Back in Tir Tairngire

Those of you captured by the elves wake up after some unspecified amount of time in a clean, bare, jail cell. There are six cots set up, one of you on each (Asher, Thurgun, Tony, Emvee, Sunny, and Slippery Fish). Your weapons and other offensive armaments are gone (except for the ones in your bodies), but most of your other gear is still on you. Everyone is fully healed. After you sit there for a while, Ehran shows up on the other side of the barred door, with a flunky of some sort standing behind him. "Ah, good morning, I'm glad you all recovered. You may or may not be pleased to know that the item which was in your possession is safely where it belongs, and under heavy security." "Now, I am not one to let grudges to linger, so if you are willing to answer a few questions, I have a proposition which I hope will be mutually beneficial. I do hope you cooperate." "Based on the security camera footage, none of you were actually involved with taking the item. I presume it was passed to you by a second or even third party. So if you can tell me where you obtained the item, and what you were instructed to do with it, we can get on with business."

Istereth: You're hiding out in Tir Tairngire. A few days after you split up, the borders opened again, but now no-one is answering when you call their cell phones.

Thurgun looks around the room and everyone seems to be looking at him. He sighs. "We met some guy who called himself 'Benny' at some diner downtown. It was supposed to be a simple courier run--claimed he was too busy to take it to Seattle himself. And since we were going there anyway... Well. Someone at, hmm, Young Elven Technologies? was supposed to pick it up. Dunno who." Thurgun shrugs. "That's pretty much it." Rolling Charisma, hoping that he doesn't ask us about Ist: [shadowrun] Thurgun rolls 4t4: 3 6+2 2 5 | 2 "So, what's this proposal, then?"

Emvee glares suspiciously at Ehran. Noticing his spell, Emvee follows suit with his own Analyze Truth: [shadowrun] Emvee rolls 13t4: 1 4 4 1 3 1 4 6+5 2 1 5 6+6+3 1 | 6 [shadowrun] Emvee rolls 7t2: 3 1 5 6+1 2 4 5 | 6 Force 4. Actual number of successes on the spell test depends on Ehran's Will, which I suspect is much higher than the 4 I used as a placeholder TN. Drain staged away. What kinda... "techniques"?

Asher shrugs. "Guess we can mention the guy's name -- doesn't matter much at this point. Deliver to Dan Fieldov, Benny said."

Thurgun apologizes more to Fish, who packs up his stuff and leaves. Thurgun decides to take the job, and to ask if he can learn how to make an Anchoring Focus for summoning spirits (this isn't in the rules; feel free to have them say, "We don't know anything about that.") He wants to learn how to do this so he can give one to Fish to help him in the fields (a Force-1 field spirit once a day, say).

Mrf. Out ten grand f'r that case. Although... I guess maybe th' deal that Elf's off'rin' might kinda make up f'r 't... maybe. Wonder 'f we sh'ld see what it is 'e wants. Emvee searches his stuff for tampering and to make sure nothing's missing. He also looks over his companions and himself astrally, to try to tell if anything was done to them while they were unconscious. Hey, Thurgun. Can't see m' skull from here. C'n y' take a look at it, astral-like? See 'f 't looks like it sh'ld?

I'm sure that magic stuff will be great for you guys, but personally I want to hear more about what's up with the job. Time to try to relax after the recent events.

After a short while (you are encouraged by the servants to "freshen up"), you are escorted to a sumptuous dining room where Ehran is seated at a large table. Over a long lunch (real food, never seen a vat!) he explains his job. "We've recently discovered a large nest of Invae in Portland. They seem to have started in the basement of an abandoned building but have spread and are now mainly in the sewers. They've been running around, abducting people off the street, stealing building supplies, that sort of thing. We need a team to penetrate their nest with a specially-constructed bomb, set the timer, and then escape. The bomb should be deadly to the Invae but not to you." "We'll be happy to equip you with anything you need, you may discuss your requirements for gear with the army liason here. I'm sure you have questions, but please, try the pear gelato first."

Also, your cellphones were in the gear. You each seem to have about a dozen missed calls from Istereth.

Meanwhile, out in the Tir forests, the big ol' truck emerges from another hiding spot, where Istereth has been waiting about a day after losing contact before trying to quietly get the hell out of the country. "Greetings, Sophell. I hope you have not been worrying about me too much.... Yes, the border closing did cause us some problems.... No, you couldn't have helped even if no one did find out. I'm heading out for Seattle again now. I'll tell you more when I get there. You too; until then." Just a few seconds after hanging up, another ring. From-- it can't be--

"Istereth! Man! You okay? Listen, this last operation went totally bust, but I think it's going to turn out ok for us -- guy wants to offer us a good gig with some serious rewards if we can make it happen. Probably dangerous, natch, but I bet we can make it happen. You in? Awesome. Lemme find out where we are -- it's a long story, tell you when you get here -- and you head over."

Istereth remains skeptical and paranoid for quite a while, but after all is explained it seems the story is more likely than Ehran drugging and/or intimidating a group of runners just to lure a nobody in for justice when he could more easily track the poor elf down by other means. So he agrees to meet up and check out the new run.

"Huh. What kind of information do you have about the nest, in terms of its location, the surrounding infrastructure, and likely defenses?"

Do we know what Invae are IC?

"Invae? Nest? These wouldn't happen to be things with big black eyes, extra limbs, kind of insectoid, crazy fighters, would they?"

"Yeah, you might be interested to know that we're pretty sure we had a run-in with one of them before."

Can they be killed normally? Dispelled? Are there different sorts? Do they have particular powers we should watch out for?

"Also, we may need some additional magic support. I mean, I'm okay at handling physical manifestations and all of that, but spirits are going to be beyond many of us."

Yeah, how's this bomb thing s'posed t' work? Is it full o' bug spray, or some kinda Invae-seeking manatron particles? An' 'f we're gonna be goin' after spirits, 't'd be nice 'f we had some kinda astral-type armor we c'ld use. You got an'thin' like that?

I'm interested to find out to what sort of place I get invited or whatever, but since I'm sure I get the chance to ask questions now or later and in the interest of moving things along: "I'd be much more useful in combat sending in one of my drones than in person, but I don't think I have anything suited to terrain in underground tunnels. Could I arrange to borrow or even purchase something more appropriate?" I'm assuming that's true, but even if one of mine could get by down in the nest, angling for new toys is fun.

So what kinda intel y'got on this nest, g'ography-wise? Where 'n town's it at, what kinda entrances d'y'know 'bout, got any radar 'r sonar 'r any kinda pict'res of th'layout down there? How big across 's th'thing? How deep's it go? Any'thin' else like that we oughtta know?

I'd like to download a decent reference book on bugs to my secretary. Likewise the maps and such. An' chance any y'r mages c'ld drop s'me d'fensive spells on us, b'fore we go? Stuff t' keep us alive 'til we get t' set th'bomb, sorta thing. Invisibility, reflexes, armor -- astral 'r otherwise... 'though I guess that'd be kinda tough t' sustain when y're here an' we're out there. Oh, an' 'bout that bomb, d'y'know where 'xactly y'want it t' go off, or 's that up t' us?

Can you get us any info on other nests? Like the ones in Chicago, say? Pictures? Descriptions? Survival stories? Edited to delete other misunderstanding-based question

Sounds like we're prob'ly gonna do this. B'fore we do, I wanna do a little prep work, an' I wonder 'f y'might be able t' put me in touch wi' s'me people who c'n help. 'm lookin' f'r a teacher who knows about speed magic -- nothin' too fancy, jus' low level stuff -- an' maybe a way t' pick up a focus quick-like, wi'out havin' t' put in an order ahead o' time. I'm interested in a teacher who can teach Increase Reflexes 3 at Force 1. According to the book, a teacher costs 1000nY x the Force, plus living expenses (although if Ehran's letting us stay here for a couple days while we work stuff out, he might let the teacher stay too). Learning the spell involves a Sorcery test against TN2 (2xForce), and can be complemented by a Magic Background test and aided by the teachers Instruction test (TN4, +1 die for each two successes). Given any successes at all, the time to learn a Force 1 spell is 1 day. I'm also looking for a Force 1 sustaining focus, which is listed at 15000nY.

A servant comes in and hands Ehran a chip, which he places in a big projector. "Here are the sewer plans I mentioned. The center of the nest seems to be underneath the bock between 13th and 14th, and between Elm and Birch. We've evacuated all the families in the area, of course, but they would appreciate it if their homes were left standing." http://www.henchmonkey.org/shadowrun/sewer/sewer.png

"Do they make much use of technology? The one guy we met didn't seem to, but any idea if we should be expecting guns or just punching and biting? If they don't use it much, we might be better off trying some technological surveillance, too."

If you have any information about what it's like down there, that'd be helpful. I'm wondering if the tunnels are stone or metal, both for radio contact and how powerful any explosives can be before we would start inflicting structural damage. Do you know if the bugs will be armored?

Thanks! One other question. Since the bomb is full of insecticide, I'm guessing that it works against bug spirits. Is that true? How useful is insecticide against bug spirits?

Later, Istereth talks shop with the army's supplies representative (in Sperethiel): "Yes, I'm looking for a medium-sized drone, able to get through elf-sized passages and carry considerable firepower and armoring. Something with legs would seem a good idea, as we may need to climb over rubble. Naturally, its top speed wouldn't be as high as that of a wheeled or flying model, but quick motions are always helpful...." OOC, asked katre about this, and it is still unclear whether we'll go with something in the Rigger book or make something up.