Run #10 - Blood and Spirit
Real world: This run started and ended during Session
#18, 20JAN2002. The runners for this mission were Hound (Angelo),
Piker (Reema), Kuma (Lars), and Ajax (Corey).
Prelude: The party tangles with a strange and powerful
blood spirit that was feeding off the prisoners from the secret
Aztlan prison from the last mission.
Mission: Kuma wakes up to find himself broke, broken,
and on the street...next to the smoldering wreckage of his sportscar.
He recruits the team to help him find out what happened and exact
vengeance. They soon figure out that a heavily cybered Drug Dealer
known as "The Snake" apparently is to blame.
The Twists: Although decked out with Delta Grade Cyberware
and possessing absurd speed, he was not that much more skillful
than a thug. The team was able to secure the account codes for
about 6 million nuyen worth of medical equipment (up to Delta
Grade) and services.
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The War Stories
Hound's Warstory
I’ll continue this journal for at least a little while.
Given the things that are happening, I may have to start writing
with pen and paper soon. But more on that later.
To begin with, the prisoners from that border town weren’t quite
as home free as we thought they were. After we contacted Angus,
he arranged for us to bring them all to a safehouse. It was only
then that we thought to check them magically. I really need to
learn how to do that, but there’s so many other things to spend
my time on. Anyway, Ajax scanned them astrally, and they all had
these astral lines leading out of them, and we think they went
straight back to the compound, although there’s no way we can
know that for sure. They went right through a badass barrier,
so although we asked around, we couldn’t come up with any better
way to block the trace, and whatever had a link to them was going
to be able to follow it no matter what. We even had Piker try
to break the link physically, and she was rewarded with a link
of her own for her efforts.
We were damn near ready to give up on them, and then somebody
pointed out that the blood magic they were involved with might
be similar to the drek that went down with our vampire acquaintances.
So I dropped them a line and explained the deal, and they said
that a very nasty blood spirit would be showing up any time now,
and that we should gather everyone who could help and meet them
with the prisoners. After that it went pretty smoothly. They made
some kind of circle and put a vamp on every line. Then I’m not
sure what they did, but the big blood spirit showed up and we
kicked its hoop. Mostly Piker, but I helped some. We thanked the
vamps and went on our way, although I suspect that they’ll be
coming to us for help sometime when they need it, and anything
they need help with is going to be bad…
Anyway, the really important events happened soon after. I had
been thinking more and more about that pistol that Kuma had been
given by Caine. I mean, it was a gift, and a unique one at that,
and Kuma just looked down his nose at it. He almost seemed to
resent it. Finally, he had Caine and his friends unbond it from
him, and I was around for that. It disappeared when they unbonded
it, but I kept thinking about it. If we’re going to continue to
face down spirits, especially the horrors, a weapon like that
could really be useful. And if we ever return to that “other place”,
or other time, or whatever it is, I wanted something better than
a chunk of metal on a stick in my hand. So I approached Caine
and asked if they were able to bring the gun back, and if so if
I could wield it.
He seemed surprised that I was as committed to the project as
I am. I guess that hanging around with the team has made me more
mercenary than I used to be. But I explained my reasons, and told
him I was committed to defeat the threat of the horrors, and he
seemed to take me at my word. He arranged for me to spend some
time in the guest house (just me, not my free-loading teammates)
with some mages and they went to work. I’ve gotta say, the ordeal
was tiring, but not as bad as it could have been, and when it
was over the gun had returned. That’s when the really amazing
stuff happened.
The gun is alive. OK, maybe not like I am, but it’s aware, and
it has a personality, and apparently it can move itself from place
to place, so what else is necessary to be alive? It spoke to me.
I think it felt betrayed by Kuma, and it wanted to be sure that
I wasn’t going to do the same. I can honestly say that there’s
no way I’m going to desert this pistol. At first, I was thinking
that it would just be a useful tool against the horrors, but after
spending just the small amount of time with it that I did, I can
see that it’s much more than just a magic gun. I think that in
the days to come, when the horrors must be faced and the fight
taken to the other place, this gun and I will become partners,
and together we will succeed where neither of us could alone.
It has accepted me, and for that I am grateful.
After that, we went on some revenge run for Kuma. I guess somebody
was seriously fragging with his life, but we looked into it and
now the guy’s dead. He was pretty rich, though, and seriously
‘wared. Kuma “inherited” a medical bank account that should allow
him to rip out every last vestige of humanity left in him and
replace it with cold hard steel. But in the end, when the horrors
come and we’re the only things standing between them and the rest
of humanity, none of that will help him, and he’ll have turned
his back on the one thing that would.
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