Part 4:Picking up where we left off...
This question came up during the course of the game: "So, if I've got medicine and demolitions, does that mean I could make a bomb and put it in a guy?"
Tib: "Yes. You could."
Anyway...
The battle kicks off as more people show up.
The Elemental runs out to find more people, as an elf pops out of the roof and runs around to shoot the Elemental, making its day even worse. The Maniac runs through the building but doesn't see any new baddies, though some civvies are huddled in a corner. He tells them to stay put, in an attempt to reassure them, but... his sword was covered in blood and so I can't imagine they were very reassured.
Someone with a grenade launcher fires at the Gunslinger and his sniper rig. This... does nothing. Basically the "your hair whooshes in the breeze created by the the explosion" type of nothing.
Kinda like that. Though I suppose it did get rid of some cover.
In return the Gunslinger blows the poor bastard who shot at the Elemental away. The Elemental swarms up to the bastard that fired the grenade. The Elemental attempts to swipe at the grenade happy bastard, who dodges barely. The guy tries to hack at the, very pissed off, Elemental with an axe in return. He misses. The Elemental has had enough. It has had a very bad day. It was bound to an Otter! Tricked into giving WAAAAY more services than he expected! Had his kill stolen by a sword wielding maniac! Shot at! And now, some asshole tried to hit him with an axe. AN AXE. The Elemental just engulfs the guy, rendering him unconscious and slowly drowning him.
And then the Dick in the Truck (DitT) shows up. This truck has a ramming thing on the front of it and goes for the Drone Lady's Van. The immobile van. Otter is still in the Van with the captive, so is Drone Lady, who jumps out screaming to get out of the Van as she shoots off some of the dumber non-hacked drones. This damages one of the oncoming Van's wheels. She gets a message "You killed my brother, prepare to die!" With a little picture of the guy cut in half in the Stuffer Shake (the 7/11 knockoff). She responds with "does it look like I carry a sword?!" "Guilt by association."
The DitT sees Drone lady fleeing and goes to hit the trailer instead of the truck (perhaps saving the Otter and the captive). She flees past the Maniac and dives to the ground, her mind going into the drone she was using as it continues to fire. This makes her catatonic but lets her dodge because she threw herself to the ground.
The ramming Truck hits the trailer (that carries a bunch of the drones). The trailer flies past them, slamming into the Drone Lady and fucking up her ribs. She is unaware of this at the moment, due to being inside the gun drones, which continue to fire as the ramming truck goes past. The Maniac dodges everything. By now, all the Ramming Truck's wheels are out and it slams into a far wall. DitT actually manages to escape by burning a point of Edge (ie, luck).
The Maniac rushes to take care of the Drone Lady, patching her up as best he can, then carrying her back to the Otter and getting him to patch her up.
Meanwhile, the Gunslinger and Elemental go to secure the VP. As they do, a car carrying the VP and two other Tetsuo Gang Members comes around the corner. The Elemental, who I remind you is incredibly pissed off, has been told to secure and protect the VP and is having none of this shit. It coats the road with some ice, and blam, the car crashes. The only question is... did the crash kill the VP?
Nope. Everyone comes out of the car with their hands up. Everyone is secured. And the guy inside the Elemental? The Otter makes the Elemental let the, now unconscious, man go.
They secure everyone and the call up the police officer they met earlier. "We've got some Tetsuo gang for you, and we saved that guy. Uh. Could you also come with a tow truck? Our van got trashed."
The Otter then calls Sergei."So. How did your rescue mission go?"
"Well..." The Otter looks around at the carnage. "It went well."
When the police officer shows up, he does so with an Orc woman in a tow truck. This is the sight which greeted them:
All the captives (not the VP), were as such: "Their hands are behind their heads, facing the wall, like they're about to be executed by SS soldiers." As described by one of the players.
The following exchange then occurred among the players:
"That was specific."
"...I've been playing Wolfenstein."
The Officer questions the Tetsuo gang, the Drone Lady and the Orc Mechanic set the trailer upright and change two of the tires (the total of spares available). The Maniac grabs a tire and goes to help, but Drone Lady swings the tire iron at him until he drops it and doesn't touch her van! Especially after last time!
From there it all devolves into Tolkien arguments. The Elven Officer, Mairon, is of course able to speak Tolkien language, so is the Drone Lady and Maniac. The surprise is that the Orc can as well, since she is Mairon's sister. This only escalates further when Sperethiel (the "ancient" Elven language in Shadowrun) comes into play, and they get the Orc's contact information because she's going to be fixing the van.
The Maniac glares at it for a moment and says "Your parents are terrible people. Your first name is fine, but the rest is just... vile."
The Orc says that her brother was the one to give her her first name. This opens up a can of worms all about this Elven Supremacist community who are Tolkien maniacs. The Maniac reaches full capacity for bullshit, turns around, grabs his training swords, and proceeds to beat the fuck out of the wall in a rage. More bickering and the Orc starts swearing in the Shadowrun Orc Language. Which nobody else really understands.
The Maniac makes a mistake here. One that may cost him quite a bit in the future. He says, in Tolkien, "Well, goes to show you're not a Yruch." He meant it along the lines of "Your own family thought you were basically a Tolkien "Orc" (Yruch), and you're clearly not. They're stupid." But this is easily taken to be rather insulting. The Maniac is entirely oblivious to her anger.
Eventually they wrap up and everyone goes their necessary ways. The party catch a ride with the Orc to Sergei's (she knows Sergei too, everyone in the area does apparently) taking the VP with them. Drone Lady goes with her, but leaves a centipede drone on the Otter (who isn't keen on that).
Sergei explains the Orc mechanic by saying: "Oh, she's a wonderful person, just don't be an elf." Three out of four of the party are Elves, and the fourth is an Otter... who used to be an elf. Sergei thinks he made good joke! Though the Drone Lady seems to have bonded a little bit with the Orc as they're both gear heads. Sergei calls everyone into his office for vodka and cherries (actual fruit is rare and of great value).
Drone Lady complains about missing the cherries, so instead sets herself to explaining what the Maniac managed to do to her Van's manual brake. The Orc doesn't believe her. That is, until she sees for herself. "Don't think about it too much," Drone Lady explains, "it will make your head hurt."
Sergei clears everything up over Vodka with cherries in it. The Maniac picks a cherry out of his vodka and keeps it for the Drone Lady, but otherwise does not drink. Sergei gets everything cleared up, the VP is totally understanding about his new situation. Everyone gets paid $20 000. Except the Otter, who ends up with the principle of his debt to Sergei paid off, but still having to be concerned with the $2000 in interest.
Drone Lady heads on over to pick up her money, but on the way tells the Otter, via comlink, that she'll cover his remaining debt. He is immediately approached by the maniac who offers to cover the debt. Instead of explaining, he just pretends to take what he needs, but really takes nothing.
When the Drone Lady arrives she picks up her money, the Maniac gives her the cherry she missed, allegedly making her day, and the entire group heads out back to the Orc's garage, keeping a fairly drunk Otter in tow. The Otter hops a bus home. Still a bit drunk. The Gunslinger collects his bike.
The Maniac, having come into a fair amount of money, says something that could be incredibly stupid. "So since I messed up the brake, some how, I'm not sure, I probably shouldn't touch electronics, I'll pay for the repairs. Anything up to $14 000, so let me know how much is needed."
The Gunslinger quips: "Why don't you just fall on your sword then?"
Keep in mind, the Mechanic is the Orc The Maniac just insulted (without knowing). This earns the Drone Lady a ping with the message: "So, exactly how much of an upgrade to your engine do you want?" The reluctant response is: "He might be an idiot, but he's basically a good person, so don't drain him of funds for my sake. That being said, I have no idea how much all of this is supposed to cost."
The Orc says: "I'll contact you when I'm finished."
The Maniac responds in Tolkien, with: "I do not understand how some people cannot comprehend the difference between fantasy and reality, and I must apologize for people like me." Then he grabs his stuff and leaves.
The Gunslinger gets on his bike and says: "Wow, he really is bad at this whole business thing."
In the morning the Otter wakes up... and screams at the centipede drone that is still around his neck.