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plot idea: awakened prisoners = possessed mercenaries

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ImmortalShade

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« on: <03-25-13/1639:20> »
the idea started in this thread http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=10322.0 where people were talking about blood magic and how awakened criminals could be held in prison. during this conversation I had an idea for a plot.

The hook:

While the players are out on a run the group sees a former contact, talismonger or other awakened, who got pinched a few months ago, possibly because of the characters, running an opp with a group of runners. The group sees the contact kick a security door off its hinges or punch a wall down and vanish inside. Later one of the groups other contacts asks about the guy they saw kick down a door, cue investigation.

The weird part:

Their old contact is listed as an inmate at some private prison ____________ (met 2000 or azzies would probably fit). This prison deals only with awakened prisoners and other problematic inmates IE shadowrunners.

After some digging:

Other runners around the world have been seeing old chummers who got pinched running opps even though they are still listed as "in prison" .

Whats going on:

Met 2000 is using their private prison for awakened and shadowrunners as a source of Talented bodies for spirit possessed muscle for those jobs that no one wants to take. OR the azzies are doing the same for insert plot here ________________. For those unlucky enough to have been sentenced to life in prison perhaps inhabitation would work as well.

Other possible hooks:
Team is hired to do an extraction, the target puts up a nasty fight but goes down eventually. once delivered the Johnson offers the group another job to figure out wtf is going on.

Team is hired to hit a convoy and the muscle guarding it gives them a real run for their money way beyond what their intell  said it would.

Thoughts?

RHat

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« Reply #1 on: <03-25-13/2122:19> »
My first thought is why do they have to be awakened?
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ImmortalShade

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« Reply #2 on: <03-25-13/2216:18> »
supply and demand, awakened felons are a nightmare for most prisons to hold long term, and from the lore i have read through only a few awakened prisons exist world round. Beyond that for the prisoners who are looking at life sentences or death sentences Inhabitation becomes an option and for that the spirits have a chance at using all of the hosts memories, abilities, and skills. For the spirits involved the chance to start with a shadow runner, or if they are lucky an awakened shadow runner gives them a big leg up.

But yeah, i see your point, nobody crooks would work fine as well.... hmmm the possibilities....

RHat

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« Reply #3 on: <03-25-13/2218:07> »
supply and demand, awakened felons are a nightmare for most prisons to hold long term, and from the lore i have read through only a few awakened prisons exist world round. Beyond that for the prisoners who are looking at life sentences or death sentences Inhabitation becomes an option and for that the spirits have a chance at using all of the hosts memories, abilities, and skills. For the spirits involved the chance to start with a shadow runner, or if they are lucky an awakened shadow runner gives them a big leg up.

But yeah, i see your point, nobody crooks would work fine as well.... hmmm the possibilities....

If it's a supply thing, they can just disappear a bunch of SINless - why even bother with anyone who's already in the system?

And Inhabitation and Possession are two entirely different things.  Inhabitation is only insect spirits, as far as I can recall off-hand, which are not suitable for your plan.
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ImmortalShade

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« Reply #4 on: <03-26-13/0249:11> »
hmmm will have to do some more reading on that, still new to the shadow run universe and cranking my way through the books i got.

I like the concept though, and i think the suspects work out well, though honestly any corp with enough wageslaves on hand could pull it off. Eh the hooks would need a bit of a rework, though the concept is the same, talent on the market that is way to good for how cheap it is...  time to sleep on it.

GiraffeShaman

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« Reply #5 on: <03-26-13/0317:30> »
Quote
supply and demand, awakened felons are a nightmare for most prisons to hold long term, and from the lore i have read through only a few awakened prisons exist world round
It's not really that hard to hold awakened prisoners because they often just keep them on simsense all the time. It's difficult on the Awakened's mental health, but  no skin off their back. Also, prisons have background counts and often warden mages atuned to the background count. Adepts get thrown in with the trolls

Sounds like a fun campaign idea though because of the nastiness of making it personal by using their friends and contacts.

Mantis

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« Reply #6 on: <03-26-13/1502:17> »
Don't use MET2000. They are a mercenary company and spend their time fighting for the highest bidder. It is unlikely they would run a prison. Aztechnology would work just fine, though it might be fun to have the corporation be one of the ones people think of as 'the good guys'. It could be someone in accounting looking to save a nuyen from the black ops slush funds or maybe a magician has spent his budget for the year and needs to carry out some ops to cover it. If you have Ghost Cartels you could use it as a way to introduce Tempo to your players.

Also, RHat is right about the Inhabitation thing. Only a power for the bugs. If you want to introduce another sort of spirit that does this, you are free to do so but I'd make sure I had a good grasp on the game world and mechanics before doing so. The bugs were a serious world threat in previous Shadowrun editions and introducing something else with those powers could lead to the same sort of thing.

UmaroVI

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ImmortalShade

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« Reply #8 on: <03-26-13/1854:43> »
I am running my group through Ghost cartel as the main story line actually  :), its partly where part of the idea came from though the group has not gotten that far along in it yet.

and good lord if an insect spirit got a cyber zombie, just hit that part of augmentation last night  :o

on topic though Right now i think it will be the azzies with the sinless testing it out on the PCC border of Azatlan. The initial hook will use one of the the pc's contacts who they havent heard from for a while or another runner they some times subcontract with.

off topic, as i have been running ghost cartels I have been using some of the news clips and some the files that are "posted to jackpoint" as a form of pay-data and as a "you flip on the tv and hear" sort of thing, should i let the players read through the chat logs at some point? i love the way its presented and it feels like a waste to keep that nice bit of background and lore to myself.

RHat

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« Reply #9 on: <03-26-13/1937:02> »
First, Ghost Cartels deals exclusively with Possession Spirits, as I recall.

Second, Inhabited Cyberzombie is something less of a worry due to the background count (at that point, object resistance might come into play, too) - unless, of course, you want to make it happen.  Both are a pretty serious threat on their own, though.

Third, the characters aren't likely to get access to Jackpoint - it is, after all, by invitation only.  If you want to let the players read it, though, as an OOC thing, don't see an issue with that.
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