A Nice Trip To the Forest
The Runners: Cyria Tokage, Myles Knight, Klyde Scope, Momma
The Job: Get to a crash sight close to the Salish-Sidhe/Tir Tairngire border to retrieve an extractee and a briefcase for Renraku Corp. If the extractee was killed they were to bring evidence of his death or at least the briefcase. The Job offered each runner 10,000 nuyen.
The Real Deal: There wasn't much that wasn't what the job stated, except for how and where the spinner crashed. Unbeknownst to either Renraku or the Runners, a feathered serpent was responsible for the crashed spinner and the craft landed just beyond the S-S border and into Tir Tairngire.
The Breakdown:
The runners enjoy the nuyen from their last job for the few days it lasts them before taking a run from an unknown Johnson, with an offer that he states "Will put them in the Big League". Eager to take such a challenge, they are instructed to meet the Johnson in an outlying region of the Renraku Arcology. After being taken to the meeting place, it becomes painfully apparent that Raku has hired them.
The players are transported to about the mid-level of the arcology, and are escorted inside by two insanely well armed Raku guards. After taking their places around a huge, real wood table, the Mr. Johnson gives them the offer described above in the Job. The players accept, hesitantly this time, and they are once again escorted down yet another hallway to a supply and munitions room. Myles loaded up on rope and flashlights, while most everyone else stuck to their standard gear. After picking up some medical supplies in case the extractee was wounded, the runners get into their own spinner, accompanied by a Raku field expert named Cage.
Cage proves to be generally overbearing and cocky, questioning the characters ability to function on the run. After having to bear his snyde and rude remarks, the runners come to a dense patch of forest only one or two klicks from the Tir border. Cage informs the runners that it's time to go and throws each one a parachute. After overcoming their fears, each runner jumps out in turn until Momma and Cage are the only runners left. The ork, as big and strong as he is, could not bring himself to jump at such a height. After calling Momma a waste of skin, Cage kicks the ork out of the hatch and jumps out after him. After a rough, but non-lethal landing, Cage orders the others to move ahead towards the crash site.
After walking for a little under a click towards the Tir border, the players come to a clearing and Cage tenses as if he's seen something. The runners look about as well, but not before a bandersnatch brutally attacks Momma, sending him flying into yonder tree. After a sickening thud and a few broken ribs, Momma falls down, not to act again until the combat ends. Cyria, not appreciative of any of this decides to levitate the beast (no small task when the thing is invisible) and see how it likes the taste of bark. Soon the bandersnatch is thrown into a tree as well. The rest of the party, now aware of the location of the beast, open fire upon it, spraying a lot of blood all over the clearing, when they are attacked yet again by another bandersnatch. Cage throws a grenade at the beast, killing it instantly. So much for subtlety.
After the noisy encounter with the critters, the characters approach the border even more cautiously. Soon, they find themselves over the border by half a click to find the wreckage of the spinner. Whatever hit it had to be huge. The spinner was ripped in several parts by something the runners couldn't figure out. Klyde, finding a blood trail leading away from the wreckage decides to follow it, in hopes of finding the extractee. Myles decides that he'll find out about a nearby crater (still smoking), while Cyria checks out the area while under her invisibility spell. Cage goes off on one of his own hunches into a nearby, shadowy pocket of trees. Momma, being the ork that he is, decides to investigate the spinner.
After searching around the area, nothing is found of the extractee or of the briefcase that is said to be with him. The spinner is occupied by several crates and about three dead bodies. The path of blood turns up nothing, and it looks like whatever happened here, the runners already missed it. Then they hear Cage scream. It is a horrible scream and it is ended almost the instant after it starts. The runners take cover and wait to see if Cage will emerge. He does not return.
What does emerge though, is something the runners hadn't expected. A feathered serpend stomps out of the forest to investigate the crash scene. The runners put two and two together and realize that the dragon must have downed the spinner, and now it has come back to investigate. Momma is really surprised when the dragon comes up to the wreck and starts nudging the wreck. Scared drekless, he tries to remain calm within the ruptured hull of the spinner, and fails miserably. The dragon continues to go at the spinner, knocking Momma and the contents of the crates all over the spinner, spilling grnades and other such paraphanalia all over the interior of the wreck. momma pockets a few, and makes a short prayer that he'll die quickly.
Meanwhile, the other runners are trying to figure out a way that they can rescue momma and get out of there, with the extractee or without. Myles, in his infinite wisdom (I call it utter stupidity) lobs a grenade past the dragon in an attempt to create a diversion. It distracts the serpent for a split second, enough from Momma to run from the wreck and toss one of the grenades to John, a better throw than himself. The dragon immediately pursues them, roaring like mad and John throws not just any grenade, but a White Phosphorous grenade (a la Forscythe) into its gaping jaws. It explodes, knowcking the dracoform's head back, severely burning its face. It begins to writhe, and while the dragon knocks down trees in blind fury, the runners escape, only to find that they are being tracked by something most likely elven.
Knowing that they are going to be discovered by the Border Patrol, the runners take shelter in the treetops, finding a surprise. The extractee, also trying to evade the guards, has taken shelter in the trees as well. After a few brash decisions later, the runners decide that might makes right, and they attack the patrol. There is an awesome firefight between the elves and the runners, and a magical duel between Cyria and an elven mage. When the smoke clears, the runners are still standing, although they are bruised and bleeding, with Cyria almost on the verge of unconsciousness from the drain involved in her magic. The team manages to get back to the rendezvous point where they are picked up by the Raku spinner and are taken back to the Arcology.
When the runners are brought back, Mr. J. is slotted off. Their lack of subtlety in the forest has made him quite irate. When the runners ask for medical attention, he becomes more angry, but agrees to have the runners wounds treated for a fee that comes directly out of their pay. Soon, the runners are back out on the street, and are a little bit richer, and a lot wiser.
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Email: t.dredd@mailexcite.com
