Journal Entry Five: What it's like to live Zacheria's life (By the player: James)

This week in "The Life of Zacheriah"

Wake up, I perform the morning prayer

I make an Increase Attribute (Logic) drink. force 6.

It gets a potency of 6. It will last 8 hours.

I suffer 1 stun drain.

I make a Shape Metal powder, force 8

It gets a potency 7. It will last 10 hours.

I suffer 2 stun drain.
I grade papers with a mild headache.

I take a leisurely walk through Puyallup to a non-DMZ. I order a cab.

Go to Wireless Warehouse with a shopping list:

Purchase Hardware tools (500)
Purchase 6 parts (1250 nuyen)
Purchase Exploit Plugin (900 nuyen)
I take the tubes to Freeway Park.
I perform the midday prayer
Go back home. Along the way I collect bits of scrap metal:
I perform the afternoon prayer
Drink a Logic Drink (3 hits, +3 to logic)
Make a Sleaze matrix attribute.

(Threshold 15, 15 minutes)

Successes: I push use edge to reroll failures and roll 9 hits on the first round. The Logic potion wears off. the next 15 minutes pass, I get 2 more hits. The next 15 minutes yields 2 more hits. Next 15, 3 hits. After one hour of work, I have successfully converted my commlink into a modified deck with a rating of 0/3/3/3. And an extra 2 dice for Hack on the Fly tests.

I log in to Amazonian Ultra using Jarrod's character Sebastian's account and order Dwarf and Satyr erotica. I make sure the Dwarf is a hardboiled detective type. Along with a DIY Home maintenance book and a some books on the Arts and Crafts architecture movement.
I use the Shape Metal powder to craft a faraday cage out of my desk drawer (hardware 5 hits). With the remaining time on the spell, I create a beautiful mesh screen to replace the window that was smashed by the troll gang. (Artisan 5 hits, with an edge to reroll failures) 
Learn Interior Design Academic Knowledge Skill at 2 (3 karma)
Learn Architecture Academic Knowledge Skill at 1 (1 karma)
I say my evening prayer
Boost Hacking skill to level 2 (4 karma)

I research all I can on the gangs of Puyallup.

I put my commlink into the faraday drawer.

I say my night prayer and go to bed.

Journal Entry Four: Night Terrors

There is a certain strength in the practice of rotating the game master duty.  In this session, I took over as GM to give Jarrod a rest.  I had to knock some of the rust off a bit, but it was a fun little horror story.
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Seattle
1850 hours, local time

I met Tracy at Joey's place.  The usual crowd was there in full force and the astral plane was alive with minor spirit forms.  She was waiting for me in a booth, looking just as pretty as the first time I had ever laid eyes on her.  I shook my head clear of thoughts I couldn't afford to entertain and slide into the bench seat across from her.

She hit with a disarming smile, "John! So good to see you!  I just saw Elias leave, he didn't seem to recognize me though."

My brother the Halloweener?  Strange coincidence that.  I was just about to ask if she thought it could have been a shapechanger when my commlink chimed furiously.

My brothers were messaging me ...

We ran a little long on this session and so it is found in two parts.  The link to part two is accessible on the end page of the the first part. 

Cameron is doing a full play through this week.  You can check out Cameron's stream HERE

I write role playing game material. Check out my Drip page for behind the scenes access to my work, including play test material, how-to information, sneak peeks at work in progress, monthly PDF publications and even a little magic in the mail.  You can find my Drip page HERE

Journal Entry Three: Home is where the decapitated parent is

"Come out and play" ~ the Offspring
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Seattle
1535 hours, local time

There are times when you have to do something unpleasant to avoid an even greater disaster. So it was as I argued my brother how best to cut the head off my dead mother's corpse....

I do hope you enjoy the session.  We're still getting used to recording and I'm only loading raw footage at this time.  If / when I get editing software I'll clean up it up some (remove some of the language, etc).

In the meant time, I hope you it.

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Journal Entry two: Coming Home

You can never go home again.
~ Unknown
_____________________________

Seattle
1445 hours, local time

The overcast sky threatened another rainy day.

I got off the bus and turned my feet south, into a part of Pullyap where the buses no longer ran.  The neighborhood hadn't changed much.  Gang tags scarred crumbling apartment buildings, the potholes were full of acid rain, yelling voices and echoing gun shots shattered any hope of peace.  I was going home.

Wakes and funerals aren't my thing. The dead are nothing but matter without substance. The soul has moved on, whether it was torn from this violently or it aged away and left gracefully.  In my experience the later is an incredibly rare occurrence.  When Tom told me mom had died I felt a cold shock hit me.  I hadn't seen mom in weeks.  Now I wouldn't see her again.  Her body, her vessel in this world, was going to be laid to rest.  I went home for the wake, to pay my respects to the woman who had taken me into her home when so many others had rejected me.

Sebastian was waiting outside the house.  Tom stood next to him, his short robust form contrasting sharply with Sebastian's whip-thin physique.   "Tom, Sebastian, it's good to see you." I said.

It was good to see them.  Inside the house, mom's corpse lay awaiting our visitation.  Little did I know how strange things would turn...

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We recorded the session so you can see the story unfold.  This is our first recorded session and it is raw footage. It hasn't been edited.

Warning:  One of the player characters has a bigoted flaw against trolls, which is ironic as the player in question almost always plays a troll.

Journal Entry One

"That I survived to tell these stories is a miracle."
~ from 'Fumbling in the dark,' the secret diary of H.P. Lovecraft

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Seattle
0333 hours, local time

The rain continued its war against the plascrete sidewalk.  The weather app on my phone was signalling a warning of dangerous acid rain, a pH value of 3.6.  The acid rain was stripping away the graffiti. Gang tags streaked and ran like shadows down the pitted walls of the Quik-It grocery.  Kevin was sitting in an old sedan, its electric engine silent under the patter of the rain.

"Oi, Stross, you know its dangerous to be out.  THEY could be watching." Kevin may be paranoid, or he may not.  You're only paranoid if people aren't out to get you and yet you keep jumping at shadows.

I climbed in on the passenger side and turned to face my best talismonger."Had to see you, chummer." I replied. "Who else is going to be able to lay hands on moonstone dust?"

Kevin raised an eye at that. "What are you planning, Stross?"

"Just a little magic, Kevin. I want that dust on hand in case I should happen to run into something from beyond the stars."  I smiled at him. "Until I can afford a power focus of my very own, its going to have to do."

"Are you a law enforcement officer?" Kevin asked.  He fixed his best glare on me.

"No, Kevin. I am NOT a law enforcement officer.  I am also NOT a magician licensed to practice in this jurisdiction." I stared back at him.  "You know this."

"No, I don't." Kevin replied. "You could be one of the lizardmen working for the cops.  Shapechangers with badges, drek! What is the world coming too?"

I didn't have an answer for that.  "Do you have what I need?"

"Yeah, I have it Stross.  Thirty-five an ounce and we're good.  How much do you want?"  He held out his hand.

"I want three ounces.  How about one hundred for all three?"  I was low on money.

Kevin shook his head. "You're robbing me, Stross. Sure.  Three ounces of moonstone dust, one hundred cash, now."

I counted out the money into Kevin's outstretched hand. He only deals in script as he doesn't trust the ghosts in the machines not to turn on him.  He counted it a second time, pocketed the money, then retrieved three small plastic bags from a case he had laying on the back seat.  "Three ounces of moonstone dust.  Perfect reagent to aid in banishment of the fungi from Planet X or for creating a warding circle against the spawn of the lord of the sunken throne. Though for that last bit you'll need a lot more dust."

"Thanks, Kevin. This stuff might save my life one day."  I said.

"Or you may be killed and have your soul consumed by a fungi." Kevin shook his head sadly. "The stars are almost right, Stross.  You need to prepare."

"I'm not sure what any of us can do to be ready."  I opened the door and looked around.  No one seemed to be watching. "Good news is, my brothers are coming back into town.  With them around, who knows, maybe we'll all live until the Old Ones actually walk out of the sea."

"Good luck. Traffic drones will be overhead in three minutes. I have to go." With that the car started to roll forward even as my feet were gaining the rain slicked pavement.

I pulled my hood up to protect myself from the acid rain and walked north toward Wildwood park.  The trees there would offer some thin protection against surveillance and a well woven invisibility spell would do the rest.  I slipped through the park, through old run down homes, to the tiny apartment I rented.

My commlink was flashing its message alert when I picked it up.  My brothers were wanting to see me later that evening.  It seemed a job was brewing and I was very light on cash....

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Thank you for reading my fan fiction!

The stories I will be telling here are going to be based on game play.  The campaign in question starts on October 21st, but I wanted to get a bit of an introduction in for my character.  I hope you'll enjoy the coming tales of our adventures as much as we do.

I also release role playing game material (though not for Shadowrun).  My latest project, Whispers of Persephone, is presently on KickStarter and is approaching its final stretch goal.  Please do check that out, support the project if you can, and do please share it with others.

My Drip page is linked at the top of this page.  I invite you to take a look there, check out what I do there (behind the scenes information and a monthly release).  Please do share that site with others as well.

Thank you!

Introduction: New campaign / new fan fiction

Hello everyone!

I'm W.S. "Sam" Quinton and this is my new blog.  I'll be telling the fictionalized stories of our brand new Shadowrun(tm) campaign which is beginning on October 21st, 2018.

This will be a little different than Tommy's Stories, as I'll be writing these fresh from the sessions and won't have the benefit of hindsight to see how certain elements may fit together.  This means that stories may link together in unexpected ways as play gives birth to new narratives.  I'm looking forward to the game and writing up exciting stories about it.

I have spoken to the other players in this campaign and asked them to write from their own perspective.  If they do, I'll include links to their blogs (or we may do one central one here, tbd!) on the entries I write.  It will be interesting to read of adventures from different player perspectives.

Below, you will see the character that I will be playing in the first session.  I intend to play this character throughout the campaign until such time as he dies or I replace him with another character.  I intend to chart the character growth, specifying how karma is earned and applied along the way.  This will be done at the bottom of page entries, apart from the narrative (as many people won't have interest in that stuff).

We are using several house rules that are incorporating, or derived from mission play, as well as house rules we've developed fit our style of play.  If you don't agree with those, well, I'm sorry but we're unlikely to change how we play.  I hope you'll still enjoy the narrative.

I write my fan fiction for fun and as a writing exercise. This blog is here for your enjoyment as well as mine. If you enjoy the stories you read here, please do share them with others (as I think it would be cool to have a lot of people reading these stories).

To be clear, this isn't going to be a reporting of the game sessions.  This is going to be fan fiction based on those sessions.  I fully acknowledge that these sessions will be sensationalized to some degree and the stories may differ from the actual play somewhat.  This will be done only in the interest of story development.

For this campaign we have adopted a common theme for all of our characters.  This is something we haven't done before with a Shadowrun campaign and we're really looking forward to it.  With this campaign, our characters were all foster children who resided together in a foster home (as children/young teenagers).  Now its a few years later and we're coming back together as a band of brothers, reunited in our new vocation as Shadowrunners.  The years apart have seen dramatic changes in each of us, so we'll be learning about each other as we go through the campaign.  As another common thread between us is that each character is awakened to some extent.  Our differences in traditions, areas of expertise, and beliefs reflect our diverse interests and reinforce the stark differences that have grown between us over the years since we last saw each other.

Yes, this may sound similar to a certain move released several years ago that was based (loosely) on a much older John Wayne movie (The Sons of Katie Elder, I believe it was called).  Yes, it sounds like its going to be a great deal of fun to me too!

Our group:

Cameron ~ real life profession Twitch Streamer
                   Character ~ Elias, AKA: O.S.O.K. (long range thaumaturgic sniper)
Chris ~ real life profession Tech support                                   
             Character ~ Tom Elder, AKA Hound: Detective dog shaman
James ~ real life profession college professor
              Character ~ Zack, Islamic Alchemist 
              Second Character (alternating)~ Scotty,  Brain-damaged burnout mage
Jarrod ~ real life profession Computer Code Monkey
              Character ~ Sebastian Elder, AKA 'Loki': master of lies, magician of deceit
Josh ~ real life profession Computer Code Monkey and professional martial artist
           Character ~ Avalanche (oni and serious hard case)
Me ~ real life professions ~ Trainer / tech support / author / game designer /publisher
          Character ~ John Elder (AKA "Stross")   Full hermetic magician / conspiracy theorist
          Note: 'Stross' is named in honor of the fantastic author, Charles Stross.


MY CHARACTER:

Shadowrun 5^th Edition

Player:  Me

Character:  John Elder                                     A.K.A.: ‘Stross’  (Ace and Page of Wands)

Metatype:  Human                                          Ethnic Origin: Amerind/Anglo

SIN: UCAS Citizen 

Body: 1           Agility: 1         Reaction: 2      Strength: 1

Willpower: 6   Logic: 5           Intuition: 4      Charisma: 4

Edge: 4            Essence: 6       Initiative: 6      Magic: 6                                  Initiate Grade: 2

Karma:45

Metamagic techniques: Masking & Extended Masking

Qualities:

Sinner (5) ~ UCAS citizen, no registration as a magician on file, no registered weapons, last known address: 11220 Aurora Ave N, Seattle, WA 98133                                                                                  (Evergreen Washelli Columbarium Cemetary)

LifeStyle: Low (one month pre-paid) 114 16^th Avenue CT SE                                                                 (just north of Wildwood Park)

Role-Playing Notes:

Believes that there are entities which dwell in the darkness beyond meta-human perception.  These beings are monsters of the Lovecraftian Mythos.  Secret societies, forbidden knowledge and wide spread conspiracies hide the existence of these monsters from the populace at large.

Quote: 

“There are monstrous horrors lurking in the depths of the metaplanes. I hate to be the one to tell you this:  Lovecraft did not write fiction.  There are several forces at play to conceal the truth behind lesser terrors, a choke hold on the investigative media, ridicule of those who stumble upon the truth, anti-psychotic drugs, and the insidious proliferation of fluoridated toothpaste.”

 ~ John Elder, age 13, statement made during his intake interview with the department of child protective services when asked the question, “Is there anything you want to tell us, John?”

Skills:

Conjuring Skill Group: 5                        Athletics: 1

Counterspelling: 5                                  Etiquette: 1

Ritual Magic: 5                                       Unarmed combat: 1                                       

Spellcasting: 5                                         Stealth: 1

Assensing: 5                                            Perception: 6

Astral Combat: 5

Knowledge Skills/Languages:

Cityspeak (Native)                                                      Conspiracy Theories: 4

English 4                                                                     Astral Threats: 4

Salish 4                                                                       The Infected: 4

                                                                                    Magic Theory: 4

                                                                                    Seattle Gangs: 4 

Rituals:

Ritual of Attonement

Masking Ward

Obfuscating Ward

Ward

Spells:

Combat Sense, Detect Enemies (extended area), Healing, Improved Invisibility, Mana Ball and Mana Bolt. 

Gear:  
1 month prepaid low lifestyle
street clothing 
armored clothing (old fashioned suit)
Lined coat
Ares Ranger Commlink (Equivalent of the Erika Elite)  Rating 4 with sim module/trode net in the fidora
Rating 6 optical binoculars

Contracts: 

Kevin (last name unknown)  ~ 
Talismonger and Conspiracy theorist, Lovecraftian lore expert
Connection 3   Loyalty 1 (Kevin doesn't trust many people, they may agents)
Moves around constantly. 
Preferred method of contact, double blind drop box email account

Tracy Joseph
Blogger / Vlogger 
Connection 2   Loyalty 2 (writes a blog about supernatural goings-on in Seattle)
Presently she is working to build up her following and isn't above writing about things she picks up from her street warrior friends.  
Preferred method of contact: vidchat or in person (and on camera)

Joey Diamond
Bar and Grill owner /bartender (Joey's Whiskey and Ribs)
Connection 2  Loyalty 2 
His place caters to the awakened community of the Seattle streets
Preferred method of contact: come in during regular biz hours and order something.

Gear:
Clothing (500 nuyen worth)
Armored Clothing (Old style suit)
Lined Coat
Ares Ranger Commlink (equivalent of of Erika Elite) Rating 4
~ with sim module/trode net (built into fedora)

Rating 6 Optical Binoculars

REAGENTS:
Moonstone Dust (3 units)

Nuyen: 3920

This looks like a lot of fun to play.  

First entry coming soon!

OTHER STUFF:

This page, like my others, carries an affiliate link to Amazon as well as links to Crowdfunding campaigns (sometimes my own) as well as to my Drip page (which is similar to Patreon but the platform is owned by KickStarter).  If you use the affiliate link to access Amazon, I earn a small royalty if/when you buys something there.  My Drip page offers subscribers a few different benefits, and will offer more as time passes.  Your support is appreciated.

Neither I, nor any of the other players owns Shadowrun(tm).  This blog does not trespass on exciting copyright to that intellectual property, nor does it condone doing so.  In all respects, rights to copyrighted material remain with their owners.  The stories here are based on game play.  These are fictionalized to make them fun to write, fun to read (I hope, anyway), and as a writing exercise.

Enjoy!