Toxic Candidate
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The Runners: Myles Knight, Silak, Six-Killer,Cyria Tokage
The Job: No employer, this time, it's personal...
The Real Deal: The players are out to find the origins and purpose of a canister containing a vile, toxic goo responsible for the near death of a friend.
The Breakdown:
Three years after their trip into the S-S wilderness, the world has changed. The Bug City tragedy has occurred, the U.C.A.S. is fragmenting and strange things scuttle in the shadows of Seatlle. The emergency election is in full swing, with dwarf eco-candidate Arthur Vogel scheduled to speak at a political rally at the superdome within the next few days. One fateful night, Klyde recieves a call for help from an old friend named Silver. Her voice is raspy and she sounds like she's in real serious trouble. "Klyde," she rasps, "Klyde, I'm in trouble...You... know....where to ....find..." At that, the phone falls silent. In a frenzy to save her, Klyde goes out of his way with the rest of the team in tow to come to Silver's aid.
When the runners arrive at Silver's flop in Puyallup, they find her dying on the floor of the flop's largest room. She tries to say something to Klyde, but he can't make out anything but the word cannister, which she seems to repeat over and over again. As she slips away into unconsciousness, Myles begins to try a quick patch up job that will last just long enough to get Silver to a street doc. While Myles desperately tries to save Silver's life, Klyde and Silak investigate the kitchen of Silver's apartment.
When they enter, they are greeted by a foul smell. It is enough to make Klyde choke upon entering,
and the runners immediately find the source: A steel cannister about a foot
high and with a diameter of about a foot and a half. The runners are
horrified at the properties of the ooze dripping from a severed valve in the
cannister, after watching a roach scuttle into the ooze and explode. Taking
every precaution possible, the runners dump the canninster into a small trash
can in the flop without actually touching it. When Silak and Klyde return,
Myles tells the runners that Silver is stablized... for now.
Just as they are about to leave, another shadowrunner team arrives at the apartment. A crow flies in through the window, transforming into an old ork crone just as another pair of runners enters the front door. The old slitch says "Get the cannister", and the next thing he knows Klyde is attached by one of the runners at the door. The runner was a phys ad, and Klyde found out the hard way after being struck in the face by him. One broken nose later, KLyde was on the defensive, trying his hardest to resist the beating of a life time. Silak throws a mana-ball at the crone at the window. If not for the old witch's barrier spell, Silak would have roasted her alive. Myles lead hoses the female runner at the door, riddling her with gunshot wounds that will definitely result in fatality. Somehow, the woman manages to duck back through the door, while trying to keep her insides from falling out of her abdomen. Cyria tosses a wiz spell at the phys ad, turning the room into a magical BBQ, roasting the phys ad on the spot. The crone retreats after reverting back into a crow, and what's left of the team tries to limp away as best as they can. Unable to catch the remaining runners, the team look off as the crone and her lackeys get away. This leaves the runners to question their situation. Who were the other runners? Will Silver Live? And most importantly, what is the ooze and who does it belong to?
Being the intuitive (or nosey) runners they are, the team goes to a local street doc to take care of Silver. After inquiring if she'll be alright, the doc says that only time will tell if Silver will live. Klyde inquires what the ooze may be, and the doc agrees to examine it. After a quick diagnosis, the doc says "Yep, it's a toxin," and then the players ask him to look into it further. They leave, no more enlightened to the true nature of the toxic goo.
The runners decide that it's time to go home and re-group when they are attacked by a local gang, the Reservoir Dogs. The gang blocks off passage at both ends of the street the team is travelling on, forming a loose blockade. Myles decides once again that might makes right, and pulls out a special present he bought for himself between runs. His new Ares Missile Launcher gave a boom, blowing one truck away instantly. Deciding that the other truck must be neutralized, he swings it around again, blowing another hole, this time in the pavement off to the side of his target. Soon, the gang pulls out its surprises. they also are in the position to fight with rockets. Soon, the Dogs fire back, almost terminating Myles' car.
If Myles was peeved before, now he was really fracked off. He fired again, this time hitting a pursing van right in the grille, causing the engine to go BOOM. It flips over and skids into a nearby building. One ganger (having jumped mere seconds before the van's explosion) tries to flee from the scene, panicing as he tried to outrun Cyria Tokage. Cyria, needless to say, caught up with the Ganger, threatening to roast him alive with her magic. The ganger was more than complient when answering her questions. When asked why they were attacked, with weapons uncommon for gangers no less, the ganger babbled endlessly about some guy named Riv who hired them to whack the runners and come back with a metal container. As the plot thickens, the players beat the location of Riv's hide out from the ganger and decide thet it's time to check out this toxic haven.
Klyde however, wishes to see what is up with Silver. They agree to check up on her again to see if the street doc has come up with any clues about the ooze. They soon find out that things don't look too hot for Silver, but that they shouldn't give up hope yet. However, the doc has uncovered that the toxin was an old insecticide created in the early 2000's by Hawthorne Chemicals, by a plant that now resides in the Redmond Barrens outlying area. After cross-referencing the place where the scared ganger said Riv would be and the location of the old Hawthorne plant, the runners discover the two places to be one in the same and decide to take a trip to the plant
However, fate intervenes. While going back to Myles' car, Cyria begins to feel ill. She doubles over, sensing a perversion of nature nearby. Soon, the source is discovered. A Toxic Earth Elemental roars from the ground, running past the runners, and smashing the end of Myles' car, taking the toxic goo with it. Myles is distraught by the loss of his car. Now it's personal for Myles as well as Klyde. Myles arranges for his car to be picked up and fixed by one of his contacts, and soon, the runners are off to find Riv.
When arriving at the Hawthorne plant, Cyria and Silak decide that caution is best, and they run an astral recon. they soon discover that the arrea is being patrolled by hellhounds and that the place seems to be too well watched by the beasts to penetrate physically. After snooping around in the astral and staying away from their four-legged antagonists, the astral wanderers find what they're looking for. Riv's lair.
Riv's lair is littered with papers; papers about the upcoming political rally led up by Artur Vogel of the Democratic platform. The players cannot read the contents of the papers, but only get the picture of Vogel and the overall emotion of the messages. However, the pictures of Vogel posted on the walls have been burned, stabbed, torn, and otherwise mutilated. Silak scratches his head, trying to put it all together. Cyria reaches the conclusion first though. The toxic shaman plans to remove the eco-platform via assassination with the insecticide at the political rally being held that very night at the superdome.
Cyria and silak inform the team of Riv's plot to kill Vogel and probably everyone else in the Superdome and the spring into action. In the next three hours, the runners are ready to go to the Dome. When they arrive, they get in easily. The SINless are pouring in by the hundreds, a first time event for the security to handle. Checks, while still rigorous, were easy enough to avoid for the experienced runners, and soon, they were scouring the Dome for any trace of Riv. Klyde is the first one to spot him. His Visual Magnification detects Riv in the rafters, and is confirmed after he locks on to Riv's heat signature. The team picks the stairwell locks that bar their entry to the rafters and climb up to put an end to the assasination.
Go figure, combat ensues. Riv summons up two enemental nasties to deal with the characters: a toxic earth and Air elemental. Cyria conjures her own City Spirit to do battle with the toxic beasts, distracting one elemental. The runners start taking shots at Riv, mostly to the effect of Riv's bullet barrier warding them off. The toxic Earth elemental rips apart the walkway the runners are standing on, sending some to their knees, and causing Klyde to nearly fall thirty feet down to his death in the mid-decks. The spirits continue to bash eachother while the runners continue to pummel Riv with bullets. eventually his barrier breaks down and he starts to take hits. However, every time the runners think they've got him, he picks himself back up again through his strong magic. eventual, the runners prevail in kiilling him. However, before falling off the walkway to his death, he looks up to Cyria and says, "You've killed me slitch, but can you save them?" He falls into the crowd below as Six-killer goes to where the bomb has been planted. The timer sits at two minutes.
At about five seconds after Six-Killer tries to disarm the bomb, Lone star shows up, demanding that the runners cease their activities and surrender. All Klyde had to do was say the word "bomb", and the Star backed away, calling for a bomb squad. Six-Killer says there's no time for it, and continues to disarm the bomb. He initially fails, causing the timer to count down faster, ineveitably heading towards its release of its toxic payload. Six-Killer, sweating now, keeps at it. The timer clicks down relentlessly to the 12 second mark before he can stop its timer. He sihs and declared the bomb difused. The Star steps in then, taking the runners out to an Ares City Master for detainment.
the players are generally tormented, put through the wringer, and interrogated by the Star for about three hours while Cyria sits in a mage mask, and the others wait patiently for justice to be metered to them when a light in the darkness comes forth: Arthur Vogel.
Vogel is eccstatic that the runners have saved his, and thousands of registered voters lives. During his private thanks, he tells the runners that he has, "taken care of their law problems" and that he owes them a favor in the future. The runners soon after, become media darlings for about 15 minutes before returning to the shadows from whence they came.
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