At the sound of gunfire, Avery jerked the wheel.  The sedan swerved, streaking through the rain toward their pickup.

This is a bad idea.  Avery glanced at his partner, wondering if her career was worth his life.  "That is the vehicle that continued pursuit," the elf's sage advice echoed in his mind.  Ya think? Avery bit his tongue, sounding the sarcastic response silently in his mind.

"Keep your heads down."

Avery wrenched the wheel sideways out of instinct, hoping to evade any oncoming fire, but maintained their heading toward Lower Washington Park.  He considered returning fire but wasn't keen on using auto-pilot in a race.  And besides, sticking his hands out the window--armed or not--didn't seem like a great right now.

OOC: Does Avery know if the vehicle has any countermeasures?
This message was last edited by the player at 00:59, Sun 26 Nov 2023.

@Sidewinder. the little watcher struggles to conjure up a gale strong enough to effect the car…

21:34, Today: Mr. Johnson, on behalf of Sidewinder, rolled 6 using 2d6. fail Take 1XP

…but attacks are really in its nature and the tall buildings blotting out the sky don’t seem to help at all. The Jackrabbit cuts through the still wind effortlessly.

With the Jackrabbit still in pursuit, you streak across the sky, weaving between the dead gray concrete and glass of the island’s buildings. You soon find Lower Washington park, which may as well be called Lower Washington landfill the clutter of garbage is so deep. Among low shelters built by squatters, there is a broad open area, less than ideal, but entirely possible Roland a VTOL on the site. The only life in the park are the devil rats and the squatters.

@Pacer. As a rigger, you are the machine. Your meat and the metal are one. You know everything about the BMW. You can feel the fuel flowing as if it’s blood in your own veins. The engine pumping is your heartbeat. The slight rattle in the left side middle piston on the powerful V6 feels like the tickle of a bad cold coming on. Those bullets glancing off the pavement behind you feel awfully close, if they do enough damage to the car, you’ll start to feel the feedback through your nervous system, taking damage directly to your brain stem. But this isn’t your car, so how lucky did you get when the corp cut you the requisition forms for the vehicle quartermaster? Spend 1 Edge to add a useful detail and I’ll give you a pop up turret with an automatic rifle.

She can feel the Watcher’s impotence, both irritating and unsurprising. These may be useful spirits, yet the weakest ones at her command. It is left to its own devices at the moment; the potential Accident was merely ancillary, and it still has work to do while bonded to her will. All of this is detected just as she leaves her body to go to where the map indicates Lower Washington Park. She had barely formulated the thought and she is arrives at her destination.

Dvořák moves skyward, performing a rapid census of the Park’ aurae. There is a faint pleasure from the Sky Watcher as she moves closer to its domain. The first order of business is filtering out the irrelevant: the dual-natured devil rats and pointless squatters. Pointless? These are suffering H sapiens, yet Dvořák can find neither sympathy nor empathy. How quickly her compassion evaporates in the face of true danger.

Her astral form somehow feels an intoxicating pressure, confined while, unable to breathe in a state that does not breath. This impossible sensation is follows by a familiar hiss, something that makes her long for her true home. Snake’s influence departs as abruptly as it arrived. But the soothing hiss is all she hears, and everything becomes clear. The squatters’ misery is irrelevant. As the cold-blooded should be.

She shakes the visit from her mind and ascends ten meters, searching for vibrant aurae and the fizzling of that Awakened that has become her obsession. Her attention includes the grey presence of absence of a rotocopter. Ambush. Inside job. Avery’s speculation cannot be discarded, Unfortunately, the devil rats have robbed her of a tool. They are all enemies.

Feeling the sedan's tires peel away as it sped across the cracked concrete that passed for pavement in the East Bay, Avery pushed the pace faster as he queried his partner.

"Can you see ahead to the park?  With a spell or something?"

Avery scanned the streets around them, driving as fast and unpredictably as possible, hoping to evade bullets and possibly their pursuers.  Helpful...?  Maybe.

Unless, he thought grimly, They already know our pick-up spot.



OOC: I'll spend that 1 Edge to add a pop up turret with an automatic rifle.  If that works, and when it's his action...

Avery prepares the turret.

If the pursuing vehicle is in range, he returns fire with a stream of bullets.

“-park?  With a spell or something?”

It was easy enough to infer what she’d missed

“I saw only squatters and devil rats,” she replies while slightly lifting her head and rubbing her neck. First soykaf withdrawal, then the stress of weaving magic, and now this neck pain. Oh, and the terror held in check by nothing more than a desperation to present as a consummate professional and a couple decades’ worth of learning the discipline to properly harness what her Awakening had given her.

But she is probably just as nervous as he is about an ambush and the location of the other car as he is, if not more so.

“This has weaponry? Then why did I blind the enemy?” she criticizes, referencing the drone then waives the issue away.

“Break line-of-sight and I can attempt to conceal us. Or accelerate the vehicle if you prefer and-” she lightly places a hand on his shoulder and marginally inclines in his direction. This can occasionally cause an unintentional seductive shiver down the spine as a result of her appearance. If she were aware of its existence then she would be far more judicious in its use. “-you and your-” Machine “-cyberware can handle this,” she offers, intimating she may have rooted around his insides.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:07, Sat 02 Dec 2023.

This message was deleted by the player at 17:09, Sat 02 Dec 2023.

@Sidewinder. At Lower Washington Park, loose trash blows around, dead gray tumbleweed leaving barely any impression on the astral plane. A tarp tears loose from a dilapidated shack, it shows a brief flash of emotional connections as the squatters bemoan the loss, but that the only life beyond the devil rats.

But a hissing sound in the back of your mind leaves you with misgivings all the same. This is a puzzle but some prices are still missing. Too soon to tell what it will become.

@Pacer. oh yes, this thing has guns…

Rock and Roll. 23:31, Today: Mr. Johnson, on behalf of Pacer, rolled 10 using 2d6+1 ((3,6)). strong success

…and a burst of automatic fire from the pop up turret stashed in the trunk makes the Shadowrunners think twice. Stitching the Jackrabbit with holes, they veer off onto a side street, suddenly much less interested in tangling with the BMW.

Leaning back, she takes a moment to analyze her own psyche. Does she care about the collateral damage? Should she care about the collateral damage? This is virgin territory for her, but using logic unpolluted by emotion is second nature. Secrets cay be found anywhere, and pointless death is wasteful. So it’s mere coincidence that her reason lines up with her emotions. Both tell her the squatters’ aurae should be kept from flickering out.

Decelerate that automobile, she instructs the Watcher while looking at the Jackrabbit and forming a mental picture of the car, the spirit’s tether now a single service away from snapping.

While spirit is set to work using its Movement power, her PocSec is set to work scouring for up-to-date hydrologic maps of the San Francisco Bay, flagging any containing salinity data. This is of no immediate concern, but she wants every last datum on hand if it does become relevant.

“Disable the shadowrunners’ vehicle if you can, Mr Wilcox,” she cordially requests with some ice in her lidded eyes.

,,Empfiehl ich, dass wir im Moment der Intuition von Herrn Wilcox folgen.‘‘ The sentence is not translated for Avery, but if he doesn’t speak German he should be able to intuit the advice Dvořák is giving Werner. If he does, he’ll recognize the imperative case, giving this ‘advice’ the hint of a command.*

She turns back to Avery and adds, “I want to speak with as many as possible.”

*My own is spotty, so apologies to anyone who actually knows the language for any errors.

Avery forced himself not to smile as the turret erupted.  He could feel the sound of metal being punctured as the bullets struck, and he fought himself from muttering a quiet Yeah! as the Jackrabbit veered off their trail.

There was still too much shit waiting to happen, he knew.  Bad shit.

The touch of his partner's hand on his shoulder barely registered as he continued to focus on the sedan's sensors, navigating the worst, most cracked and divot-ridden parts of the pavement, which was all of it.

He wanted to shake his shoulder, shrug off her hand, but he held still, wondering if he looked that nervous that he needed reassuring.  Or was the doctor reassuring herself?

Check the Situation. He scanned for additional targets.

Careful, he spoke silently to the car, to the turret, to himself.  Avery had killed a bystander once, returning gunfire, and he wasn't keen on repeating the experience.

He had been about to ask Werner what the plan was when they reached the park, but the mage spoke first—in German, no less—so he kept quiet and hoped she'd get whatever info Werner was going to share.  Probably not much.

Who are meeting with?, he wondered.  Proteus security, presumably--hopefully?

Who's after Werner, and what's their next move?

The why of it didn't matter...  Not right now.  Not until they had survived this.

Approaching the park, you see a rotorcraft coming in low over the water.  Red and grey, Proteus logo on the nose. As the small aircraft lands in the park, blowing debris around in a garbage tornado, Werner is about to leave the car when a shadow dives out of the setting sun.  Another drone, this one much larger than the first comes in from high above.

Smoke and fire streak toward the ground as a barrage of rockets scream out from the drone. Miraculously the rotorcraft seems to have avoided damage and perhaps Werner is left wondering if he should have paid closer attention to his security team instead of letting home office armchair quarterback the operation leading them right into an ambush

@Pacer, Check the Situation. 21:09, Today: Mr. Johnson, on behalf of Pacer, rolled 10 using 2d6+1 full success

Your LZ is hot but you have kept your ride out of the line of fire and your options are still open.

Fight your way to the evac rotorcraft?

Bail on the evac and take your chances on the ground?

Something else?

Wir der Intuition von Herrn Wilcox folgen, rings in her head. “We will follow your intuition, Mr Wilcox,” she partially translates with a partial lie. A gunship cannot be the whole of the danger. She believes her craving for puzzle pieces may be the craving of a fool, but it is nearly impossible to keep in check. Even through the terror. Then there is the perfect excuse. A true one! Still, there is a gentle coiling around her entire body, an intoxicating experience lasting precisely one second. She must be pleased, but there is work to do. And that grip of sinuous scales soothes much of the suppressed panic that had been gripping her just a second ago. Though Dvořák is frustrated at her inability to decipher the significance of the duration. Why one second? There are several possibilities; possibilities she has no time to ponder.

Well, Werner has not contradicted her—yet. Though the transition from an imperative suggestion to complete command might step on some toes. But even subordinate mages seem to possess a special dispensation. So long as she doesn’t abuse this privilege, she is perfectly fine exercising it in a life-or-death situation. But what if she is too effective as a bodyguard? To take her out of the arkoblocks in fringe science departments would be an unspeakable tragedy.

“The drone may destroy the rotorcraft.” The authentic excuse. “I have-” jak se řekne? “-cards up my sleeve. But the Awakened must be near. I must know its nature.” Any magician could interfere with her magic; shamans and mages have each have countermeasures of their own variety. And a simple pair of binoculars can dramatically extend their influence. “I will search for the enemy.” All of her speech has been delivered at breakneck speed.

Search for the Awakened and its companions. Uncover all you can. Share all you can. Then you will be free.

A mental image of everything she had seen through her own binoculars is provided to assist the Watcher, and the make and model of the car is fetched and provided, courtesy of the BMW’s database.

Then Dvořák opens her psyche into astral perception. Those cards up her sleeve will be played, but not until she knows more. It shouldn’t be long, but Avery on his own until she has a better grasp of the situation. It will likely be useful, but that gunship is a fairly imminent problem. But is it the only one? The Jackrabbit pressed them here. Where is the other car? Her comment about the Awakened’s location will hopefully explain her practical thoughts to the driver. And she suspects he shares her greatest fear: The drone may destroy the rotorcraft.

Check the Situation

As soon as the shadow of the drone appeared, a pit grew in Avery's stomach.

Within a split-second, two options fought for Avery's attention, presenting simultaneously in a flash of images and impulses.

The first was to Gun it!  The destination—rotorcraft or elsewhere—didn't matter.  Just don't stay still!

But they were too close to the rotorcraft to accelerate now—if Option A was going to be viable.

Option A.  Stick to the plan.  Suppressing fire.  Guard the client with your body.

Option B.  Get the Hell out of here.  Where doesn't matter.

There was nothing to feel good about—being right about the ambush.  Besides, it didn't matter.  That drone would have tracked us down on the highway, anyways...

Escape routes presented themselves, but something about the drone made them seem less than feasible.  Option A it is.

Make It Rain

Avery unleashed the sedan's turrets against the drone as the sedan sped toward the rotorcraft's projected landing point.  With suppressing fire from the turret and Avery guarding Werner with his firearm and body while he transferred him to the craft...they just might make it.  That, and anything the elf could unleash on their pursuers.

He shouted back to Werner between bursts from the turret.  "We're coming in hot! Stay in back until I clear a path to the rotorcraft." He glanced at Werner in the rearview mirror.  "But if we don't take care of that drone, the rotorcraft isn't going to be viable, and we're going to need a Plan B."

Turning to his partner, he tried to sound in control.  "Any tricks up your sleeve?"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:44, Wed 13 Dec 2023.

She directs her gaze toward to the driver, pausing the dual-natured scan of the area. The Machine has dulled his aura, but the even this glance is enough to hint at emotions he is doing an admirable job at hiding.

“Many,” she replies with an enigmatic half-smile before returning to her tasks. “Yet the drone may not be alone.”

She would grant a little assistance if the Watcher was not trapping her in the Sky. But a better understanding of the situation may open up her sorcery or reveal the truly frightening trick up her sleeve.

Edit: Continue to focus on Watcher and immediate surroundings.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:09, Thu 14 Dec 2023.

@Sidewinder: The Watcher flies off to search, fast as a whisper on the wind...

Check the Situation (aided by watcher) 00:05, Today: Mr. Johnson, on behalf of Sidewinder, rolled 9 using 2d6+3 ((4,2)). weak success

SHE was pleased... there was a secret to be learned at the end of all of this... you could feel in in your/her sinewy bones...

The little Watcher soon returns with a message, ...the spell weaver comes... moving as I do, not tethered to your world...

The mage is coming, in astral form.
The Watcher has one more service to deliver

---

@Pacer: The BMW lurches forward, gasoline surging through your veins into the heart of the engine. The turret barks in little bursts tracking the drone...

Make it Rain Suppressive Fire 00:17, Today: Mr. Johnson, on behalf of Pacer, rolled 7 using 2d6+1 ((4,2)).weak success

...and you unleash a hellish rain of bullets that forces the drone to take evasive action or suffer the wrath of your fire. It pulls up into a high arch to escape, putting it out of combat for the next turn...

...but your turret goes click-click-click... you are out of ammo.

Score one more for the good guys. You have a round to do whatever you want without enemy action.. like maybe "Get to the chopper!"

Avery's jaw clenched, teeth grinding as the sedan sped towards their exfil craft.

He tried not to let himself feel pleased with their pursuer's temporary retreat.  He knew the drone—or something else—was going to show up any second now.
 
There was nothing left to say, nothing left to do—except get to the chopper.

Avery drove as fast as possible, one eye on the road, the other on the sky.  Expecting more trouble, he reached into the console to retrieve his SMG.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:01, Tue 19 Dec 2023.

Dvořák immediately steps out of the astral plane at the Watcher’s news, the Sight reverting to nothing more than sight as a glint of hunger flashes in her amber eyes. The wind spirit has been worth its weight in mana. Now that there is confirmation of a magician in the area, she speculates that the other car had initially turned away due to her own presence on the astral plane at the time. But speculation is not knowledge. Knowledge now of dubious value.

Leave until I call again, she commands the Watcher, adding a vague impression of pleasure as a small reward for its performance. Especially given its most recent tidings. She desperately wants to send it on a final task, but exercises the restraint to feign its freedom.

She can practically feel venom dripping from her canines. Serpents tend to wait for prey to come within striking distance of its own accord. The magician would surely notice any working of magic, but it would only be logical to observe. It’s certainly what she would do. Foolishly, in this case. Any time taken to apprise Avery of the development would be time she cannot afford to waste. And she’s too eager for the thought to even enter her mind. Yet he might overhear another bout of mumbling, shorter and with stronger sibilants than before, ending with an odd sinuous pattern traced in the air ending with an extended, “-xssssssssssss.”

The drawing of mana typically accompanied by a nebulous sensation of loss, but this time is different. It is oddly comforting, and performed to the absolute limit of her concentration. But she resists to the temptation to drain herself dry. As alluring as it may be to ignore mundane threats, she cannot uncover any secrets if dead.

End astral perception
Sky Watcher sent on stand-by
Summon Natrixs: 3 Essence, 1 Edge

Edit: Damn, burning through Edge, but there can be a certain amount of Essence a mage simply can’t afford to waste.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:25, Tue 19 Dec 2023.

The BMW screams across the park dodging debris...

Pacer - Look Ma No Hands (boosted): 00:26, Today: GM, on behalf of Belit Ilani, rolled 5 using 2d6+1 ((3,1)). weak success

...and with the drone unable to target your car, you make it unscathed, but have to slow to avoid the squatters and other obstacles.

---

The words flow from your lips, calling upon your greatest magical ally...

Sidewinder - Conjure (edge boost): 01:06, Today: Mr. Johnson, on behalf of Sidewinder, rolled 7 using 2d6+1 ((1,5)). weak success

...the snake's rattle fills your mind, she is a prickly being at the best of time and has arrived perturbed but ready to answer your needs. Two services available.

---

The drone circles back around for another pass and the astral form of the mage appears at the edge of the buildings...

You are close enough to board the rotorcraft next turn but leaving the threats unopposed means they will be able to act.

Engaging the threats will keep them at bay, protecting Werner and the aircraft, but it will take two turns to get abroad.

The moment she feels the new spirit’s presence, Dvořák forms a mental picture of fangs skewering the astrally projecting mage as coils embrace the H sapiens separated from its body. This is not a manifestation of a natural force, but something different. And extraordinarily rare.

Bring it for interrogation. If it begins to slip free . . . its fate is yours to judge, she affectionally communicates, trying to placate the snake spirit’s foul mood while knowing full well what Natrixs’s judgement is liable to entail. She tries to keep notions of ingestion and any other brand of murder out of her mind. Particularly since there’s a clock if it can be captured: unless it can be trapped within an astral barrier, when dawn approaches so would its ability slip free.

Come, spirit of the winds, she continues, her psyche moving from her most intelligent spirit to her least. Search for the spell weaver’s body and nearby aurae then report. Dvořák sees no reason to clarify that the account will free the Watcher. Simply redundant. And, as useful as it has been, it bonds her to the Sky just as it is bonded to her will. So, just as she has summoned her most powerful spirit, she will twine her most powerful spell. She attempts to spider the astral vicinity with barely perceptible thread which flicker and glitch.

Cast Chaotic World

Edit: I’m not sure whether this will matter, but ally spirits get an extra service. So subtracting one would result in three services, not two.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:18, Wed 20 Dec 2023.

@Sidewinder. Yep, my bad. Three services. Should ingesting the astral projection of a magician counts as two or should that be free?

OOC: Maybe free if envenomated or a strong success in exchange for standard spirit rules otherwise? A balancing act of time and services, which can make a huge difference in combat. Though the former would obviously require astral venom as well.

OOC: After all, snakes do require some time to get prey down. Perhaps she could even steal a random Move from the meal?

As always, this is at your discretion.

PS Not as badass as Komodo dragons. They sometimes slam prey down their against a tree so hard enough to knock the thing down!

I’ve seen an osprey do the same thing. Smashing a mouse into a branch, I’m guessing to tenderize it and break up the little guys bones.

Swerving through the detritus–human or otherwise–strewn across the streets, the rare obscene outburst escaped Avery's lips, bringing life to thoughts he would have rather kept silent.

"Damnit!  Fuck these bums!"

Avery cleared his throat, irritated at himself for losing control.  The sedan sped toward the pickup spot.

"We're not out of the woods yet," he said, clearing his throat, trying to sound calm.  "If we don't take care of that drone, we're not going anywhere."

Avery glanced at his partner, thinking, I gotta warn you.  I'm a terrible shot, hoping *this* weakness, at least, stayed silent, or between them two, if it had indeed escaped his lips.

Speaking louder, to Werner, Avery advised his boss.  "Stay in the car until we clear a path.  I'll get you when it's safe."

Avery drives as close to the pick-up craft as is safe, readying his weapon to engage any targets and protect his charge—no matter the cost—still chastising himself for losing control of his emotions...
This message was last edited by the player at 04:15, Sat 23 Dec 2023.

“The mundane is half,” she lethargically corrects. “The astral is being addressed,” she adds with a slow, ambiguous blink. The fear is not gone, a fear she has done her best to conceal behind bookish speech, but Her presence numbs some of this fear. Not just fear, but most emotion altogether. The telepathic bond between magician and ally spirit is exponentially more intimate and intense than a mere conventional spirit. So she’s feeling a little pissy right now. And craving more than just soykaf.

And her mind could very well she could very well echo Avery’s, I gotta warn you. I’m a terrible shot.

OOC: Free action for a little flavor. Plus, I’m not sure what a good pronominal font for Natrixs. I like your call for the mono all-caps for Snake.

Edit: In reply to Sidewinder (msg # 71):
It occurred to me that this was worded poorly. I was thinking of one service if envenomed—which would cost a service itself—or with a strong success, and two sevices otherwise.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:35, Sun 24 Dec 2023.

The mundane.

,,Hör auf zu reden und hol uns von hier.’’  Werner cries in frustration as the BMW picks its way through the debris of Lower Washington park. But for the fact that your turret had forced the drone away, you would be sitting ducks for its next attack run. But even though it makes a tight banking turn to come back around trying to bring its rockets to bear, you have time to get to the rotorcraft and dismount.

Taking cover behind the door of the sedan, the little German sub machine gun barks as you bring it up, spraying full auto toward the drone…

@Pacer. Suppressing Fire. 20:35, Today: Mr. Johnson, on behalf of Pacer, rolled 13 using 2d6+1 ((6,6)). CRITICAL something good happens.

…precision engineering and a steady hand serve you well. Your spray of bullets force the drone to bank away again, but the rigger in the other end misjudged your fire and steers into the spray of bullets. The hail of fire catches the drone across the dorsal edge and along the port side wing. Sparks fly as the electronics controlling an aileron are severed putting it into a flat spin that brings it to the ground.

Chaotic World seems unnecessary unless you just want to show off.

The sky is clear of mundane threats and you can move Werner safely to the evac aircraft.

The astral.

Suddenly the aetheric planes surrounding Lower Washington Park were crackling with mana and mage light. The two spirits and the astral presence of the opposing mage cast glaring light on the dead greys of the urban landscape.

Natrixs’ hissed her frustration at not being permitted to kill the mage outright. she isss not permitted to sssstrike? your motivesss confusssse …

Ally Spirt - Harm 20:58, Today: Mr. Johnson, on behalf of Sidewinder, rolled 9 using 2d6+2 ((5,2)). weak success.

… she obeyssss

The sprit slithers off toward the mage and rears up to confront the astral traveller. She strikes, fast as a thought, throwing herself at the mage and wrapping her sinewy form about the ghostly image…

The mage is grappled.

…but you can feel the hold on your spirit slip as the the mage grasps it’s mana and tries to banish it.

Lose one service, services remaining: 2

seek and find…

Watcher Spirit - Search 20:59, Today: Mr. Johnson, on behalf of Sidewinder, rolled 8 using 2d6+3 ((4,1)). weak success

The little spirits' voice comes to your mind as you feel it spring free of your control. it is here... it reports, and you see its form flitting off in the distance, somewhere across the estuary if you have the geography right, but you can't be certain since the little spirit slipped away.

Chaotic World seems a bit unnecessary now...

The astral is clear of mundane threats and you can move Werner safely to the evac aircraft.

@Sidewinder. Didn’t we settle on  Natrixs as ‘she’ in a PM? I mean the spirit itself is neither male nor female, but, in the construct within which this particular spirit chooses to ally with Sidewinder, she chooses to be she.

Snake, is an egregore, born of human collective consciousness but very very real. The collective belief in the totem gives it a presence that approaches the status of the divine. Snake is most definitely SHE.