Welcome to Shadowrun Occultist Quest!

>What is Shadowrun?

Shadowrun is an RPG series set in the world of 2072, 60 years after "The Awakening", the return of magic, spirits, and fantasy races into the world. Metahumanity now lives in a world of advanced technology and magic, where megacorporations are above the laws of nations and one-third of all humanity have no legal rights. Crime and corruption run amok, and mercenary operatives known as "shadowrunners" ply their services to both the criminal underworld, and to the very corporations that officially fight against them.

>How are success and failure determined?

A number of d6's are rolled equal to the relevant attribute+the relevant skill. 5's and 6's are successes, and the dice are rolled against a target threshold (1 for something trivial; 6 for a highly difficult /intricate task. 10 for something next-to-impossible). Each 6 rolled results in one additional die being rolled in the pool. Results are as follows:

Target number of successes is met: the action is a success.

Target number of successes is not met: the action is a failure.

Target number of successes is met, but more 1's are rolled than any other number in the pool: a "glitch" occurs: a minor outside complication arises that prevents success.

Target number of successes is not met and more 1's are rolled than any other number: critical glitch. Your actions fail in a way that is potentially disastrous for your long-term goals or your health.

You will have 2 points of Edge each "session" that you can spend to tip the scales in your favor. When requesting an action, you may specify that you want to spend a point of Edge to add "luck" or "effort" to a roll. "Luck" will add five dice to the roll's pool (great for situations where Redd is forced to work out of his depth). "Effort" will re-roll all failed dice on a roll if it does not meet the threshold, glitches, or critically glitches (the point will be refunded if none of these happen). This is good when you are playing to Redd's strengths, but want to make sure you don't botch something.

Good luck, and remember the fundamentals of shadowrunning:

>Shoot straight!

>Conserve ammo!

>Never make a deal with a dragon!

Cast:

>Rhun "Hela'R Dryw" map Gaelwynn
A short, toned, and angry Welshwoman who serves as your crew's close-combat expert and recon gal. Has enough chrome and bioware in her body that she could probably tank a fall from the 10th floor of a skyraker into an acid vat. Against all odds, holds a Master's degree in Welsh History. Likes: Parkour, sex, narcotics, alcohol, swordfighting, Welsh autonomy from the UK, Lofwyr (The CEO of Saeder-Krupp), Saeder-Krupp. Dislikes: The English, the Irish, the Scottish, Tir Elves, "wankers", people who don't like Lofwyr or Saeder-Krupp. Is trying to quit Bliss.

>Rex Stirling
A Chicago native and former cleaner for Saeder-Krupp, now demoted to shadowrunning due to a series of unwise decisions that started with a decision to do a hit-and-run on the leader of a major street gang. A veteran of the Sinai Shadow Operations of 2065. Consummate professional (apart from the hit-and-run) and a hard, hard man. Likes: clean runs, gray suits, the Chicago Shatterers Urban Brawl team, and "Pacey Rae", his Gauss rifle. Dislikes: Messy runs, being double-crossed, "wizard bullshit". Has some unresolved trauma from the Sinai.

>Sudo Morphus/"N0b0dy"

The crew's decker. Used to just be an IT nerd, until S-K got leverage on him for redirecting spam-mail from one of their subsidiaries back to said subsidiary's servers. You have the closest relationship to him our of anyone on the team. Suffers from Sudden Unexplained Resurgent Genetic Expression (SURGE), which gives him oily, bright-green scales instead of skin, along with a tail. Likes: MMO gaming, decking, the occult, "me time", you (in a platonic way). Dislikes: violence, being overworked, Lance, himself. Mildly depressed.

>Tizona Cortez

An ex-pirate technically-nun, Tizona Cortez is your group's mage. She channels the power of God to smite your enemies and bring down the heretic government of Aztlan (formerly Mexico). Lives apart from the rest of the crew, in a convent in Charlotte. Likes: Jesus, helping the unfortunate, low-riders, sangria, Marlboros, fire, killing Aztlanti. Dislikes: heresy, blasphemy, apostasy, hangovers, Aztechnology, The Aztlanti, being ordered to spare the Aztlanti.

>"Barbie"/Lenore Lancester
Not a part of your crew, but a close associate. A total ditz when it comes to anything but fashion, smoothies, and calculating the thousands of variables needed to make the perfect sniper shot. Over 40 confirmed kills. Color-coordinates her duffel bags with her outfit. Suprisingly nice for a professional sniper. Does her work to help out her large family. Likes: fashion magazines, shopping, smoothies, small animals, her BFF Rhun, killing "bad guys", you. Dislikes: white after labor day, socks and sandals, unnecessary violence, reading. Your girlfriend.

>Lilith
Barbie's little sister. An apprentice in the Voudou tradition. This is her first Shadowrun.

Attributes:
>Body 3
>Strength 3
>Agility 3
>Reaction 3
>Logic 6
>Willpower 6
>Intuition 4
>Charisma 6

Skills:
>Magic 3
>Computer 7
>Academic Knowledge: History 7
>Academic Knowledge: England 1
>Artisan 1
>Leadership 2
>Interest Knowledge: Conspiracy Theories 2
>Language: English (native speaker)
>Language: Mandarin 2
>Language: Japanese 2
>Chemistry 4
>Etiquette 7
>Software 3
>Academic Knowledge: Magical Theory 6
>Academic Knowledge: Biology 5
>Language: Spanish 2
>Academic Knowledge: Ancient Languages 7
>Academic Knowledge: Philosophy 6
>Academic Knowledge: Religion 7
>Instruction 2
>Professional Knowledge: Wondertainment Industries 3
>Con 2
>Negotiation 3
>Professional Knowledge: Business Administration 6
>Enchanting Skill Group 1
>Arcana 2
>Assensing 2
>Blades 2
>First Aid 1
>Survival 1
>Professional Knowledge: Small-Group Tactics 3
>Street Knowledge: Magical Theory 3
>Academic Knowledge: Literature 3
>Alchemy 4
>Pistol 1
>Pilot: Ground Vehicle 2
>Sneaking 3
>German 2
>Russian 3
>Automatics 1
Modifiers:
>Scarred: -1 on non-Intimidation Charisma tests, +1 on Intimidation tests.
>Social Stress (Gangs, Personal Intimacy): -2 on all Charisma-based tests when dealing with gangers or in a situation that demands emotional honesty or vulnerability with someone close to you.

>>1070323
>(Do it)

>>1070323
>(Do it)

File: Dew iit.gif (64 KB, 480x270)

64 KB GIF

>>1070323
>>(Do it)

>>1071451
>>1071379
>>1071069

You lay the man underneath the arcane symbol.

"Great! Now just one thing... Len, I'm gonna need your lipstick. All of it."

"What?! This stuff costs, like, 20¥ a stick AT LEAST-"

"THEN YOU CAN BUY MORE!"

Lilith grabs the lipstick from Len and starts smearing it all over the shirt. In a few minutes, the guard's outfit is dyed a crude shade of deep red.

"Alright... now... "

Lilith places a shallow bowl behind her, which she fills with water. She then places and lights a single candle in front of her. Then, with her sleeves rolled up, she starts chanting:

"Dife nan devan m '. Dlo dèyè do m '. Latè anba a m '. Syèl pi wo a mwen. Antre nan sèk sa a, chèf sou mond lan invizibl! Ogun, fyè mèt nan fè, tanpri vini isit la! Monte nonm sa a, epi pale ak nou!"

Nothing much happens for a bit. Then a faint breeze blows through the room, blowing the candle out. The unconscious guard suddenly starts jerking and twitching, before rising to his feet like a marionette. When his eyelids open, neither iris nor pupil are present.

"Te travay moute yon swaf dlo pwisan ap resevwa isit la, ti kras manke. Ban m 'kèk nan bwè medsin mwen. Apre sa, yanm nan, tou: se konsa lontan depi mwen goute ki gou."

Lilith pours a shot of rum into the glass, mixes it with the tan oil, and hands it to the shuffling figure, who downs it in one gulp. She then hands him the yam, which he begins messily devouring.

>Is this... normal?

>(Continue watching)

>Why does a god want a yam and booze? Doesn't this sort of thing normally require blood offerings?

>(To the figure) Are you Ogun?

>Write-In

>>1071621
>(Continue watching)
One does not interrupt a loa when they are enjoying themselves.

>>1071621
>(Continue watching)
Loosely familiar with this stuff and can even mostly understand what the loa's saying, so this is pretty sweet QM.

>>1071656
>>1071810
The man finishes ripping the yam apart, licking the last few crumbs from his fingers and wiping them absent-mindedly on his pants, then straightens up and flashes a brief grin that gleams like a pistol-barrel.

"Ah, sa ki te reyèl bon, byen bon. Koulye a, sa ou vle, ti kras manke?"

"Oh vanyan sòlda ak feròs Ogun, mwen bezwen èd ou yo. zanmi mwen ak mwen, nou vle ale nan sa a kouvèti twou egou, wè? Men, li gen yon période sou li ki fè louvri li danjere pou nou. Konprann se li ki nan pouvwa vas ou a deplase l 'sou kote?"

The man's yam-eating hand jerks up to the chin and begins to rub it.

"Ki sa ki nan nan li pou m 'konsa? Okenn sans ede si mwen pa jwenn pa gen anyen soti nan li."

>Judge Intentions: Lilith looks taken aback.

"Lakay... mwen pral ba ou twa amann kok nwa!"

He frowns and spits.

"Ki moun ki nou kwè mwen ye, ti fi, Baron Kriminel? Si sa a tout sa ou te resevwa, kite m 'ale kounye a. Mwen ta pito dwe nan forj m 'lan nan Guinee Lè sa a, kanpe otou ak yon ti fi moun sòt ki pa konnen sa ki sòt de bagay mwen vle!"

>Judge Intentions: She's genuinely nervous now.

"Ki sa ou vle lè sa a? Jis di li!"

He grins. "Mwen renmen kò sa a. Li nan te resevwa yon arrache bon nan etap li yo. Santi l tankou li te travay soti, tankou li batay. Kite m 'rete isit la pandan twa jou epi mwen pral avanse pou pi ki ti kras kouvèti twou egou fin vye granmoun pou ou, pa gen okenn pwoblèm!"

Lilith turns back to you.

"He wants the body for three days."

>Tell him it's a deal.

>What do you mean, "wants the body"?

>(Try to negotiate through Lilith)

>No deal. Send him back

>Write-In

>>1071862
>As long as the body does not end up damaged, or cause damage to others, then it's a deal. It's not ours to begin with, y'know.

>>1071862
>(Try to negotiate through Lilith)
Two days and nothing that will permanently damage the body, and to make it look like the man was simply sick for the two days explaining his absence.

>>1071862
>No deal. Send him back

Yeah negotiate

>>1072909
>>1072212
"Tell him he can have the body for two days, that he cannot do anything to permanently harm the body, and that he must make the man look like he was sick for the period of the possession."

Èske w gen kò a pou twa jou ta enjis yo nonm sa a. Tanpri, jis pran li pou de pito. pa mal nonm sa a pou tout tan,, epi fè li gade tankou li te jis malad pou jou sa yo."

"Amann amann. Fè bagay sa yo wout ou. Gade wè si m 'fè bagay sa yo bèl pou ou ankò."

Lilith turns back to you. "He says he's fine with this."

The body strides over to the manhole and punches down on it so hard hairline cracks form in the surrounding tiles. All that's left is the rim of the manhole and a perfectly circular hole leading down, with a ladder against one side.

"Mwen se outa isit la."

Ogun walks out of the room, whistling cheerily.

Lilith looks down the hole.

"I guess it's safe now."

"Wow, what a nice guy! Helping us out after you knocked him out like that!"

"... Let's just go down, Len."

The three of you climb down the ladder.

The room at the bottom of the ladder is unlit and musty. Looking around with your commlink's light shows looming computer towers covered in cloth. A bookshelf rests in a corner. A door at one end of the room leads deeper into this area.

>Perception: you can hear the whirring of many terminals in the next room.

>Investigate the towers

>Investigate the bookshelf

>Head into the next room

>Write-In

>>1073408
>Investigate the bookshelf

>>1073408
>Investigate the bookshelf
>Other
Make sure to take video of everything with our commlink.

Man, I wish we had some extra commlinks with preloaded softs we could just plug into these computers to suck the data from them/create an opening into their network.
I bet they haven't locked down the datalink ports on these machines, most guys who don't have a paranoid IT department remember to do so..

>>1073662
>>1073767
COMPUTER PROGRAMMING FOR DUMMIES!

HOW TO RELEASE YOUR INNER SPIRIT AND CREATE A BETTER, MORE PURE YOU!

THE ART OF THE DEAL

THE SATANIC VERSES

>Knowledge: Literature: All of these books are from the 1980's.

>Perception: There's a lot of dust on these books. Looks like no one's used them in a while.

>Poking around near the bookshelf, you see a display case you hadn't noticed earlier. Flatscreen photos appear to be in it.

>Investigate the towers

>Investigate the display case

>Head into the next room

>Write-In

>>1075136
>Investigate the display case
Remember gloves, record it all with our commlink.

>>1075136

So some Kolchak era 5th World esoterist gets his 20th Century ass inundated with the glimmerings of power and unwittingly paves the way for something when the proper mana levels return?

These computer terminals could very well have the equivalent of Necronomicon chants on their hard drives waiting for the soul foolish enough to flip the power main.

https://youtu.be/5_rPTRDI1pw

>Ogun quest when?

>>1075167
The display case appears to be an old cork-board message case. A mix of photos and aging yellow notices fill the board.

>Perception: The same people appear in most of the photos: the vaguely-Jewish looking man with coke-bottle glasses and a seemingly permanent nervous grin, a relaxed, be-afroed guy usually positioned somewhere in the background, trying to conceal his eyes (no doubt, in your mind, to prevent people from noticing their red and blood-shot quality), a drab, large girl in a blouse, usually elbow-deep in some machine or another, and a dark-haired, pale, and young fellow seemingly resentful of having his picture taken recur the most often. All of their photos appear to show them working with ancient, primitive 20Cen computers in some way: going through the wiring, programming them on immense, clunky keyboards, examining printed outputs. A number of posters seem to reference a Valentine's Day dance on campus. Looking closely, you can see what looks like a map pinned to the board: it appears to be a map of this building, which is labeled as a fallout shelter. It shows the door you previously saw as being the "living area", with this being the "entry area". The "canteen", "sleeping area", "toilets", "atmospheric circulator", and "electronics room" all spiral off of the "living area".

"Man, this stuff all looks so OLD! What do you think happened here? I bet it was a mass murder that the school covered up."

>Investigate the towers

>Make a general sweep of the "entry area"

>Head into the "living area"

>Write-In

>>1076340

So we have four possible personality echoes on site. Perhaps this school might have 20th century, preferably digital, yearbook records in the campus library?

Any way we could scan in the photos and cross reference the biometrics with famous computer engineers or crackpots of the era?

As weird as it may sound the atmospheric circulator could have genetic evidence trapped in its filters. Dust to dust after all with this being a 5th Age Cold War shelter.

The Sleeping and Living areas are likely good spots to check for intel on the former inhabitants. Don't forget the canteen might have food packaging expiration dates that would help us better pinpoint the exact era of these iconoclastic interlopers.

https://youtu.be/cURcd2_w-rg

>>1073408
>"Wow, what a nice guy! Helping us out after you knocked him out like that!"
Have I said lately that I love Barbie?

>>1076340
>Make a general sweep of the "entry area"

>>1076340
>>Make a general sweep of the "entry area"

File: strange.jpg (10 KB, 460x345)

10 KB JPG

>>1076965
>>1076992
>>1076408
You pull out your commlink and start taking photos with its built-in camera for later reference. Unfortunately, your signal's shit down here: looks like you'll have to climb back up the ladder to get any reliable Matrix access. You then start sweeping the room for clues.

You find an odd-looking device in one corner, tucked behind one of the cloth-covered towers. It looks like some kind of strange radio, with a metallic handle and solid-metal antenna. It rests on a stand, with its plug resting less than a foot from a wall plug. You also find a push-cart full of electronic parts, with a motor, an antique video camera, and what looks like some kind of jury-rigged steering system hooked up to it. It's currently resting beneath a chute of some kind. Scarring around the edges of the shelter indicates that the chute was an addition to the shelter. You notice that there's a clear line of cleared dust running between this spot and the door to the "living area".

"Ooh! Freddy, come look at this!"

Len comes up to you, holding a moldy magazine with a picture of a precious-looking kitten on it. The remarkably intact cover proclaims it to be a 1985-86 18-month calendar.

"Isn't this kitty just the SWEETEST THING? Totes adorbs!"

"Sigh... Hey, Fred or whatever. Found something weird."

You head over to Lilith, who is currently staring intently at a bundle of cables running from a small hole in the wall by the Living Area door to one of the towers.

"Was Renraku, like, a thing back in the CDs-and-dinosaurs era?"

She points to the cables, which, upon looking more closely, have the Renraku Computer Systems logo printed on them.

>Investigate the towers

>Head into the "living area"

>Climb up the ladder and try to call Sudo in for help.

>Write-In

>>1077186

Was the Banzai Institute a thing in this timeline? Because emergency vehicle with video camera and steering feels like Oscillation Overthruster territory.

>8th dimensional Lectroids as misinterpreted spirits

Can we wrack our brains on Renraku's corporate history to see if they were an entity in the 1980s? None of us are Rigger class Runners so that sort of hardware geekery is likely out of our depth.

Then again there are signs of recent intrusion with the cleared dust.

https://youtu.be/ii9n8CMpLMk

>>1077231
>Knowledge: History: Renraku wasn't a corporate entity until the early 2020's, when it was formed as a way to re-package the dying Keruba International company.

>>1077186
>>Climb up the ladder and try to call Sudo in for help.

>>1077186
>Investigate the towers

>>1077186
>Investigate the towers

>>1077186
Is that a Theremin? Woah, you're stumbling into a relic here.

>>1078540
>>1077435
You pull the dusters off of one of the nearby towers. The device beneath is hulking, primitive, and unfamiliar to you. The logo of some long-dead company, an open window, is stamped on the side. The interior is a mess of cables, boards, and wires: you can't make heads or tails of the parts.

>Head into the "living area"

>Climb up the ladder and call Sudo

>Write-In

>>1078834
>>Head into the "living area"

>>1078834
>Head into the "living area"

>>1078873
>>1079027
You gently push open the door to the "living area".

Entering the "living area" is like walking into a corpse. Piles of electronics fill up more than half the room, leaving narrow passages as the only walking room. Cables snake in scores across the floor between monolithic tower stacks, wireless signal boosters, and other, more esoteric server devices. If IT departments have a Hell, this room is a preview of it.

>Perception: A massive stack of old flatscreen monitors shines its electronic beacons out from an area roughly in the center of the living area. You can clearly see that this room is full of electronics from eras ranging from the late 20th Century to near-contemporary tech.

"Wow, this place is, like, a total mess! They need to get a good interior decorator!"

"Len, this isn't a decoration problem. CLEARLY it's some kind of mad science experiment that's going to try and kill us."


>Investigate the monitor stack.

>Head into the toilets

>Head into the canteen

>Head into the sleeping area

>Head into the toilets

>Head into the atmospheric circulator

>Head into the electronics room

>Write-In

File: 9ac7700f1e6140680ea380597(...).jpg (77 KB, 564x422)

77 KB JPG

>>1079101
(Meant to post this: am an idiot)

>>1079101
>>Investigate the monitor stack.

>>1079161
The monitor stack is a hulking thing, staring down at a mass of key-boards in front of it like a statue of a baleful god at its altar. The screens display flatscreen versions of trid channel footage, CCTV clips, gaming footage, MeFeed streams, and even a solitaire game. An unfamiliar piece of fusion music drifts out of a set of speakers set up nearby: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U3sP-KbrGk

An aged, phleather-stuffed rolling chair is seated in front of the keyboard setup, with a mic lying in it. The screen immediately in front of the chair is displaying an ASCII image of two women in 19th-century period dress. Written beneath is is the phrase " E-Fox 7.0: press any key to begin"

>Memory: You recognize several of the places on the CCTV camera footage: most of this footage is from Arkham, but bits of it are from all over New England!

>Perception: All of the images seem to be "live": the games play themselves out, a cursor sorts the cards of solitaire, and so on. A series of cameras are positioned such that anyone seated on the chair in its current position would be in full view of them. You also see a metal rail junction resting in one of the few clear areas of the key-board desk: all of the rails then run off into the stacks.

>Press any key

>Head into the toilets

>Head into the canteen

>Head into the sleeping area

>Head into the toilets

>Head into the atmospheric circulator

>Head into the electronics room

>Leave

>Write-In

>>1079486
>Press any key

>>1079486
>Press any key

>>1070323
Oh, so there IS an SR quest on here?
Never mind then, I'll not cause deliberate overlap.

>>1080286
There cannot be too much Shadowrun quests.
Run yours! Do it!

>>1080320
Hmm, I might then.
Give me the overview of what kind of SR quest this is then, because I literally do not have time right now to go and research how different might be from regular Shadowrun.

File: [starry eyes].jpg (92 KB, 1280x720)

92 KB JPG

>>1080286

>>1080357
Is this a good reaction or a bad one?
I don't speak anime.

>>1079486
>Head into the atmospheric circulator

>>1079663
>>1079818
Guys, we spent so much effort to not be detected coming down here, and now you want to be caught on camera, on a live feed?
What the fuck are you thinking?

>>1080340
basically we're playing the mage/face of the party, with a dash of Lovecraft.
And oh, we're working for a dragon.

>>1080505
I'd leave the role the MC of my quest would be to the player's choice.
And there wouldn't be any more focus on the magic part of SR then there would be any other part of SR, regardless of role chosen by the players.
Periodically during some runs you'd switch between whom you are playing as; the MC or members of his team.

I try to make use of everything when I do SR; that's what makes it SR.

>>1079663
>>1079818
You cautiously lean over the desk and rapidly tap the "Enter" key before moving out of the camera's line-of-sight.

Immediately, the four screens nearest the seat blink out and rapidly load a set of ASCII faces: a plain, pudgy-faced woman, a be-afroed man, a glasses-wearing Jewish man, and a man with slick-backed hair. The cameras facing the chair begin to swivel on motor powered mounts and adjust their lenses.

A synthesized voice blares out from the speakers.

"You guys finally remembered we're down here, huh? Thank god! Listen, we need some replacement transistors, tower A-4 is starting to burn out, and if that goes we won't get the latest trids, which would, you know, be totally lame, and-"

"No one's there, Fred, you idiot! Just check the cameras! A mouse must have slipped down here again and run across the keyboard. Just activate the arsenic vents and flood the room again, send the bill to the robes. God knows we don't want another repeat of the 2033 incident: I'm still not sure we managed to get all of Barb's 'Interests' file back online."

"I'm right here, you know!"

"Oh, how could I forget, we've only been down here together for how long?!"

"86 years, 11 months, twenty-something days: I could get a more accurate date if we reformatted the calendar program."

You hear a crackling, electronic sigh. "Just gas the place already, before that mouse damages anything."

>(get into camera range) Hello? Who's there?

>(Speak up) There is someone here! I'm just camera-shy!

>(Back away and start running towards the ladder)

>Write-In

>>1080923

Holy crap we've got the Weird Science basement nerd Singularity here. Sudo would might lose, or at least digitize, his mind when we tell him.

https://youtu.be/Jm-upHSP9KU

This is Arasaka level shenanigans. Four distinct entities trapped in silicon running the personalities of those lost researchers. They've been "aware" through the entirety of the Awakening and before!

At the very least low mana Humans could function as data entities with minimal sociopathy with 5th Age 20th century tech initially.

https://youtu.be/jpZl4iT4eAY

>>1080923
>activate system you don't know shit about and that has live feed cameras on whoever activates it
>you just activated the poison gas system
Great going, guys. Looks like you're keeping up the tradition of absolutely stupid ideas, like hacking the Wuxing Regional HQ database, or bluffing Russian operators without knowing any Russian.

>(Speak up) There is someone here! I'm just camera-shy!
Because otherwise this entire operation will have been a waste of time and resources, both physical and magical, that we expended to get here. Not to mention, it's already too late. The Brotherhood is going to be called in and they'll see someone bypassed the ward, and while Len and Redd might not have left anything, Lilith is absolutely fucked; she likely has already left behind something, and there's a good chance that her astral signature is there. And our face got seen by the janitor, who we didn't memory wipe.

>>1080523
As this quest shows, players can be really fucking stupid.
Worse than "making a deal with a dragon" stupid, and they'll think they're being oh so clever while acting like retards.

>>1080949
I think I mentioned already, but I don't have time to read this quest.

>>1080966
I'm simply saying that you have to expect stupidity, and giving this thread as an example.
The QM here also likes to give trap choices, which players will sometimes eagerly choose.

>>1080947
"There is someone here! I am just camera-shy!"

The bickering voices fall silent for a second, and the cameras swivel towards the source of the sound.

"Heyyy... you guys aren't Brotherhood!"

"Wait, they aren't Brotherhood? Stop hogging all the camera bandwidth, Archie!"

"No, they aren't. Looks like... a guy with a lot of facial burns, a cute blonde, and a goth."

"Goths still EXIST? Goddammit!"

"Heh, eat that, Sam! Pay up!"

"Fine, I'll transfer 15% of my processing speed to you for the next three weeks. ...dick."

"Will you guys shut up?! We have GUESTS!"

"FINE..."

There's a brief period of silence from the speakers before the female voice returns.

"Um, hello out there! I'm Barb-" an arrow pops up on-screen by the female face- "And these are Sam" -the glasses-wearing face- "Fred-" the afroed fellow- "and Archie. We're... kind of the first functional uploaded intelligences. You see, it all started back in 1982 with a guy named Ronald Reagan-"

"They don't care about that, Barb! Hey, Fred here. Listen, this is gonna sound weird, but could you do some favors for us? Nothing illegal, I think- sorry, we don't get out much, and the guys who provide us with an internet- sorry, Matrix- connection throttle our bandwith and restrict a lot of our site access, so we're kind of in the dark about some stuff. But anyways, help a brother out?"

Len looks at you. "I think we should totally help these guys out! I mean, they seem nice, right?"

"I don't buy it. It's probably an evil AI pretending to be some people to trick us into freeing it or something. Like that film, 'Revenge of the Techno-Revenant'."

>Who are you guys, exactly?

>No, no, I'm interested in Barb's story

>Sure, we'll help out

>I have some questions first (Write-In)

>No dice, man. We aren't here for you.

>Write-In

>>1081014
>Who are you guys, exactly?
>No, no, I'm interested in Barb's story
>Sure, we'll help out
>Write-in: Could you write down who you are and how this started into a file?
Do we have a burner commlink, or a data chip?

We need to carry a spare burner commlink and a datachip from now on.

>>1081014
>>No, no, I'm interested in Barb's story

>>1081021
>>1081022
"No, no, I am interested in Barb's story. Please, continue. Then we will see about helping you out."

"Okay! So, in 1982, there was this guy named Ronald Reagan. He was the President- you still have Presidents, right? I'm going to just assume you do. Anyways, at the time, there was this big standoff between the US and a country called Russia with nuclear weapons. Reagan had a lot of ideas about how to defeat the Russians in this engagement, and one of them was to create a supercomputer complex enough to control all of America's nuclear arsenal and act as a central command for the entire US armed forces. He called this 'Project HAL', because for some reason he liked naming things after sci-fi films. Anyways: we were all working in the CompSci department of MU at the time, and we managed to land the contract. We used this fallout shelter as our work space because it was isolated and pretty secure.

Unfortunately, we realized, pretty quickly, that what Reagan wanted was, basically, impossible. We filled up pretty much the entire shelter AND the basement with computer systems, but the technology just wasn't advanced enough to reason on the same level as a human-"

"And then I found the quantum hyperprocessor!"

"Thank you for the interjection, Fred. Anyways: Fred was digging around in the basement of the Orne Library around '84, and he found this weird device, like some kind of pyramid or something? It was all a bunch of tubes and wires, but there was this weird stone in the center, some kind of vantablack silicon-carbon-gold alloy that, frankly, shouldn't have even EXISTED, but the thing about it was-"

"Oh, stop being so dramatic, Barb! The quantum hyperprocessor had essentially infinite storage capacity and processing power, and seemed to be compatible with all known programming languages. It had to be in near-absolute darkness to function properly, but we managed that simply by-"

"Who's telling this story, anyways? Okay, so we used the quantum hyperprocessor to surge forward on our project: we managed to squeeze the outside components into JUST taking up the vast majority of our workspace. Then we hit another roadblock: no matter how well we programmed our HAL intelligence, it always ended up being a hyperagressive sociopath that immediately tried to nuke Russia and seize unilateral control of the US regardless of the consequences in every simulation. DARPA didn't like this, obviously, so we started getting really under the gun. Then, the miracle happened."

"That's me! So, on February 9th, 1986, I was in the black room- that's what we called the room where we kept the quantum hyperprocessor- just, you know, chilling out-"

"You were high on LSD and trying to find a place to lie down, Fred. Don't lie."

"Okay, so what if I was?! Anyways, so there I was, when suddenly there's this huge, I don't know, like POW blast of something from the QH, and next thing I know, I'm floating around in the computer!"

>>1081073
"What Fred MEANS is that he was uploaded. Somehow, at that time, a kind of secret function in the QH was activated, and it scanned his brain and stored its exact pattern inside of itself."

"Pretty funny, huh? The first uploaded intelligence is a stoner who got uploaded by accident."

"Oh, FUCK YOU, Sam!"

"Not on your life, buddy."

"Will both of you GROW UP?! Anyways, at first we thought Fred was just dead, and were ready to shut everything down, but he managed to get a message out to us using a text program. it was really clumsy, at first, but once we wrote SLADE- that's the program that administrates our conscious functions- things got easier. Shortly after that, we wrote FOX- that's what you're using to talk with us right now- and our project REALLY got off of the ground. I mean, by this point DARPA had written us off as a lost cause, but that didn't matter anymore."

"I think they're getting bored, Barb. Anyways, we figured out how to upload ourselves into the old HAL system, which we renamed SEANCE. And here we are!"

"You're skimming! Look, things were pretty good for us: we'd managed to get a system set up where we could do maintenance on SEANCE from the inside, we could monitor our environment, and we got regular drop-offs of new gear and programs from the outside. We even had a USENET connection! Things were pretty good for us- and then the Brotherhood came. Bunch of dicks in robes. They decided that they wanted the QH for themselves, and they were willing to give us a full upgrade for SEANCE that would mean we wouldn't need the QH to support our minds anymore! We agreed because, hey, the systems could do with an update, anyways, and besides, our old meat-bodies were starting to get bacteria and mold everywhere. Of course, once they put in their upgrades, they told us that they had an EMP bomb plugged in to our datacore and would deep-fry us unless we acted as their virtual spies across New England for them. Assholes. And that gets you up to the present, basically. So, any questions, or do you want to help us out?"

"Can you put this in a file?"

"Oh, yeah, sure! Let's see... Okay! Just pull SD card 7-D from Tower 26! Oh, wait, you don't know the system... I'll just talk you over to it. Anything else?"

>Actually... (write-in question)

>Nope, I'm ready to help.

>Yeah, I think I'll pass on helping you

>>1081073
>Actually... (write-in question)
Have they been keeping you from finding out about the past few years?
AI's are a thing now, we even got AI terrorists and middle managers.

Have the Brotherhood ever told you what they do, and do you have any dirt on them?
For a price, I might be able to swing some Saeder-Krupp computing hardware.

>Actually..

"Given that you're connected to an EMP failsafe device that suggests you four are being monitored by the Brotherhood and there's some sort of maintenance schedule to ensure its function. You wouldn't have contacted me unless you were desperate or bored enough to risk your very existences."

"I'm ready to help you but be wary. That Matrix you've all been given limited access to has its own potentially fatal ecosystem. Please show caution in your attempts to contact it."

(Also we full LUCASarts now!)

https://youtu.be/ZCafbkQ-RT8

>>1081100
>>1081106
"Given that you are connected to an EMP failsafe that gets monitored and repaired, you must be either desperate, bored, or foolish to talk to me."

"Mostly the first. Being trapped in one place for 80 years kind of drives you up the wall, and it's not like we have any other options: we'd probably get burned at the stake or something out in the real world."

"The Brotherhood has been keeping you pretty isolated, have they not? Artificial Intelligences exist now. We even have a few working as middle managers."

"Really?! Shit, man, that settles it: we need to jailbreak ASAP! SCREW sitting around in this dump waiting for those nutjobs to have a panic attack and kill us out of paranoia!"

"How much do you know about this Brotherhood, anyways? What do they do? Do you know who their members are?"

"They SAY they're the 'guardians of humanity, preparing them from the darkness that shall come when the stars align', but I'm pretty sure that's bullshit. They're just hoarding all the cool tech and magic to themselves so that no one else can have it."

"Fine, I will help you, but be wary: the Matrix has an ecosystem as much as the real world: do not let yourself fall victim to it."

"Got you, got you. Okay, so first thing's first, we're gonna need you to get rid of the EMP device. So, get to the canteen."

The canteen CLEARLY used to be a storage area for food, but now its shelves are lined with various portable terminals, all linked together. You can see a small cubical device resting in the center.

"Okay, that's the EMP. It's plugged into SEANCE and is meant to put our systems in a big old feedback loop if it gets the kill signal or is tampered with. So, we'll need you to unplug ALL OF THE CORDS AT ONCE. Do anything too slowly, and it'll probably fry some of our sub-systems."

"Like, we could just shoot it?"

"This is stupid. Just let it go off: I don't buy any of this for one second: they'll just gas us as soon as we unplug this thing."

>Try and unplug all cords at once.

>Shoot it

>Tell Lilith to do blow it up with magic

>"I don't think we're qualified to get rid of this thing."

>Write-In

>>1081182
Write-In: examine it first, and see where the cords come from and go to, to identify how best to sever all cords at once.

>>1081182
>>Tell Lilith to do blow it up with magic

>>1081229
You remember how magic works in Shadowrun, right?
Do you understand the problems inherent with this choice?

>>1081182

We need to investigate further into this system.

The Digital Four mentioned deadly gas and that itself may be the Brotherhood's secondary failsafe in case of the EMP being compromised. There might also be magical wards in place.

"Do you know how to transition yourselves off your current psychic substrate? You've had 80 years to plan so hopefully you won't get cooked from incompatible protocols"

"Do you have an idea of when the next time the Brotherhood will be checking the feeds or reports you provide them? Could we safely remove you four while leaving a puppet backdoor to give us some escape time?"

https://youtu.be/RhyvsieEyas

>>1081243
>>1081213
You head back to the mic.

"Do you know how to transition yourselves off your current psychic substrate, and do you know when the Brotherhood will be checking up on you next?"

"I dunno about this 'psychic substrate' you're talking about: our plan is just to bundle ourselves with the SLADE and FOX protocols and cache ourselves in the cloud. From what we understand of the Matrix, our current protocols will allow us to exist as raw data from that point on. Like Matrix Ghosts!"

"... Let me go and check out the wiring on the EMP."

You go back to the device and start tracing the network connections. You feel confident that you can pull all of the cables simultaneously using a couple zip-ties and Len's help.

>Pull the cables

>Shoot the device

>Have Lilith melt it down or gremlinize it

>Write-In

>>1081272
>Write-In
Take a look at the EMP device itself. Is it plugged into a network jack of any kind? There must be a way for it to receive a kill signal, which means that the Brotherhood likely has some way to monitor it.

Before we deactivate it, we should check out everything else and make sure that the ability to get out is ready for these guys.
Is there a data cable jack that's compatible with our commlink? Does it have enough storage space for these guys?

>>1081278
The device appears to have some kind of Matrix receiver built into it. You don't feel comfortable with popping off any panels to take a closer look. Engineering like this is kind of out of your depth.

You duck out to the mic again. "What is the plan after I disable this, exactly?"

"You turn off the datachoke they have on our connection, and we take over from there!"

>Pull the cables

>Shoot the device

>Have Lilith melt it down or gremlinize it

>Write-In

>>1081322
>Write-In
Okay, show us where the datachoke is located so that we can immediately get ready to do it.
Also, check the other rooms first; assume that the Brotherhood will be sending a cleaner team here as soon as the EMP goes offline.

Make sure that there isn't a secondary EMP placed here, and the primary EMP isn't just a decoy for just this kind of eventuality.

>>1081350
"Where is this datachoke?"

"It's attached to device 382-H cable J, so... in the electronics room, there's a silver server box, pop off the top and it'll be the device wrapped around the blue cable."

"Okay. Len, Lilith, sweep the area. Look for an EMP or cleaning team. Anything, really."

You spread out through the rooms and do a quick sweep. You don't locate an EMP device of any kind.

"Um, it looks like there's something hooked up to the air circulator? It looks like a dust bag. I think that's because it is a dust bag, because I opened it and it's full of a bunch of dust, and there's also a bunch more like that. And they have commlinks for some reason!"

"Yeah, and I found some bombs in what used to be the toilets. Looks like they're hooked up to a water main."

Barb chirps out over the speakers: "You'd better move fast, guys! I just picked up a couple of members of the Brotherhood coming onto campus! It looks like they're coming down to check up on us!"

>Sorry, we can't help you now, if we can come back and free you later, we will.

>Len, disable the bombs. Lilith, empty the dust bags. I'll shut down the EMP device.

>Lilith, disable the bombs. Len, empty the dust bags. I'll shut down the EMP device.

>I'll disable the bombs. Lilith, empty the dust bags. Len, shut down the EMP device.

>Lilith, disable the bombs. I'll empty the dust bags. Len, shut down the EMP device.

>I'll disable the bombs. Len, empty the dust bags. Lilith, shut down the EMP device.

>Len, disable the bombs. I'll empty the dust bags. Lilith, shut down the EMP device.

>Write-In

>>1081505
Barbie went to West Point for her sniper training, right?
Was bomb disposal included in the course?

>>1081511
Yep!

>>1081505
>Len, disable the bombs. Lilith, empty the dust bags. I'll shut down the EMP device.
Is Lilith wearing gloves this time?
I hope the rest of us are taking proper anti-forensics precautions.

>>1081505
>>Len, disable the bombs. Lilith, empty the dust bags. I'll shut down the EMP device.

Ask where the QH is

>>1081599
>>1081520

"Len, disable the bombs. Lilith, empty the dust bags. I will shut down the EMP device."

You head over to the device and pull the zip-ties tight around the cables, then rapidly PULL.

"*zzt* I think that worked, nothing too valuable got fried."

"Aw, come on, the entire comic archive went down!"

"Like I said, nothing of value was lost. Now, please head to the datachoke. And quickly, the Brotherhood is almost across the quad!"

You rush over to the Electronics room. The entire chamber is filled with piles of devices.

>Dig through them to find the silver one

>Bug out

>Write-In

File: 100-Days-Danbo-Photo-Proj(...).jpg (40 KB, 480x318)

40 KB JPG

>>1081505

Dust kills electronics with static and choking up of cooler fans which leads also to overheating.

The Digital Four are currently incarnate in the surrounding electronics. Hope they can control their autonomic hardware functions when the skin flakes hit the fan.

>Len, disable the bombs. Lilith, empty the dust bags. I'll shut down the EMP device.

https://youtu.be/2qKMY6VDk1U

File: 1308794252427.jpg (72 KB, 988x688)

72 KB JPG

>>1081873

Is there any way we can assense the silver piece? It's been likely mucked with by magical cultists and could have trace elements left if we apply some Effort.

The Digital Four couldn't show us a picture or anything before we tried or some sort of schematic we could dig through this shit to discover?

The Brotherhood couldn't have made it that hard to find since they'd want to preserve their investment of having irreplaceable human biological relatable digital intelligences as data mining minions.

Stuffer Shack food grease or disturbed dust earmarks?

https://youtu.be/1mOG3Q8CSoY

>>1081873
>Dig through them to find the silver one

>>1082125
>>1081923

You use your Assensing abilities to sniff through the pile, but to no avail. Sighing, you start sorting through them by hand. It takes a couple of minutes to find the right one. When you pop it open, you find that every wire has been painted black, and has an identical-looking device clipped onto it.

>We can't do this right now. We'll come back for you guys, we promise!

>Fuck this, we're out. You guys can find your own way out of your system.

>(start removing them one-by-one)

>Write-In

>>1082191
>(start removing them one-by-one)
>Write-in
"Len, watch the hatch! Guys, is there an alternative way out you guys made? Because all of these cables are black."

Checking the datachoke before disabling the EMP wouldn't have helped because the Brotherhood was alerted to our presence as soon as we pressed a key on the keyboard.

>>1082191
>(start removing them one-by-one)
>I am going to need to know that this may not work, but I will do the best I can. If something happens, know that you are going to be free, even if only for a moment.

>>1082226
>>1083692
"Len, watch the hatch! Tell the e-Ghosts that this may not work, but I will do the best that I can. If something happens, let them know that they will be free, if only for a moment."

You start systematically removing the attachments one-by-one, picking around the attachments that strike you as being trapped.

"Hurry up.. hurry up... HurryupYESTHANKYOU-"

Barb's voice cuts out and all the equipment around you starts running their cooling fans at full blast. You can almost SEE the data streaming out into the Matrix.

Barbie shouts through your local connection: "Bad news, Freddy! I think the bad guys are coming down the ladder, because a smoke bomb just dropped down it!"

>Damn it! Everyone hide in the stacks!

>Just start spray-firing.

>Lilith! Hurl a fireball or something!

>Write-In

File: 1299181739060.jpg (12 KB, 251x243)

12 KB JPG

>>1083874

>Damn it! Everyone hide in the stacks!

We've lingered too long, this is the Brotherhood's home turf. Spray firing isn't going to mean much when they can just continue dropping mooks down the hole to overwhelm us.

We've got to get leverage somehow and not make this into our sewer murk Masada.

Here's hoping the four Data Geeks of the Apocalypse we just freed pull something from their vintage 20th century personality husks and get us some help.

https://youtu.be/OBwS66EBUcY

>>1083874
>Write-In
While there's a penalty for this, switch to assense to cut through the smoke and take cover from a doorway to shoot at anyone coming down.
Wait until the first few people are down.

>>1084557
supporting

>>1084557
Stick with tranqs first since we aren't sure if Lofwyr wants these misguided Brotherhood berks dead or suborned later.