Session 11: Shifting Sands

Shadowrun
Main Page Setting Info Headquarters Supply Closet Garage Employee of the Month Timeline House Rules
Chapter 2
22: Nippon Teikoku e Youkoso 23: Rift Closed/Opened 24: F.A.T.E. Unravels 25: Hotel California 26: Welcome Home 27: New Beginnings
Chapter 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
F.A.T.E. PCs
Anastasia Ellison - CS Dmitri - CS Eric Black - CS Gideon Wexler - CS Hector Radcliffe Kumiko Nakamura - CS Oni - CS

Briefing

F.A.T.E. Fresno's top agent, Desmond Sands, was deep undercover as an employee of a small Aztechnology shell company operating in Los Angeles. Fearing his cover has been compromised, he has activated his emergency beacon, a signal to F.A.T.E. that he must be extracted immediately. J.P. Redman knew immediately that this extraction would require his top agents. F.A.T.E. San Francisco's agents were gathered on short notice and told to pack up and depart immediately for Los Angeles. They would receive the briefing en-route.

---

Doc sat in the driver's seat of one of F.A.T.E.'s patrol cars, waiting for the last two agents to finish packing the trunk and get in the car. Hector, Wex, and Oni already took off in the Ares Roadmaster. "How many guns are you taking, anyway?" he said, looking at Ana through the sideview mirror as she loaded more into the trunk. She ignored him; you could never have too many guns, she thought. Eric entered the garage as Ana closed the trunk and made her way to the front passenger seat.

"What do you think you're doing?" Eric called out to Ana as he walked up to the car. "I'm employee of the month," he said with a smile.

---

Ana gazed out the tinted window of the patrol car from the back seat, taking in the sights as the car crossed the Nishi-Tokyo over Oakland Bay. Even with AR disabled, the skyline was littered with ads, from Ares cars to the latest simsense from Wuxing. She spotted one interesting advertisement she hadn't seen in years: Ares was resuming passenger shuttle service to the moon, something she had always wanted to do. Eric and Doc were sitting up front quietly. The car was on autopilot, powered by the city's Gridlink. Once outside the city Doc planned to take control from the computer, but he knew that in city traffic, the computer was typically more efficient than a human driver, as it was being fed data from the city's traffic management systems.

Their thoughts were interrupted by a video conference request from J.P. Redman. His image projected over the center of the dash of both vehicles. "Agent Desmond Sands has requested extraction from his undercover operation at Pendleton EnviroTech, a rather well known Aztech shell corporation operating in Los Angeles. They advertise environmental cleanup and property restoration services, but from the data Desmond has been feeding us over the past several months, that's not the only thing they do."

Redman's face was replaced with a map of Los Angeles on the projection. "You're familiar with the astral alchera that appeared below Los Angeles after the Twins," he said, referring to the twin earthquakes that devastated the Pacific coast 4 years ago. "Pueblo Corporate has been very restrictive of who it has licensed to study and explore these tunnels and caverns. Only CalTech and UCLA have permits. But that hasn't stopped others from trying. Especially the Azzies. When we heard they were making strides in their exploratory efforts, Desmond was tasked with infiltrating their operation and collecting as much information as he could."

"He was meeting with F.A.T.E. Fresno agents on a monthly basis. On January 12, their last meeting, he said he noticed a change in behavior of one of the lead researchers within Pendleton. He didn't have many details, but suggested bi-weekly meetings in case things developed rapidly. The second meeting never took place, but we received a communication from Desmond that said he was fine, but felt he was being watched closer than usual. Our agents began to worry that his cover was compromised. Their suspicions were apparently valid, because just one hour ago, Desmond activated his emergency beacon. We need to get him out."

The map of Los Angeles zoomed into the southern portion of the L.A. sprawl to an area just south of Irvine. "His beacon was activated at Pendleton's office complex in Newport Beach. It's implanted so if he moves, we should be able to track the signal. We have not been able to communicate with him since January 25. I'm sending over all of his reports on the Pendleton assignment."

A little light reading for the ride, Ana thought to herself as the document transfer took place.

Doc took the brief silence as an opportunity to ask questions, "What do we have on Pendleton's office? Do we know if he's being held there?"

The Director responded, "Dmitri's gathering some intel on the office complex now. We don't know what his current situation is -- these are the offices where he works daily. The beacon has only been active for one hour. The beacon communicates in two ways: via GPS and the Matrix. If he emerges from the building GPS should pick him up. If GPS can't, we at least know the last Matrix node that is relaying the signal."

"How can we get in contact with him?" Doc asked.

"That's difficult to answer. Desmond suspected his communications were monitored by the Azzies, which is why we held face-to-face meetings. Anything over the Matrix is subject to snooping, especially if you're running through their network to begin with. I hope he will make contact with us when it's safe for him to do so."

"How quiet does this need to be?" was Doc's next question.

Redman answered solemnly, "Whatever it takes. We want our agent back."

There was a short silence as he let that sink in. Redman had one last instruction, "By the way, make sure you use the border crossing on Highway 5. Your vehicles are registered in the PCC FastPass database, so you can use that lane to bypass Customs and Immigration." Ana nodded approvingly, she didn't want to have to explain the trunkload of weapons.

---

Summary of Desmond Sands' Pendleton files:

• Pendleton has found several unguarded entrances to the Deep Lacuna. They run exploration missions primarily using disposable spirits, drones, and unwitting runners looking for some extra nuyen. The research team itself has only been down twice since Desmond was hired on.
• Desmond was hired as a paracritter consultant. He's not part of the main research group, but has enough access to yield valuable intelligence.

Notes

• 4,421¥ remaining on the team stipend
• There is a whole chapter detailing Los Angeles in the Corporate Enclaves sourcebook. Here are some main points:
  • LA broke from CalFree and became a free city in 2046. It was annexed by the Pueblo Corporate Council in 2061.
  • The city was devastated by a 9.6 magnitude earthquake in 2069. The city experienced an unusual drop in elevation, known as the Fall. A large area of sunken caverns, caves, and sinkholes appeared beneath the city, known as the Deep Lacuna. They appear to be a unique astral construct and are the subject of intense study by CalTech and UCLA.
  • 3 years after the quake, parts of the city have rebounded prosperously, and LA remains the media capital of the world.
• Relations between CalFree and PCC can be described as tense and untrusting.
• Useful maps:
  • Map of Southern California
  • Map of Los Angeles

Session Synopsis

When the group got to the PCC border, Desmond was on the move. His distress beacon moved to an abandoned apartment building to the west of Fun City. GPS lost the signal when they entered the building, and shortly after the DocWagon health monitor also disappeared. The group decided to split up: Anastasia, Doc, and Eric went to Desmond's residence in Newport Beach while Hector, Wex, and Oni investigated the apartment building where the signal was last recorded.

Investigating Desmond's apartment turned out not to yield much information. They found his F.A.T.E. issued comlink. Eric, using his newly discovered Psychometry metamagic, discovered that Desmond was last at his apartment less than 48 hours ago with a nervous emotional state.

Wex and Oni investigated the abandoned apartment complex off of Route 91. They stopped on Highway 91's shoulder near a point where the road was missing, so there was little traffic to bother them. They used a grappling gun to avoid the toxic sludge below and climb to the nearest apartment building. Using existing pedestrian bridges from there, they made their way to the abandoned building of interest.

They found that the flood waters had not made their way to the interior of this abandoned building, which was strange. After finding the main level to be void of any life or activity, they found the stairwell and made their way to the basement levels. Wex searched the basement level first, finding a homeless man but failing to reveal any information via assensing. Oni's search found a mysterious symbol on the wall followed by an arrow. They began to suspect the homeless man was some sort of guard, so they began to search him. Wex's assensing skills worked this time, and he noticed the homeless man was actually inhabited by a spirit. Wex moved swiftly to decapitate the threat before it could wake.

Eric contacted a talismonger in Los Angeles who (for 500 nuyen) explained what the symbol meant. It was a cryptic symbol that a known Aztechnology mage group used as waypoint markers in the Deep Lacuna.

Oni found a hole in the floor at the end of the hallway, just large enough for a human to fit through. Wex explored further and found it to be an entrance to the Deep Lacuna, as they come to expect. They waited for the remainder of the group to arrive before pressing any further.

Anastasia, Wex, Doc, and Eric proceeded to enter the Deep Lacuna, taking their time adjusting to the bizarre astral features the area had in store. Spirits whizzed by, background counts changed abruptly, and strange critters swam among them as they followed an underground river to the opening of a grand cavern. In the middle of a cavern was a giant fissure, splitting the cavern in half and with no bottom in sight. On the far end of the cavern they saw an illusion-based mana storm projecting a playground. There were 10 "kids" playing.

Eric crossed the fissure first atop a flying air spirit, taking a piece of microwire with him and securing it to a stalagmite on the other end. While Doc crossed, two kids approached Eric, asking if he wanted to play with them. Eric obliged them by following them to their sandbox, but flew on his air spirit and kept his distance. When Doc arrived, similarly two kids approached. They attempted to use Compulsion to get Doc to join them, but Doc resisted their mental influence and convinced the kids to go back and play on their own, buying enough time for Wex to cross uninterrupted.

While Anastasia was crossing, 4 shedim spirits gathered at the far end of the cavern. Eric had warned the group by now that the 10 kids were also shedim spirits that were possessing dead children's bodies. The 4 shedim spirits made their way over to Anastasia and attacked the group, and the kids joined in the attack moments later. A massive battle ensued; Eric, his spirits, and Wex fought off the spirits while Doc opened fire at all 10 kids, injuring many of them as they charged toward him. Anastasia frantically tried to finish the climb.

There were tense moments in the battle where the shedim spirits succeeded in using Fear against their opponents, causing them to flee the scene briefly. But the kids could never get close enough to touch or do any real damage. One child successfully used the Accident power to snap Anastasia's climbing microwire. It wrapped around her shoulder as she fell, ripping her sleeve off and creating a deep wound at the joint. Eric's spirit was under Anastasia waiting to catch her as she fell and brought her to the top of the cliff, where she drew her shotgun and finished off the last child at point blank range with one gruesome flechette burst.

Meanwhile, at the surface, it was just before sunset when a Lone Star patrol car pulled up the two F.A.T.E. vehicles parked on the side of the road with its police lights flickering. Hector groaned as he saw this in his rear-view mirror. An officer stepped out in Lone Star's classic highway patrol uniform: wide-brim hat, large chrome aviators, and a mouth full of some sort of drug that reminded Hector that he was overdue for a hit himself.

Aftermath

Regroup and Healing rolls go here...

• Anastasia has taken 5P damage
  • Poor Conditions (-2)
  • Patient is Awakened (-2)
  • Medkit (+6)
  • 1 Skilled Assistant (Anastasia) (+1)
  • Doc: Logic (4) + First Aid (3) + 2 = 9: 6, 5, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, 5; 4 successes. 2 Boxes of Damage Healed.
• Eric has 2S damage from Drain
  • Poor Conditions (-2)
  • Patient is Awakened (-2)
  • Medkit (+6)
  • 1 Skilled Assistant (Anastasia) (+1)
  • Doc: Logic (4) + First Aid (3) + 3 = 10: 6, 6, 5, 5, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1; 4 successes. 2 Boxes of Damage Healed.

Results

Status: In Progress
Dates: February 8, 2073
Quote of the night: "I lay down suppressive fire at all 10 children." - Tony (as Doc)
Nuyen: 0¥
Stipend: 3,921¥ remaining
Karma Awarded: 7