A blast of fire rolls across the field. Moving from the center and going out, Fortuna drops to the ground and invokes the 'Hand of God' rule, immediately burning all of his Karma Pool to not immediately grease stain. However, his suit is ruined, and his armor spell pops and fizzles. The two Diva elementals both benefit from their natural armor, which reduces the power of the fireball to 2M, but nevertheless, both burst into beautiful, glittery flame and pop into nothingness.

There's a series of blasts that immediately follow; first is the 'water' elemental, who shrieks for a moment before immediately combusting. Carver, Snow, and Firefox are all right next to each other, behind the hot dog cart, when the gasoline elemental explodes.

The cart is unarmored, but it is insulated to keep the dogs at proper temperature before serving. You are each 10m from the elemental. I used the rules for FAE, and assumed its 'rating' would be half that of an elemental made of the same ingredients, with a mass of 90kg, which is about average for a human. So the rating is 2D, with a range of 2 meters. You're all safe.

The elemental BURSTS into a fury of light and sound.

Also highly combustible; Dominic. Dominic is also 10m from the three party members, and carrying ... that can't be right. Let's say it's only 10 kilos of C12.

Rating 12, square root of 10 is 3 (and change), so 36D damage for Dominic to soak. No combat pool left, but armor applies. So he rolls ... no successes, and indeed explodes. It loses 12 power every meter, so at 10 meters, does nothing.

Dominic craters the parking lot of the Space Needle. There is not even a fine, red mist at this point. The heat and power of the blast is sufficient to chemically bond his atoms into new and exciting molecules.

On the far side of the lot, Fortuna's limo rocks on its shocks. The goon, already looking for an excuse, ducks for cover, and a moment later, opens the back door of the limo and climbs inside.


In this case, the limo offers cover to the goon behind, increasing the TN to hit him from 4 to 8. Firefox only got 2 successes at 8+. The goon, who wisely saved up his combat pool, easily resists and stages the damage down to nothing.

The Earth elemental thundering towards Carver is not so easily dissuaded though. It just puts on a pair of sunglasses as everything explodes around it.

Fireball damage code is 5M, elemental's rating is 9. In this case, the rating is not doubled, so it's just 9 - 5 = 4. Every two difference reduces the damage by one level, down to 0. So no damage. This is per the Rules thread.

The edge of the fireball tickles the hot dog cart, causing it too to rock on its shocks ... and lacking shocks, it mostly just falls over onto the three runners and one hot dog vendor hiding behind it. Ouch.

The entire field is filled with heavy smoke, concealing most everything from view.

St. V, who I note is the only person to take cover behind anything heavier than a hot dog cart, also gets to put on his shades.

St. V cannot actually see Batman, which confers a pretty heavy penalty (+8), however he can provide some nice cover where Batman is/was. In this case, taking aim isn't possible, but full auto is (hurrah!) The TN is 3 (yes, with the range of an LMG, pretty much everything is 'short range' +8, so 11.

Also bear in mind, we're not using the vanilla SR rules. So here, rather than staging up your damage like in the book, going auto gives you more dice; 5 rounds = 4 more dice. I rolled for you, but no hits. You already had two 11s, so that works out nicely. Because your line of fire just skirts but misses the ring of the fireball, no smoke penalties apply, but they'll apply for pretty much everyone else.

St. V sprays fire. The helicopter pops and bings as rounds bounce off it, but somewhere in the distance you hear someone shout, "ow!"

And that's when the drop bears start. They start as tiny specks from the top of the Space Needle; they accelerate quickly towards their targets, grinning the whole way.


Height is 180 meters, which gives them about 4 phases before they 'land'.

The Batman goes first. He's mostly grumbling, as he (not as sneakily) closes into range for his batarang.

Fortuna picks himself off the ground, whimpering, then starts hobbling back to the car. "Don't shoot, don't shoot! You wouldn't shoot an elf in glasses!" He fumbles in his coat pockets for a pair of spectacles.

The elemental's fist connects ... gets 7 meters closer to Carver's nose (now at 3 meters).

Firefox's elemental gives her a high five.

Rerolling initiative!

The Drop Bear waves close in to 120m.

Batman continues to sneaky sneaky!

The earth elemental crashes with Carver's nose like continental drift. Carver's Combat Pool is fully refreshed; I expect he's taking advantage of that.


Elemental gets 6 successes on a pretty nasty blow.

Because no one in the party at all has initiative enhancement, it seems easier to just run everyone to Intiative 12, and give people a chance to react. Plus, there's not a ton of targets left on the field; Earth Elemental (currently in melee with Carver), Fortuna (leaving combat), Batman (trying to be sneaky), plus the nice car that's just chillin'.


Drop Bear Wave 1: 20 120m
Drop Bear Wave 2: 20 120m
The Batman: 9, disappeared! (L wnd, 0 CP)
Earth Elemental1 (9): 8 CP 6/12 (mat., charging Carver) <-- stopped here
Firefox's Elemental: (+2 actions for not wailing on Fortuna from last turn) (astral, chillin')
Drop Bear Council: 7
Fortuna: 5 (M wnd) CP7/7 KP0
Carver: (ego bruising) CP
Snow:  (behind cover, CP )
Firefox:  (behind cover, M Stun)
St. V:
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:21, Thu 29 Jan 2015.

Why didn't the fire elemental go beat on Mr. F as ordered?  And I should be at moderate stun.

You're correct on both counts. Fixed. I'll try to roll for the elemental's attack, but I may not get to that today.

I think you missed out on one of the goons still in the limo...

That goon has reconsidered his life choices.

Picturing Fortuna reaming on the door handle of the limo while the goon inside urgently shakes his head "no" :>

Snow came out from behind his onion and relish smelling cover and ran over to where Fortuna was.

"Normally no, I wouldn't but for you I am going to make an exception." he replies to the Elf's Question.

Seeing that everyone else seems to have the fireball area under control, St. V lets loose another spray of bullets in Batman's direction for cover fire.  "Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

Firefox's mad grin watching her rather impressive personal inferno turned to a frown as she saw that the pussy-eater was still not only alive, but mobile.  And the earth elemental bearing down on the cart didn't much improve her mood.  The blood pulsed through her head as she shifted to astral vision and struggled to cast one more spell.

quote:

09:26, Today: Firefox rolled 3 successes using 6d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 3 with rolls of 2,(6+1)7,5,2,2,(6+3)9. Drain.
09:25, Today: Firefox rolled 9 successes using 15d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 with rolls of 4,1,5,3,5,3,5,5,(6+5)11,2,(6+3)9,4,2,3,4. Immolate.

Immolate: Force 5 damage level S.  (Effectively stun bolt w/ elemental fire).  Target = body + 2(for moderate stun).  So that's 9 successes if he has body 2, 6 successes if he has body 4 and 2 successes if his body is less than 7.  He can use spell pool, dodge, then resists using body.  Resisting 3D drain, staging it down to S.  If the spell goes off and he fails to dodge, he's also on fire - 6M damage for the first turn, power increases by 2 per turn until extinguished.

Smoke shouldn't affect her targeting on the astral.

Carver mutters "this is going to huuuuuurt" and holsters his pistol, flicking out the forearm blades with a "snikt". He is going to delay an action to intercept the elemental as soon as it gets within reach. He grits his teeth and resists the brown trousers reflex.

Instead of initiating the attack, Carver is going to try and deflect the Elemental's melee attack and counter. The delayed action is in case the Ele decides to do anything but smash Carver to goop - in which case Carver will stab the everloving pebbles out of it.
Carver has Edged Weapons 10, +5 (1/2 his skill) from Ambidexterity, and uses 7 of his 9 Combat Pool dice on the attack.
10 14 successes using 17d6 23d6 with the Shadowrun system with a target of 4 (I.E. assuming the Ele is using his reach offensively; otherwise that is only 6 8 successes).
(1,1,1,2,2,2,2,3,4,4,4,4,4,4,5,5,5,5,10,10,10,17)

Since not being goop is high on his priorities, Carver uses Karma Pool to reroll his failures.
If reach is being used offensively (TN 4), then Carver replaces the 1's and 2's with 6 7 more successes (2,4,4,4,5,5,5,5). If the elemental is using reach against him, that means he also gets to reroll all the numbers below 5 (11d6 14d6 instead of 7d6 8d6) for a total +6 successes (5,3,3,2).
So bracing himself against the charge, Carver manages either 21 successes (TN 4) or 14 successes (TN 5). Base damage is 8M.
KIAI!

Edit: forgot ambidexterity bonuses, +5d6
(3,5,5,4,4) reroll as 4,5,5,2,4
This message was last edited by the player at 22:11, Sat 31 Jan 2015.

Firefox's elemental appears next to Fortuna and pulls him in for a squish hug. Fortuna shouts and thrashes, but to no avail.

The TN here is 4 +6 (for smoke) /2 (because it's melee) -2 (because Fortuna is prone). Melee combat is a complex action, so it takes the elemental's full combat phase. Elemental gets 4 successes.

Fortuna rolls against 4 +6 /2 (as before) +2 for injuries. He also gets 4 successes. Unlike ranged combat, the tie here goes to the attacker. Fortuna needs to shrug off 5M damage with 0 extra successes, which fortunately for him, he does.

The drop bears have reached terminal velocity, at 60m and about 90m/s. The wind whips around their fluffy ears and they brace for impact.

The Earth elemental cuts through the asphalt like a ship hitting harbor; pieces of black tarmac fly up on either side and it thunders forward, fist leading the way. Carver braces and, at the moment of impact, is apparently late being where the elemental expected him to be. Instead, Carver is behind and slightly to the left, blades out, and returns with punches and slices. The elemental's immunity to normal weapons is enough to reduce Carver's damage code from 8M to nothing. Carver punches into the elemental, but the blades refuse to bite, instead sliding uselessly across its armored hide.

Snow (I assume) shoots an elf in glasses. The area is thick with smoke and Fortuna is not making an easy target, and both shots go wide.

The earth elemental continues dancing with Carver, now swinging wide and aiming for the benches. Carver spends the rest of his combat pool and easily dodges, striking back at the elemental, but again, the blades just can't penetrate the thing's thick hide.

Fortuna realizes the act isn't working. He leaps to his feet and draws a katana, then charges towards Snow with a scream. Aaaand... the scream continues, as he bursts into flame. He drops to the ground again and rolls around, beating on the fire. Firefox, meanwhile, is so close to the sweet embrace of sleep, she is barely able to stay upright.

St. Velveteen is now operating by sound, as he puts another five-round burst downrange. Batman's combat pool is depleted, so this time he just has to take it like a batman. He hears someone shout from the darkness: "Ouch! That... that really, really hurt! I... why did you do that?"

With a 'thwap', something buries itself in the exterior of the car St. V is standing behind. Looking at it, it seems to be an arrow with some sort of bat-shaped fletching. There's no way that thing can fly straight.

Firefox's elemental gets another chance to punt Fortuna. The elemental wraps up in wreathes of flame, burning up his very fine suit.

Fortuna uses his last simple action that he was holding;

"To be, or not to be, that is the question-whether tis nobler to take the slings and gunshots of ill-fortune, or to take arms against the wicked creatures that bear them; to sleep, perchance to dream; aye, that is the question. When beggars die, there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.

"And thus I fall, to the hateful stings of my enemies; weak though they are, they outnumber me by the multitude. And as the tide rises and falls, too many to be numbered, and thus are forgotten, thus shall they return to the seething masses; wastels and drunks, prostitutes and louts. While a prince may die by drowning or by war, his name shall be spoken of forevermore. Thus will the bards sing of me, oh Fortuna."

He coughs, a little blood runs from his mouth, then begins to sing.

"Oh Fortunaaaa!! the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen and down the mountain side, for you Fortuna they're calling.
Your time has gone, your rose is falling
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and we must bide
Oh Fortuna, Oh Fortuna! I love you so!"

Rerolling initiative!

Batman emerges from the shadows, charging at St. V. He's wielding some sort of long, black, bat-shaped club. "I am the goddam batman!" he shouts as he closes in.

Firefox's elemental is driven away by Fortuna's cacophony, instead moving to fight the earth elemental. The two enter into a combat of rock and fire, but neither can make headway. With the two elementals tangling, Carver is now free to direct his attacks.

The drop bears approach lithobraking altitude. They bare their paws, and claws come out, jaws open wide. They enter their final approach ...


Drop Bear Wave 1:  30m
Drop Bear Wave 2:  30m
Carver:  (ego bruising) CP
Snow:   (behind cover, CP )
The Batman: (L+S wnd, CP)
Earth Elemental1 (9):  CP 12/12 (mat., charging Carver) <-- stopped here
Drop Bear Council:
Fortuna:  (D wnd, using his Adept power--resist pain (geas: sing about self)) CP0/7 KP0
Firefox:  (behind cover, M Stun)
St. V:
Firefox's Elemental (5):  CP 8/8

Pretty sure Firefox is at S stun - 9 boxes worth

Firefox rolls onto her back and looks up at the astral spectacle of the drop bear wave.  Sooo pretty . . .

If it looks like any are planning to drop on her, she'll attempt to roll under the hotdog cart.  And she'll shout a warning to her teammates if she feels any are at risk.

As a side note - killing Fortuna is the best chance we have of getting the earth elemental to go away

St. V squints in confusion at the man running toward him.  A man with a bat running toward a troll with a machine gun.  Smart.  But instead of filling him with bullets, St. V reaches for his own bludgeon.  If Batman wants to play, The Velveteen will play.  And teach him a lesson!

"If you're a bat, then I'm a cricket!" St. V yells at Batman as he rolls over the hood of the car.  With his hand-carved cricket bat ready, Saint Velveteen prepares to face off against his new rival.

Carver charges the limo and slides underneath it. Hopefully the vehicle is tough enough to avoid overpenetration from hi-V marsupial militia.

Only reason for the elemental to switch targets would be if: Fortuna is dead (elemental was ordered to kill him first) or if it decided Firefox was in danger and cared more about her than fulfilling its instructions - which is possible).

Fortuna is technically at 'dead' on the condition monitor, and only still singing through his use of a magical effect. Plus, for dramatic purposes, it's not very exciting if his swan song is cut short by an NPC.

So his elemental decided to stick around and party anyhow?  That's unfortunate . . .

Nah, his elemental is obviously just trying to get a damn hotdog.

Bear in mind also, there are different definitions of 'dead', which may apply differently based on the restrictions in question. The fire elemental has met the basic requirements of the request, as defined mechanically. The earth elemental is bound by Fortuna being conscious, which through magic, he still is, even if strictly-speaking 'dead'.

(Yes, this is also a story consideration as much as a mechanics consideration.)

This message was last edited by the GM at 18:54, Tue 03 Feb 2015.

Batman reaches St. V swinging. in this case, Batman has a +3 modifier due to injuries, while St. V does not. Per our additional SR3R rules, he also gets a reach bonus as he has higher initiative. Since his TN is already at 7, subtracting 1 doesn't help, so he'll bump up St. V's TN by 1. However, St. V is also a troll, and has a reach of +1, which he can use to either reduce his TN, or add to Batman's. Who to apply that to? All else being equal, you apply it to the one with more dice.

St. V's skill is 3, so he can dump at most 3 combat pool in it. When it comes to melee, it's always good to dump all the CP you can. So that would have St. V rolling 6 dice, Batman has 16. However, Batman's TN is already at 7. Even with his 16 dice, you're not likely to significantly change his number of successes. But with 6 dice, you're only expecting to add one more success for yourself as well. So which is better? Screw it. I'm sick. We'll throw the extra one on him because I like rolling dice.

You both get 2, that's a tie, goes to the attacker.

Batman swings and his club connects solidly with St. V's chest. However, the troll still doesn't feel it, which gives St. V plenty of time to return the favor, and this time, Batman doesn't have the advantage of speed or combat pool.

6 dice vs. 9, with Batman at a TN of 7, it's clearly better to reduce your TN than to increase his. You get 3 successes. With your strength? There isn't much he can do to resist that, so he now takes an S stun. That puts him at S+1 physical, S stun, so a +6 to all future actions. The two will continue to dance back and forth, probably until St. V gets his next swing.

The Earth elemental brings a massive fist at Carver again. It doesn't seem to be done yet! Its fist slams into Carver, sending him reeling back, but not enough to put him down.

Carver's a little far from the limo to make it in time, but he can start legging it nonetheless. The fire elemental keeps the earth elemental busy enough for Carver to make good on his escape.

Firefox gets some hot dog safety, next to the poor vendor, who still is not quite sure why all these people are fighting for his hot dogs.

Snow lines up his shot and fires at Fortuna. There's a SNAP of electricity. Fortuna squaks, and drops.

The earth elemental sighs. "Well. Another internship down the drain. You guys... you guys wanna keep fighting anyway? I felt like I was doing really good."

Then the drop bears hit. The pavement craters under marsupial rage. The earth elemental explodes in a shower of pebbles. The limo crushes in the middle, the windows exploding outwards.

A few more seconds of shattering... everything, and a voice sounds from far above. "Excellent job, Elder Orphis! Your commandos have indeed carried the day. Now let us go down and thank the brave Shadowrunners. Shadowrunners, wait up a moment, we're coming down!"

One by one, monoliths tip over the edge of the space needle and smash into the pavement below. The lead one rights itself and wobbles over, the black glossy surface covered with a spider web of cracks.

"Well! Congratulations, shadowrunners! You have carried the day. I believe you have earned this."

There's a brief pause.

"I would hand you your certified credsticks, but as you can tell, I have no hands. Brother PTHHHHHT where are the credsticks?"
"I'm sorry elder, I think I dropped them on the way down. No one move, I'm sure they're around here somewhere!"
"Well... how about we deliver you your payment in the very near future. Likely, in disguise, in a way that you would never possibly expect."
"Don't forget the conspiracy! Offer them the conspiracy!"
"Ah yes, the conspiracy. We are offering you the rare, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you, as a non-drop bear, to join our sacred brother- and sisterhood, and become part of the drop bear conspiracy. As such, you will have access to all of the benefits of membership, including contact with the council, access to our secret safehouses, and a discount at participating restaurants. No refunds. What do you say?"


At this point, I believe we're wrapping up.

If you have not finished your character, time to get to it!! Yes yes, Carver, I will look at your six custom spells very soon. I've been sick.

For the record, I am more than certain that St. V could survive the Great Drop with a good roll. He might not look so pretty afterwards, but I am actually curious what that roll would look like.

Carefully extracting himself from the wrecked car, carver winces and starts snooping around for the credsticks. He is chanting "payment on delivery, payment on delivery" to himself and peering into the many varied craters.

St. V brushes the settling dust off his sleeves and sticks a toothpick in his mouth as he approaches the drop bear council.  "I'm up for some discounts, that's for sure.  I would prolly make a great drop bear too."  The troll hops up into the air and lands on all fours before bouncing back up, mimicking the act of dropping down on someone all stealthy-like.  "But I'm my own man.  Conspiracy or not, can't be tied down under someone else's rules."

He folds his arms and leans against an invisible wall, striking an epically cool pose.  He holds it for about 10 seconds longer than he should have, then gets down on his hands and knees to help Carver look for their cash.

Seeing how the DBC had been 2 steps ahead of the runners every step of the way, Snow spoke up, "You know what, sure.  I'll join the conspiracy."

Firefox slowly pulls herself to a standing position, wincing each time she moves her head.

"The conspiracy doesn't involve eating eucalyptis or cats or anything does it?"  She rummages around in the cart for a new hot dog, preferable one not made out of drop-bear.  Spell-casting always made her hungry.

"Understood, Sir St. Velveteen. Well, we wish you the best, regardless."

For Snow, the answer is different. With his answer, the surviving drop bears gather around him to pat him on the back ... of his knees, basically. He's pretty big, compared even to their own bear majesty.

"Of course you will! What sensible person would do otherwise. Brother PTHHHHT! Bring the holy scriptures. Student Snow, you will read the holy scriptures. This may take a few days. Once you have done so, you will choose the location for your own Great Drop. Worry not! Your faith will protect you. We look forward to helping you on your journey. Mister Firefox, I'm sure you will decide to join him!"

Carver and St. V manage to locate the majority of the credsticks. The rest are delivered to St.V at 2am while he is visiting his apartment's undersized restroom, flung at his head in quick succession from the toilet paper drawer.

Snow reads the scriptures, losing 6 points of Sanity, before taking the Great Drop. After two weeks in the hospital, he is regarded as an irreplaceable part of the conspiracy, and eventually has a fulfilling career as an Elvis impersonator.

(Still waiting on Firefox's decision! But I'm sure it's good and everyone lives happily ever after.)


That's it! Good job, everyone. I hope you enjoyed it. The adventure is actually only three quarters written. I probably should have checked that before I picked it up. But if you have any comments/recommendations/critiques, I know the author, so feel free to share. Otherwise, we'll wrap it up and move to Silver Angel.

If you're still running with us for Silver Angel, all the karma from this adventure can wrap over to Silver Angel, whether you're using your current character (St. Velveteen) or a new one (pretty much everyone else).

St. V, now that you know the system better, you're welcome to make some character changes.

Karma! I've been giving karma after every chapter, so your end karma is a little reduced, but still, big battle, good tactics, lots of funny moments. I loved it! 5 karma for each.

I'll try to get the first Silver Angel post up on Tuesday(ish). We should have a few weeks for any character updates while we're going through the initial Johnson meet.

Snow, if you want to make any announcements, now is probably a good time.