Game summary for January 21, 2020, Into The Shadows campaign, Shadowrun 5th Edition, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Ballyhoo (Human Augmenter played by Andrew Renfrow), Clutch (Human Transport Rigger played by Peyton Harmon), Dell (Human Technomancer played by Shane Bradley), Hollywood (Human Combat Medic played by Chris Harmon), and Octane (Elf Razor played by Casey Scruggs). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.
Dell and Hollywood worked hard to provide triage and first aid to members of Kaur’s Farm. Meanwhile, Clutch rallied some of the tech-savvy of the people and began tearing into the generator with aplomb, discovering it would take several hours of work. The group got more information from Singh and Donnie and decided to go south to investigate a squatter settlement that no one had heard from in a week. The team drove a rust bucket pick-up truck down there and found a scene of horror. Dead animals were everywhere, and the camp was filled with dead people.
The group used a forensics kit provided by Donnie Hua to investigate and spent about three hours gathering information. They learned the people died from a combination of animal and human/metahuman injuries. Oddly, only the bodies of males and women over 50 were found among the dead. Several bodies were obviously missing as well. Around the camp, they discovered bait stations that would draw in predatory animals close to the settlement. They also found mountain bike tracks all around. Hollywood made the horrific discovery that the bodies had been partially eaten by human-like bites, but pains had been taken to cover up this fact by mutilating the bodies.
They returned to Kaur’s Farm to report their findings. In the meantime, Clutch had fixed the generator. Dell was able to discover some bait stations around the farm as well, and they matched those at the settlement.
The group went north to the microbrewery to investigate the scene where the first body that had drawn Hua out here had been found. There they discovered several more bodies and pieced together more clues. Several key pieces of evidence pointed to a Gabriel hound as being the culprit, but some of the facts did not add up. Ballyhoo was able to sense that some sort of spirit had been involved, and its residual aura did not match the magic he had sensed on the corpses of the dead animals back at the farm. The group also found that one of the sprawl gangers had unloaded a magazine into “something” that flattened the rounds. Perplexed, the team got back into their truck to return to the farm.
Dell begins inspecting the grounds’ security system.
Hollywood, while tending to the various injured people, notices that the wounds are intentionally offensive—that the animals were not simply protecting themselves, but were purposefully trying to harm the people.
Ballyhoo is able to sense some residual compulsion magic lingering on the killed animals, determining that they were controlled and commanded to attack.
He locates Chaya and Donnie, trying to asence if Chaya has magic ability, but could not get a good read of her.
Dell breaks out a couple of her tiny spider drones to help beef up the security.
Ballyhoo talks to Donnie about his original investigation. He said it was 15 to 20 years ago, that a man had been charged with summoning a spirit that controlled animals. Donnie, however, was never certain that he had actually been responsible. The man died in the midst of a magic battle when police showed up to arrest him.
Donnie says there are a couple other encampents (one a few miles to the north, where a body was found previously and one a few to the south that has not been in contact for multiple days). He recommended visiting them in person to see if any knowledge can be gained from the body and that the southern camp is okay.
Clutch continues working on the generator. After an hour or so, he determines that he is about a quarter of the way through repairing it.
Dell also stays behind to continue tending to the wounded.
The camp loans us a vehicle. We decided to go south first. Ballyhoo drives while Hollywood and I take point, in case we need to shoot anything/anybody on the way there.
After a while we get there. We see lots of dead bodies, both animals and people. There, however, is no signs of life, other than some birds chirping in the trees.
Donnie lent us a forensics kit, so we get out and start checking some bodies.
Meanwhile, Clutch fully restores the generator back at the camp. Dell’s drones continue to surveill but see nothing.
After 3 hours, we have gathered quite a bit of clues. For the most part, things seem similar as the attacks at the farm. However, we have also determined that people were part of the offensive onslaught. All of the corpses are either women over 50 or adult males. None are children nor young women. Based upon the area, there seems to be both corpses missing. Additionally, around the permiter is “bait”—slabs of meat hung/scattered about.
Hollywood continues analyzing the bodies and realizes that some of the stab/gunshot wounds are post-mortem. They appear to have been done so to cover up various bite marks.
We also spot some mountain bike tracks. Tracks riding in are lighter than those riding out, indicating that the riders were most likely carrying the missing people and/or corpses.
As we begin to head back, we take down the bait and radio back to Dell to have her drones look for bait outside the farm.
When we arrive, we find Donnie unconscious. We tell Mr. Singh our findings. He states that “hippies in the plastic jungle” live out the way the bike tracks came from and ponders if they (the hippies) are okay.
Dell notices something hanging in the tree. She sends out a flying drone and confirms it is “bait” like we say at the southern camp. We tell Singh, who is alarmed and sends out people to cut down whatever bait can be found.
With the genny running, Clutch joins Ballyhoo, Hollywood, and me on our trip to the northern encampment at the microbrewery. As we approach, we do not see any bait but smell an awful stench. With no signs of life, we break out the forensics kit once again. After a couple of hours, we locate five male corpses hanging up in trees. The original body discovered previously is not present. The wounds were executed with cruel precision. It is obvious that the attacker(s) could have killed them immediately but opted to attack them in such a way to make them bleed out slowly. One of the persons was attacked outside the microbrewery, made his way inside and tried to hole up, but the attacker(s) made their way in and finished him off. They then dragged the body back outside and hung it in the tree with the rest.
We found a tuft of fur and ran it through the kit. It reports that it is from a Gabriel hound, but with “procedural anomalies”—indicating that it was not behaving/attacking as expected. Ballyhoo explains that it is a paranormal critter; it has an allergy to sunlight, so it hunts at night and has thermal vision. It has the body of a dog but can mask its head with a human face.
One of the men had wired reflexes and emptied an entire clip into the attacker. We are able to locate all of the bullets, as they flattened against the body and fell to the ground. There is more ammo, which has been exposed to the weather for a couple of weeks, as that was when the microbrewery was attacked. We collect it, in case it is useable back at the compound.
We also find a commlink, which we bring back for Dell to analyze.
Ballyhoo is able to sense a spirit, but that it is different from what he sensed at the farm. This spirit seems to be/have been present on the astral plane, whereas the animals at the farm were magically compelled.