerstin would have found a million ways to slip in and out unnoticed. She was always gifted in the art of stealth, but here even a lame troll could have sneaked through. I doubt anyone's seen her in a mile's radius, and frankly, I think it'd be best if Nova and I just give up on asking about her and go right to the Kühberg to meet you guys."

Unless objections cometh, he drives his bike to the Kühberg and meets up with the rest.

Nova agreed. << Yeah, don't think we can find much here... >>

She follows Wraith on her bike to meet up with the rest of the team.

bnc agrees and waits for them to join the Kühberg party.

With the speed of thought Anna proceeds to the closed in and searches it for signs of life, then moves to the castle. Searching for a human should be considerably faster like that - she figures, and she considers summoning a spirit to really look under every rock sort of speaking.

Once they are on the mountain range, bnc also sends out their drones to search - although she's quite sure that this is going to be futile. Otherwise, others would already have found her.
She shares a couple of images she dug out so her fellow runners would recognize Buchner if they saw them.

Anna noticed a few more animal auras - some of them clearly awakened, judging by the brilliance. There seemed to be quite a few bunny like creatures around. As she reached the castle, she became aware of a ward covering the walls - not particularly strong, but it kept her from seeing inside the courtyard.
She suddenly became aware of an awakened, flying aura that dove straight for her astral form. Some kind of bird of prey, ready to rip its claws through her essence

Anna reacts quickly and uses her superior speed to put some distance with the bird. Since the bird is a dual-natured being Anna envelopes it with a mana barrier to form an intersection as the barrier cannot stop its physical body.

There is a loud screach followed by a dull ringing noise, noticeable only on the astral as the unconscious bird tumbles to the ground after intersecting with the barrier.

But something has picked up the call: Suddenly there are half a dozen more bird auras in the sky.

In the mundane world, the team notices a bunch of screaching black birds circling near the castle in the distance.

"Seems like someone has stirred something up," Nova remarks, as she slides her backpack off and opens it.

She pulls out her attache case and assembles her rifle. Then she puts on a few armor accessories, including a black wool hat and her ballistic mask, and puts the case back into the backpack before shouldering it once more.

Anna quickly retreats not wanting to needlessly kill more birds. She returns to her body and comments >>That was me... Apparently my astral is attractive to birds.

James, too, prepares his gun, but waits for things to unfold at the moment.

"Then let's not do anymore astral excursions for now.", Wraith comments.
"Alternatively, when it comes to scouting... Remember the pigeon-trick from the museum? I could take - or give someone with a light build - the body of a bird for some time. Something fast with keen eyes, that doesn't raise suspicion. However, our auras would still give us away to anyone with astral sight, meaning those birds could still tell what we truely are.
It's completely painless, promise."

"Usually, at least.", he adds with a grin, his voice giving away that he probably wasn't serious. "Unless the Lord feels like punishing, I guess."

Anna says "The science police should arrest you for breaking their laws of physics when you turn into a bird that weights what a single kilogram? I still can't believe that all these smart people could be so wrong about the world... "

She seems hesitant as the idea of turning into a bird intrigues her "Wraith, spirits seem more practical to me - as much as I appriciate the offer. No need to project right now though.

"Couldn spirits or turning into a bird trigger the same bird response you just got from projecting or whatever?"

Now that Anna could see the birds from the mundane side, she realized that they weren't actually birds of prey but some kind of crows or ravens - albeit very massive. Apparently the castle has a colony of them - which explains the ward as a useful tool to keep the birds and their feces away from the tourist attraction.

bnc's drone started its slow spiral course at the top of the Kühberg, looking down on a dense mass of evergreens and leafless trees, making only IR tracking viable. Though quite a lot of animals are well isolated, so only their warm breath and faces show clearly, making it quite hard to distinguish anything in this mess.

"Well, perhaps clinging to laws of physics is why these smart people are so wrong about the world.", Wraith replies to Anna's remarks.

At Sharkboy's question: "Yeah, that could trigger them as well. But I doubt they could hurt a spirit. And if we have to fend off those mad crows, I'd rather be in the body of a massive eagle-owl than simply... project my consciousness out there. That leaves one quite vulnerable. Perhaps they won't attack bigger birds?
By the way... anyone have a clue what exactly those crows are?", and he glances towards bnJames.

He sighs. "Yeah, Anna's probably right. Spirits can do that better than we can. But perhaps it's not necessary to ask them for such a fool's errand. Did you get a look at the place? Warded? Strongly warded?"

Anna replies "It is lightly warded, perhaps from the reasons we just saw. I can try to take another look more discreetly without upsetting them, or we can just walk there."

"Or we just take them out. They're nothing more than awakened crows, they don't even have any magic abilities. I'd like to avoid being part of the first team of professional shadowrunners who gave in to black pigeons. So forget about Hitchcock and load your guns."

Anna says "I did not return because the birds are a threat, I returned because it is a tourist attraction and there are laws against hurting the wildlife and shit. The crows are not a threat; I just wanted to be on the same page with the rest of you and find some strategy that does not involve leaving a trail of dead birds or drawing unwanted attention to us.

If the alternative is to shoot the buggers, I can envelope myself with a protective mana shield dash to the castle and cross the wards before the crows get a chance to attack me. I should be safe my augmented intuition, as it makes me very hard to hit. It is like I understand what they are going to do before they do it.

I can leave a minor spirit behind so that you can talk to me when I am gone. Never used a spirit in that manner, but it makes sense as we work in a team. Long term, I'll learn to use watchers for this task to not upset the spirits"

"I'd very much prefer that approach to leaving a trail of birds and bullets behind. We literally have a private investigator running around, no need to throw bread crumbs.
If you're confident that you can carry spells through the ward, I can just weave the telepathic web again - then you don't need to worry about communication.
Or, perhaps more useful: I could turn into some kind of quick, local bird and distract those crows or lure them away from the castle - after all, couldn't your barrier intersect with the ward?"

Anna says "In that case, let's just distract them. I wouldn't worry about turning to a bird - they seem to like projecting mages. So you project and distract them, or send a spirit to do so if your faith allows. Return to your body before they can hit. I'll sneak into the ward, and I'll leave a minor spirit behind for communication.
"



The spirit manifests, it is a small and unimpressive one, it presents itself as "Ruth" and Anna instruct it with words "I need you to be my link to these people, I am going to do some risky stuff and I need them to know I get into trouble, let them know if I am hurt, or attacked in any form - or if I explicitly ask you to convey a message. "

She says "Ready when you are..."

Once Wraith is ready with some distraction, Anna would sneak to the castle, and then attempts to break through the barrier unnoticed.

Keeping low to the ground, Anna had no trouble getting past the crows. Likewise, the mana barrier turned out to be no problem at all. Inside, Anna noted at once that something was not right. The background count was distinctively different to the outside: Where it had been unspoiled nature, now it felt greasy and violent.
It didn't take her long to find the reason: A small trail of blood still glowed from the violence. Following it down to a small service entrance and passing through the door, she found a dead body. The violence was still relatively fresh - no more than a day or two.
A closer look showed the victim to be a man of about 40 years old. He had been cut open with four parallel cuts.

Anna felt a jolt of nausea, of a strong emotional current. Something terrible, violent, and terrifying, and she had to stick there rather than flee. It felt creepier in the astral, where emotions were strangely more real than physical objects. The horror and violence manifested as sympathetic nausea. She is not a critter of violence, after all.

That emotion grew closer as she followed the blood drops. It was like a car crash, and she was unable to look away - even if she did not want to assense a murder victim and feel its very last moment. Her increased sensitivity did not make it any more comfortable, but she has to do so. Anna forces herself to observe the body, and then it's surrounding - something killed that man - likely someone - and that someone may have left an emotional imprint nearby.


"Likely our investigator, but who is the murderer?" Feeling the fear creeps in to her, she asks Ruth to convoy the following "There is a dead body here, recently killed - open your eyes, I'll be right back - just making sure the castle is indeed empty.

Next, she searches the castle for living things - the team is likely to be entering the place so she'll do her best to discover what danger she can from the astral.

It didn't take long for Anna to discover that there were no living people inside the castle. But she found a cellar room that felt distinctively like the bunker in Vienna. Hunger was the main emotion that permeated this place...

Once Anna is back, bnc doesn't hesitate long. "Seems my sweet sister is on the move. Let's go get her."
bnc orders back her Noizquitos to first search and then patrol the air above the castle. "Let's first see the corpse, then the cellar."

Anna returns and convoy what she found to the team, she thanks Ruth for her service and releases her prematurely.


"Yes, she was there in the basement - or at least some infected was. The body could be the missing investigator. Impossible to say from the astral, and without knowing the person in advance."

She takes her pistol, and readies herself for the move.

Getting there by foot was no problem. The crows didn't bother the group as long as they kept to the ground.
There was no-one around and even the blood trail was barely visible on the dark stone of the castle. The door through which Anna had passed was locked though with an old pin and tumbler lock. A closer look showed that someone had short circuited the alarm system on the door, so that it wasn't a big deal to open it.
One thing bnc noted immediately was, that her signal became quickly pretty laggy as her drone body began to walk down the cellar stairs to the locked door. It seemed as if the old stone was blocking matrix signals very effectively.

"Yes, it surely sounds like she was here," Nova agreed.

She kept her eyes open and stayed vigilant, while waiting for Anna to return.

When they came to the locked door, she said: "I should get that open..."

Anna continues with the team, she knows the castle is empty but is experienced enough to know that not everything is visible from the astral. She looks for any hints for a violent struggle.

The door opened after only a moment of Nova fiddling with the lock. The room behind was dark. There was no heat, so the body didn't smell of decay but the smell of blood still lingered in the air. As soon as the team entered, the matrix noise level went up several notches. The dead man wore a winter coat and an expensive suit. the four parallel cuts clearly indicated at claw attack. But the killing blow had been the broken neck.
Beside the body and the frozen pool of blood, the room contained only a fuse box, a few shovels, rakes and a broom.

The door to the next room was closed...

Without much ceremony, she searches the man for identifying stuff. Anna looks at James and as bnc seems very quiet she gets infront of Jame's face and speaks slowly as if James may have some trouble hearing "bnc? Are you still in James?" She does not know if it is necessary, but if her expensive link does not work, then perhaps bnc is struggling with James as well.

As soon as bnc realizes that her signal gets worse quickly, she stops James and curses softly. "Frag, I can't continue. The matrix signal doesn't reach down here. Every step from now could mean I'd lose control over James entirely. If I stop moving, carry me back to where I moved last. I won't follow you through this door, however. I just wanna have a look at the corpse."

bnc steps forward to analyze the corpse with all sensors she has (if she can). She then steps out of the room to send the data to the cyberdeck.

"Can't you have James go back to where he can communicate with you again, if it so happens, that you can't? Or would he stop working entirely, if there is no connection, anymore?" Nova asked.

While the others were investigating the body, she checked out the other door (without opening it, yet) to see whether there was a lock to be seen or anything else of interest.

"Depends. Under normal circumstances, yes."

Wraith had been silent on the way to the castle. He was excited - this finally felt like closing in on Kerstin.

When the team entered the cellar, he turned his gaze from the butchered corpse and followed them reluctantly.
"Anna and I should have a look into the next room - astrally, without opening the door."

Unless there is a ward or something at the second door, Wraith sits down against the wall - quietly, as not to give away that a mage was about to astrally project - and with a racing heart, he leaves his body and pushes his astral form into the next room.

He takes his time to carefully read any aura he finds hoping to find a trace of Kerstin's.

bnc took a closer look to the interference - the stones were thick, but not that thick either. Suddenly she realized that this was the work of an active jammer and a powerful one at that. So Kerstin had left some of her equipment active behind. But this had to be a directional jammer, aimed at this very room. Why would she do that?

Anna was busy turning the corpse over. bnc recognized the face as the Mitsuhama specialist Buchner. He carried an expensive commlink a bag of crystaline powder that felt like reagents, a small handgun (Streetline Special) made mostly from ceramics and loaded with capsule rounds, an internal smartlink, electronic firing and a removed trigger. In addition it had a biometric scanner on the grip.
She found also two engraved metal discs hanging on leather strings around his neck. Those looked like foci on the astral.

Wraith took a look into the totally dark room on the other side from the astral: There were no active auras, but the room seemed to be cluttered with trash all over the floor. But the BGC definitely smelled like the bunker in Vienna.

After only a few seconds of stillness, Wraith's body came back to life.
"Room ahead is empty, except for some sort of garbage. But the astral still reeks of something dark... Infected, I'd bet. Similar to the bunker. Let's take a quick look and get this over with."
Before getting ready to move, he flicked the crucifix on his waistband into his hand, thereby activating his combat focus. Not really for the intention of using it, but for the comfort it gave him to feel his lord nearby.
Please, god, let it really be garbage. Just orinary garbage.

Anna asks "bnc, do you want to hack the comlink or the smartgun system? Perhaps they caught a glimpse of the attacker. I know what we suspect happened here, but hard evidence is better isn't it so? It may also provide us with an accurate date and time, that may help us speculate better. "



She looks up at Wraith and says "I checked the entire castle a few minutes ago." and to herself "but you are welcome to look for yourself, and she carefully opens.

Sharkboy was hampered from being helpful. The noise generator made it like his electroception had developed serious Tinnitus. He grimaced behind his mask and grasped at his gills trying to try and deaden the sensation.

"Is there some way to turn off this static. Can you guys not feel it? It's awful."

Sharkboy moved behind Wraith's body, trying his best to focus in case he needed to help restrain the target.

bnc responds to Anna. "Yes, both. It's unlikely that the smartgun system stored the recordings of its camera, but it's still worth a try. I definitely need to see the commlink. This is indeed Dr. Buchner, so I believe this is going to be interesting.

While I'm at it ... I believe the matrix signal is not as bad as it is because of the thick walls but because of a jammer. Can you try to locate and destroy the thing? Shark, do you feel it? Can you pinpoint its source?"

bnc Jumps out of James and orders him to fetch both the commlink and the gun and then return to the place where the matrix noise was less of a problem. She first attacks the smartlink - it's the easier and less promising target. Then she goes for the commlink.

The smartlinked weapon was a dud. Not only was it slaved to the commlink, but it also hadn't been used - at all.

The commlink was more interesting: after a tough but not extraordinary hack it yielded some promising information.
Buchner had found Kerstin's location and followed it to the castle.
Unfortunately for him, Kerstin had spotted him just as he was about to send a report to his higher-ups. The message had been stuck in the outbox due to connectivity failure - until the bot had moved it outside the cone of effect.
Now messages from his supervisor came pouring in - they were already looking for him. It would be only a matter of time now that they came here.

As soon as Anna touched the door handle she had a very bad feeling...