Halloween '17: The Most Halloween-like Shadowrun Mission Module I've Ever Played

Within a couple hours, my local FLCGS will host its once a month Shadowrun Missions event. Unlike last year, as mentioned in the 'was Halloween night trick-or-treat?' blog entry, I don't think tonight's event will be cancelled. As Halloween is tomorrow, here's a game write-up of the module that reflected Halloween the most. At least couple Shadowrun Missions would qualify...


The cast: Truce a human drone rigger. "Snuffles" - a dwarf decker with a fondness for Sesame Street. Umi - Elven Face Adept. Lastly, I played Nox Human Combat Mage.


Thereby Spoilers but I will avoid specifics as much as possible... I'll also switch from 1st to 3rd person quite a bit too.




Our quartet of shadowrunners were hired by a duo familiar to us whose identities will remain anonymous. We're professional like that chummer! Anyway, our job was to find a missing family or two. First, we had to investigate an office. Passkey provided.


So the office, which didn't have an astral barrier, was without power and thus no light. Nox learned the value of flashlights that day. Truce manages to jury-rig the electrical systems and power, lightning, and an electrical discharge zapping Truce comes on. Despite using the passkey, Snuffles still had to bypass the keypad. Footage is accessed displaying kids knocking out the guards with gas grenades. Umi the most perceptive of the runners doesn't pick up a minute clue. The quartet proceed to another office. Nox doesn't perceive any magical auras. Snuffles enters the host node within the Matrix and discovers one of the objects of our search was implanted with bleeding-edge tech! Umi and Truce with Snuffles decker-fu nab a couple of medkits. The runners leave the building with power on and lock up.


The next location is like a palace among the rundown vicinity of the Containment Zone. Upon smelling rotting flesh, gas masks are handed out. Nox scopes out the place by astrally projecting. Finds nothing in either the house or garden. Yet, when he checks out the shed he detects lumps within the ground are moving! Dreading astral combat, Nox beats it. Upon reaching the other runners, Nox informs them of what he finds. While they perform a Matrix search, Nox uses Cleansing metamagic and attempts to summon an Air Elemental Force 4. He gets 3 services.  The quartet then approach the house. Umi triggers a monofilament tripwire, which she edges to dodge. Snuffles proceeds to unlock the house when a shock nets falls on the hapless Snuffles and Umi. Nox manages to dodge the net. Nox sends his air elemental to scope out the shed. Learns that it was worms crawling over what may be dead bodies. As we enter the house, Snuffles enters the house node where a castle motif greets him. After much searching, Truce and Snuffles detect a secret room with a map of Chicago. Umi cooks stir fry and Nox locates another secret room where it's discovered that a boy is an object of a search... The runners leave discovering bike tracks by the shed, which is a chicken coup filled with dead chickens. Snuffles dons a hazmat suit and arranges for a dead chicken and their food/water to picked up by a contact for further analysis. Truce's drone notices female bikers going from house to house; and Truce contacts a female biker contact. Turns out its her group. Small world indeed chummers.


At a homeless shelter, a scene of death awaits. From there, Snuffles triangulates our next stop: a flower shop. As we arrive, it is sunset and the air elemental is freed. Nox astrally projects to discover there's an aura by the door and a mana barrier further in. Truce's drone enters. Upon the runners physically entering the flower shop, Nox has the bright idea to flick the switch from which the magical aura is fixated upon. Boom! Fireball. Nox's spell defense helps the group avoid must of the effects of the fireball. Then, the sprinkers turn on. Contact poison. Knock out gas to be precise. Snuffles wearing a hazmat suit is the only once conscious. Panicking he realizes the other three aren't dead. Drags our comatose bodies into the van and commands the drone to do the same.


When we wake, we buy hazmat suits, gas masks, and flashlights and return to the flower shop. Inside the office, we find a tunnel leading down. Nox with hazmat suit is too big to fit so he takes it off. After squeezing through a tunnel at the bottom, an overpowering stench hits us. No one loses their lunch. Then we enter a room which is pretty much a charnel house. Background Count of 4 aspected toward death! Pictures of human kids along with gore dots the walls. Then phasing out of the mist above us, two vampires appear and attack Nox and Umi! Nox is struck by a sword blow that reduces him to 1 box of physical! Umi uses her adept power of 'Too pretty' to dodge. Unfortunately for her the vampire on her connects with a sword a couple of times. Nox is fortunately missed. They are both saved by the burst fire from both Truce and Snuffles, which kills one vampire and injures another. Appearing outmatched, the lone vampire transforms into mist and escapes through the cracks! After gathering their bearings, the runners discover the remains of the dead kids among the bodies.


The SRM module was Season 06-01 10-57. It wasn't just the vampires that made me feel that this module was the most fitting for a Halloween blog entry. The creeping tension that culminated in a scene of horror, the fear of the unknown, and a feeling of imminent TPK secured the nod.


All Hallows' Eve is tomorrow.


Happy Gaming!


Next time,