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speaking of which, there's no magic in space, do i remember that right? would it come back if you made to the moon, or mars?
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Apr 9, 2018 22:53
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AriadneThread posted:speaking of which, there's no magic in space, do i remember that right? would it come back if you made to the moon, or mars? Magic is generated by a biosphere, it seems, and there's active research going on to see whether putting enough biomass in space (like on a station) would also generate a magical field. Going to space as a mage is traumatic. Going to space as anything explicitly dual natured is I think fatal. In my home campaign, the climax for my players was being hired by Lofwyr to climb the Skyhook to prevent an immortal vampire from using Great Dragon's blood to infuse an Aztechnology sponsored generation ship with the necessary vitality to generate magic and thus colonize the stars. (This being shadowrun, they didn't know basically any of this until most of the way through the run.)
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Apr 9, 2018 22:58
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Quorum posted:In my home campaign, the climax for my players was being hired by Lofwyr to climb the Skyhook to prevent an immortal vampire from using Great Dragon's blood to infuse an Aztechnology sponsored generation ship with the necessary vitality to generate magic and thus colonize the stars. (This being shadowrun, they didn't know basically any of this until most of the way through the run.) At which point they dialled Lofwyr's secretary and asked for a raise because holy poo poo, right?
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Apr 9, 2018 23:02
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Speaking of which, can you imagine being Lofwyr's secretary?
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Apr 9, 2018 23:14
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Fighting Trousers posted:Speaking of which, can you imagine being Lofwyr's secretary? Yeah, with all that money he has I bet they're a snack
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Apr 9, 2018 23:37
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What happens to dragons and immortal elves when the magic goes away?
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Apr 9, 2018 23:59
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White Coke posted:What happens to dragons and immortal elves when the magic goes away? I'm pretty sure Dragons just take a nap.
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Apr 10, 2018 00:07
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White Coke posted:What happens to dragons and immortal elves when the magic goes away? Dragons.... maybe go into hibernation? No one ever found one during the fifth world, but they do seem to hide themselves pretty deep underground when they do so. They're definitely linked to magic in some way though. The official date of the Return of Magic and the Beginning of the Sixth World is December 24 2011, due entirely to that being the day Ryumyo crawled out from under Mount Fuji and buzzed the Shinkansen. Elves just keep themselves out of the public eye. Harlequin has claimed to have participated in the Crusades alongside King Richard the Lionheart, and lost his ear in a duel with another immortal elf in renaissance era France. Stroth fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Apr 10, 2018 |
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Apr 10, 2018 00:23
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Jack2142 posted:I'm pretty sure Dragons just take a nap.
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Apr 10, 2018 00:24
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If i recall, for awhile FASA hinted but never stated that a large number of significant historical figures (such as Leonardo da Vinci) were really immortal elves guiding humanity and enacting long running schemes. I think this was quietly dropped for being a stupid and unpopular plot idea.Poil posted:Do they taste good? Could you make a dragon egg omelette? I can only imagine the special punishment reserved for a metahuman that eats dragon eggs.
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Apr 10, 2018 01:07
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RickVoid posted:Well that was fun. Had Dragonfall soft-lock on me during a run we haven't seen yet. I'm running on a laptop, and I've experienced temporary hangs during attempts to save, but this was during the enemies combat turn, and I had access to my character sheet and was able to reload an auto-save. Not sure if it'll happen again, I decided that was enough shadowrunning for one afternoon. I had that happen to me once, too. I wonder if it was during the same mission? For me it was Blitz's companion mission.
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Apr 10, 2018 01:15
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The immortal elves spent a lot of time and effort squirreling enough magic away to stay immortal until the mana cycle went back to high enough levels that they became superhuman again. There were a few other magical beings (like a couple of vampires, for example) that got their magic in really awful human-sacrificy ways as well, because blood magic works just fine no matter how low the mana cycle is.
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Apr 10, 2018 01:15
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How does one become an Immortal elf? I was under the impression that the elf meta-variant is long-lived enough to the point you get to not die if you're careful. Kinda like LotR elves.
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Apr 10, 2018 01:29
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I dont know posted:I can only imagine the special punishment reserved for a metahuman that eats dragon eggs. It's pretty creative as far as suicide methods go, you've got to admit. Lots of effort to get there, though.
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Apr 10, 2018 01:37
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Lowfyr sounds really annoying.
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Apr 10, 2018 01:40
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Night10194 posted:Lowfyr sounds really annoying. Eh, all Great Dragons are really. Lofwyr is just the only one other than Dunkelzahn that bothers to have extensive contact with the Mortals. And Big D has his own reasons for wanting to be liked by Metahumanity.
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Apr 10, 2018 01:57
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Yeah, there's multiple reasons to never get anywhere near a dragon if at all possible. The danger of being an enemy (or worse, an asset) is the obvious one, but most people just can't handle the pure concentrated  from any given Great Dragon.
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Apr 10, 2018 02:42
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 , surely.
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Apr 10, 2018 02:57
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Surprise Pizza posted:I had that happen to me once, too. I wonder if it was during the same mission? For me it was Blitz's companion mission. Well poo poo. Yeah that's the one. I am simultaneously relieved and annoyed to learn that it's a known issue. I did bother to stagger save, just in case, so I can avoid the mission if I have to.
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Apr 10, 2018 03:30
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Jack2142 posted:One thing I don't get on Shadowrun... Is that do new dragons actually get born? Or is there just a continually dwindling number as they recreate(ish) the Highlander. It is... not impossible... that Drakes are an immature form of Dragon. Dragons certainly seem to take an interest in them and their future.
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Apr 10, 2018 03:39
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I also got locked on that mission, so apparently it's very common.
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Apr 10, 2018 03:46
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Cardiovorax posted:Which, admittedly, doesn't really say as much as it could, because there's not exactly all that much in the way of intelligent competition for those other 70%. It's easy to be the unchallenged ruler of Mars if there's nobody else willing to go the distance to contest you for your dead rock.
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Apr 10, 2018 05:38
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cigaw posted:How does one become an Immortal elf? I was under the impression that the elf meta-variant is long-lived enough to the point you get to not die if you're careful. Kinda like LotR elves.
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Apr 10, 2018 12:54
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I wonder if this Cycle is going to leave a mark in the form of AIs? One or more of them could potentially survive into the next Cycle and beyond, especially if AIs are nontasty to Horrors.
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Apr 10, 2018 13:50
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You'd probably have the issue of society utterly collapsing with the structures that let the AI live, unless they get into cyborg bodies and can self maintain for such a long time.
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Apr 10, 2018 15:46
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I imagine AIs, if they got set up right, could ride out the sixth world like the bunkers of the 4th, but with stupid high tech instead of magic. Even better if they end up making mage friends and they work together.
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Apr 10, 2018 15:57
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The Lone Badger posted:I wonder if this Cycle is going to leave a mark in the form of AIs? One or more of them could potentially survive into the next Cycle and beyond, especially if AIs are nontasty to Horrors. yeah, in terms of Grand Setting Bullshit there is something quite nice about the Shadowrun setting: the immortals are very, very off-balance. they know how things are -supposed- to go, all this has happened before, all this will happen again... except for an awful lot of what is happening now has never happened before, and they're not 100% on how to react to it. there are not supposed to be so damned many of us. we are not supposed to have weapons that can kill them by the thousands with the push of a button. we are not supposed to have blocked out the sky, blighted the land, and poisoned the sea. we are not supposed to have invented popcorn. seriously, that poo poo rules, Dunkelzahn's will explicitly calls out that the person who figures out how to make that poo poo dragonfire-lightable is going to make a mint.
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Apr 10, 2018 16:10
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Why do Dragons have names in languages that did not exist the last time they were active? It can't be that they call themselves by a translation of their true name into whatever language metahumanity uses in the location the dragons reside, given that Dunkelzahn first appeared near Denver.
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Apr 10, 2018 16:16
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Kopijeger posted:Why do Dragons have names in languages that did not exist the last time they were active? It can't be that they call themselves by a translation of their true name into whatever language metahumanity uses in the location the dragons reside, given that Dunkelzahn first appeared near Denver. in dealing with dragons it is important to realize that at any given moment, it is impossible to tell whether you are up to your eyeballs in something you couldn't possibly comprehend, or the dragon is just loving with you see: Hartfeld Manor and the Easily Stealable Vase. quality joke.
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Apr 10, 2018 16:26
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Kopijeger posted:Why do Dragons have names in languages that did not exist the last time they were active? It can't be that they call themselves by a translation of their true name into whatever language metahumanity uses in the location the dragons reside, given that Dunkelzahn first appeared near Denver.
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Apr 10, 2018 16:31
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Cardiovorax posted:In his will, Dunkelzahn refers to debts (and the repayment of them) that he made to people who lived quite a while before magic came back and an even longer while after it went away again the last time around. It's not very explicit, but there's good reason to believe that even if the Great Dragons spend most of the time in-between magic cycles sleeping, they apparently wake up every so often even during the mana downtimes and interact with the world somehow, presumably in shape-shifted form. That means a Dragon might've been part for the inspiration for the Nibelungen Saga in the setting. That's pretty neat.
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Apr 10, 2018 16:39
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Ze Pollack posted:we are not supposed to have invented popcorn. seriously, that poo poo rules, Dunkelzahn's will explicitly calls out that the person who figures out how to make that poo poo dragonfire-lightable is going to make a mint. quote:After much research and hundreds of bags of burned Nuke-and-Pop, I leave 20 million nuyen to the holder of the patent for the twentieth-century process that produced popcorn capable of being popped over an open flame (this dragon’s method of choice). I believe it was called Speedy Pop, or Quick Pop, or something similar. The patent holder must use this money to renew the patent and resume production. Obviously Jiffy Pop did not survive as a company by the 2050s, and whoever owns their assets almost certainly doesn't care - stovetop popcorn is a pretty niche product to imagine in a cyberpunk dystopia where everything is some variety of flavored soy. But the big D was clearly an optimist, based on his will, and a 20 million nuyen payday is a hell of an incentive for some enterprising runner team to figure out who's forgotten that they hold the process and patent and have been sitting on it.
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Apr 10, 2018 16:46
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Ze Pollack posted:see: Hartfeld Manor and the Easily Stealable Vase. quality joke. that fuckin' vase  I actually wrote a review of DFDC on Steam where I said there was only one downside to Director's Cut over regular DF, and it was the vase. Someone replied that they didn't appreciate spoilers. At the time I thought they were serious, but now I'm not sure considering the context.
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Apr 10, 2018 17:23
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Psion posted:that fuckin' vase I'll admit I thought you'd get a chance to actually nab it later on. It is the kind of thing I would actively go out of my way to do.
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Apr 10, 2018 17:26
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Poil posted:Do they taste good? Could you make a dragon egg omelette? No matter how good it might be, I'm not sure I'd want to ever foot THAT bill.
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Apr 10, 2018 17:29
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I'm probably putting way more thought into the idea than it really deserves, but now I'm kind of wondering whether you even could cook a dragon if you tried. They're giant fire lizards, after all. Being susceptible to something as comparatively cold as boiling water would be a bit of a design flaw.
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Apr 10, 2018 17:34
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Cardiovorax posted:I'm probably putting way more thought into the idea than it really deserves, but now I'm kind of wondering whether you even could cook a dragon if you tried. They're giant fire lizards, after all. Being susceptible to something as comparatively cold as boiling water would be a bit of a design flaw. Or, treat it like gator ribs and stick them in a pressure fryer. I'm sure with tech and magical advances you can come up with a pressure vessel that'll get enough heat and pressure to cook your dragon.
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Apr 10, 2018 17:39
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cigaw posted:gator ribs  You can eat that!?My god, a whole new world of culinary adventure has been opened to me.
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Apr 10, 2018 17:43
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Psion posted:that fuckin' vase Dammit, Dietrich, of all the times to be a buzzkill.
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Apr 10, 2018 18:42
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Part 13 - Heading Off to Work.jpg)  Previously on Dragonfall: We learned that we're all probably going to die and we need to put together 50 thousand nuyen in order to maybe find the one guy who can maybe do something about it, maybe, assuming they're even alive. And because we're not buddies with ultra-rich CEOs with spirit pest problems, we're gonna have to do some old-fashioned shadowrunning to make that money. Quite a bit of shadowrunning in fact, as the majority of the game consists of doing missions in order to pay Alice (and sometimes for other reasons). Once we have the money together and say go, Paul will press the big red "start endgame" button on his keyboard which'll immediately cancel all unfinished missions and set us on the path towards the finale. But for now that's a long, long ways ahead. We have a great many perfectly ordinary milk runs that are sure to always go smoothly and 100% according to plan between there and now. And we'll spend this short update getting started on that.  We're free to choose the order in which we do the missions we're given, though of course not all of them will be available from the start. We'll be picking up most of our "official" jobs forwarded by Paul from our mission computer here, but some will also come from other sources. Speaking of which, someone's got a message for us.   Mysterious, and definitely not one of Paul's. We should probably go check out whatever this is about.  We also get the notification that the antiquities delivery schedule we put up for sale last time has sold for a decent sum. It's possible to spend your own personal money to work towards Alice's fee and reach the 50k goal faster, but there's little reason to do so unless you're speedrunning and want to deliberately skip as many missions as possible. Simply finishing enough of Paul's jobs will get you there eventually as he automatically takes a cut from the reward money. Now, let's see what's hot on the message boards today.   - Tolstoi <04:13:58/11-04-54> [There's one on Torstraße. Bring a bouquet of roses, elves love a romantic.] - Ruby <02:54:23/11-04-54> [The elf clubs I know of are members only due to creepy groupies... like you. Not really appealing when a guy is only after them for the shape of their ears.]   - Maelstrom <18:55:02/11-04-54> [Never thought I'd see you admit to a mistake on here. Thanks for the heads up. I'll keep my eyes open. Will FWD any info I come across if you're still looking to collect from the guy.] - Blitz <19:31:47/11-04-54> [RE: PROSHOT: Sent you some surveillance footage. Is this your man?] - ProShot <20:13:29/11-04-54> [Sure is. Nice one. I'll split the take with you if this lead pans out. Good to find there's still some honor among runners.] We still need a decker so Blitz better not get his brain melted while shitposting.  That's it for now. When playing the game normally people generally accept all available missions (of which there are 4 in total at this stage) and then go do them one after another, but for the purpose of keeping things straight in this LP format we'll only be picking them up as we do them. Thus we'll ignore the other available jobs for now and go look into this invitation we got.   On our way to Cafe Cezve we stop by Aljernon's place in the hopes that he'll know something about Feuerschwinge. And also in the hopes we'll get something resembling direct explanations if he does.  Also I don't think I ever showed off what the back area of the shop looks like. Aljernon presumably uses the summoning circle to conjure up spirits of smugness in order to consume their essence.  Hello again. May I help you? Aljernon, what do you know about the Great Dragon Feuerschwinge? Even the concept of time occasionally just throws its temporal hands in the air and goes "man I just cannot loving deal with this guy right now." She was among the first of the Great Dragons to Awaken, and the first to be killed by metahumanity. Or so the story goes. You don’t buy that? I take nothing at face value. It is one of the secrets of my longevity. History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon. Truth is something else... When a Great Dragon falls, the sound resonates across time and space. And therefore you would know? [He opens his hands.] I am merely suggesting that the story is incomplete. Nebelherr actually awakened in a Bavarian beer hall, which probably makes him the Most German Dragon. He and Kaltenstein later had a bit of a tussle when he tried to stop the latter from following Feuerschwinge (who used to be Kaltenstein's consort) into the SOX. Of course on account on being just a lame normal dragon fighting the physically biggest Great Dragon of them all, Nebelherr would've gotten his dumb rear end utterly trashed had Lofwyr not appeared to help him tag-team ol' Coldstone into submission. He's such a nice man that Lofwyr, having a fellow dragon in his debt must not have even crossed his mind at the time. Sounds like she woke up grumpy. Angry, deranged, or something else. What motivates a being such as her? No one knows. Feuerschwinge was never engaged in... dialogue. German military forces are said to have killed her over the SOX the year she emerged - this, after months of fire, devastation, and terror. Her body was never recovered. Whenever I hear, “the body was never recovered,” I immediately think, “faked her own death.” Beware the holovids, my friend. They will rot your brain. Nevertheless, it is possible that the Firewing still exists. Great, going up against a plain murderous Great Dragon would've been downright boring, but a little radiation is sure to spice things up nicely. Ooh, maybe she's grown like three heads so we can get turned into ash with three times the speed? That's a solid two-thirds cut from the time we'll spend dying an agonizing death! You seem like a connected guy. Think any of your magical friends might know more?[Aljernon crosses his arms across his chest. Considers.] That is always a possibility. The sum of my knowledge is vast, but it remains finite. Hopefully that's just a red herring, no more crazy cults for us please. With different dialogue paths he also mentions rumors about her being seen near Iceland and her having a lair in the Harz Mountains that no one's ever found. Now, is there anything else that you need to know? Guess that's it for now. See you around. Well none of that was particularly encouraging. We need to find something else to think about than dragons for a while.  Perhaps this guy can help, he sure doesn't look like a dragon at least.  I feel like everyone knows someone who looks exactly like Luca here. Also with that surname you can bet he's gotten enough 'I don't even know her' jokes to last a lifetime.  Let me get right to business. My organization would like to retain your services for the indefinite future. But first, we're asking you to go on a trial run - an "audition" of sorts - to prove that you're the right woman for the job. "Rewarded" and "bonus" are definitely our kind of vocabulary. So, have I piqued your interest? Will you accept our offer? Who do you work for? How did you know where to find me? My organization knows everything worth knowing in Germany, including this small pond that is Berlin. It is in our best interests, however, to remain unknown to the world at large. For the time being, that is all that you need to know.It's probably not all that relevant anyway. And what does this "audition" pay? I can offer you fifteen hundred nuyen, but only if you complete the full audition - the run, and post-run interview - to our satisfaction. If you fail to perform up to our expectations, you will receive no pay, and no further offers of work. That isn't much. It's an audition. The purpose of this trial is for *you* to prove your worth to *us,* not the other way around.That kind of pay isn't enough to make any kind of dent in the Alice fund, so if we choose to take this job it'll be going into our own pocket. Of course, you're free to decline if you wish. But know that there are hundreds of runners in Berlin who would kill for the opportunity to work for us. We came to you because we think that we see a glimmer of potential. If you prove us wrong, we will happily take our offer elsewhere.We need all the friends and money we can get right now, guess this is as good a place to start as any. Fine, I'm in. Good.[He smiles.] *Very* good. Sounds like a worthy cause at least, don't always get that luxury in this business. My organization has no more desire to see Berlin fall to the corporations than you do. However, we are hesitant to act on our suspicions without proof. This is where you come in. So you want me to spy on him, then. Planting some bugs doesn't sound too bad either, maybe if we play our cards right we can even keep things from ever escalating into violence. What's this about a team though? Take the U-Bahn to Frankfurter Tor, and go alone. The rest of your team will meet you there. Hang on a second. I already have a team. You do, yes. But they are unsuitable for this job. Remember, this is a test of *your* abilities. Not Eiger's, or Glory's, or Dietrich's.Yep, that's the whole team alright. Just us and our three trusted comrades. How do you know their names? Guess there's always gotta be a twist. Running with strangers right after we got a full team together again isn't a particularly enticing idea, but if the people Luca represents are as influential as he claims they should at least have the resources to hire competent runners. So. Will you work within the boundaries that I have described? Or will you turn down an opportunity that your fellow runners would kill for? If it's that important to you, I'll work with your team. Very good. The moment that you board the train to Frankfurter Tor, your test will begin. I would advise you to bring what you need in terms of medical supplies and ordinance - once you embark on your trial run, there will be no turning back.Think you meant "ordnance" there, Luca. But that's alright, we're all speaking German here anyway.  What are you, an XCOM councilman all of a sudden? Fine, whatever.  Well, we have our first mission. An unofficial and a little unorthodox one, but flexibility is an important trait for a shadowrunner. Incidentally this is also our first mission which was added in Director's Cut and didn't exist in the original.  Still, a simple bugging job with a specialized team and the support of a powerful organization doesn't sound too tough. Maybe this is a sign of our luck finally starting to turn around. Off we go! Kanfy fucked around with this message at 08:14 on May 13, 2018 |
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