Shadowrun
Shadowrun General => The Secret History => Topic started by: Stainless Steel Devil Rat on <11-01-13/2330:47>
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Is there a resource detailing the story about how exactly Aztechnology got their claws back in the FRFZ, or is that as yet a plot point that hasn't happened yet by 2075?
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I haven't read/played Missions, but I'm pretty sure Stormfront was the last thing dealing with the metaplot in Denver.
Basically, they moved back in while Ghostwalker was distracted by the chaos caused by Harlequin and/or the Jester Spirit + Puck. Not well explained why he's, you know, not nuking them all again.
Wouldn't be a stretch that the Azzies were heavily involved in causing that chaos, of course. Running a campaign around that right now. 8)
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I'd assume that the Azzies brought their military to defend their slice of Denver, and that Ghostwalker is probably still banning the other nations from bringing their militaries into the city.
One of the reasons Ghostwalker had an easy time taking Denver and kept it, is that there is a lot of bureaucracy from the treaties that prevented the other nations from moving their militaries in. Also, there is a strong possibility that Dunkelzahn presumably bribed officials, and got them ready for their new draconian overlord.
So Ghostwalker probably doesn't want to die, so he won't force Azlan out, yet. He ain't no fool, he does know they have a dragon slaying weapon. But he also probably doesn't want the other nations bringing their forces in and killing everyone. Because, then Denver's background count will get all messed up like Chicago or something and that won't be good for all the spirits that Ghostwalker has made friends with/love interest in.
Should be very interesting to see just what happens in the Front Range Free Zone as the story develops.
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There's also the matter of how they moved that army 700 miles through the political, economic, and spiritual heart of the PCC unscathed and/or unnoticed.
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There's also the matter of how they moved that army 700 miles through the political, economic, and spiritual heart of the PCC unscathed and/or unnoticed.
It could be an unspoken agreement between nations to support any territorial defence. They could have moved through any territory and not be noticed...
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Well, it was pretty obvious that the PCC got paid for letting the Azzies through with a chunk of Texas.
As for how Aztechnology got into the city, you got to step back a bit. Harlequin helped them finish Blue-227, and in return, they helped bankroll and supply his storm of chaos in Denver. In addition, they brought in two very high level toxic spirits, and the only reason Ghostwalker didn't wipe Harlequin and the Azzies off the map is because he couldn't do that and keep Maelstrom and Oblivion from causing trouble on the astral at the same time. Maelstrom and Oblivion will probably get zapped before long, and then Ghostwalker will look to settle scores with the Azzies, Harlequin, and the PCC. Burninating may ensue.
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Are the Azzies back in their old sector, or have they 'revitalized' the old Ute sector as 'their' sector?
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Well, it was pretty obvious that the PCC got paid for letting the Azzies through with a chunk of Texas.
As for how Aztechnology got into the city, you got to step back a bit. Harlequin helped them finish Blue-227, and in return, they helped bankroll and supply his storm of chaos in Denver. In addition, they brought in two very high level toxic spirits, and the only reason Ghostwalker didn't wipe Harlequin and the Azzies off the map is because he couldn't do that and keep Maelstrom and Oblivion from causing trouble on the astral at the same time. Maelstrom and Oblivion will probably get zapped before long, and then Ghostwalker will look to settle scores with the Azzies, Harlequin, and the PCC. Burninating may ensue.
I agree.
But no one, meaning the UCAS and CAS and whoever else in the area had to allow it.
I believe The UCAS and the CAS had interviened to stop such hostile actions in the past. This time it was hands off. Nationalism in a sense.....
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Well, it was pretty obvious that the PCC got paid for letting the Azzies through with a chunk of Texas.
As for how Aztechnology got into the city, you got to step back a bit. Harlequin helped them finish Blue-227, and in return, they helped bankroll and supply his storm of chaos in Denver. In addition, they brought in two very high level toxic spirits, and the only reason Ghostwalker didn't wipe Harlequin and the Azzies off the map is because he couldn't do that and keep Maelstrom and Oblivion from causing trouble on the astral at the same time. Maelstrom and Oblivion will probably get zapped before long, and then Ghostwalker will look to settle scores with the Azzies, Harlequin, and the PCC. Burninating may ensue.
What's this from? Or is it speculation on your part?
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Consider the situation. Harlequin goes in, bangs up Ghostwalker but the blood-letters are back in Denver; so you know what's going to happen....
{screen turns dark as an off-screen narrator whispers..."He's back, Baby!"}
{the off-screen narrator speaks at normal volume} "Once they fought each other, now they'll fight a common foe! Watch as an I.E. and a Great Dragon team-up for this month's hottest movie...."Denver: the Dark City"
Remember kids, ole' Painted Face hates Azzies and their blood magic almost as much as Ghostwalker does. So why not flip on them after facing down Ghostwalker and working with him to drive them out?
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Are the Azzies back in their old sector, or have they 'revitalized' the old Ute sector as 'their' sector?
No, they're in the old Ute sector, since getting their sector back would have meant dealing with the CAS, and there's no way the CAS would deal with them.
I agree.
But no one, meaning the UCAS and CAS and whoever else in the area had to allow it.
I believe The UCAS and the CAS had interviened to stop such hostile actions in the past. This time it was hands off. Nationalism in a sense.....
Remember, though, that the other four powers (UCAS, CAS, PCC, and Sioux) had all worked out a new Treaty that would have brought the Azzies back in anyway, while Ghostwalker was 'out of town'. Then Ghostwalker shows up, tells them to stop being idiots, and basically pisses them all off. The concealment from the storm and such that the high level spirits the Azzies brought in to guard their aircraft when they moved makes a nicely plausible excuse for why they 'didn't see anything'. And once it was a fait accompli, trying to drive the Azzies out of Denver without the weight of a treaty behind them would mean all out war, since the Treaty had expired by then.
What's this from? Or is it speculation on your part?
Couple things. Check the fiction in Clutch of Dragons, where Harlequin waltzes into the office of Domingo Chavez (one of the members of the Azzie board), makes himself at home, knocks out all the elite Azzie troops sent to remove him with a single spell, tells Chavez's secretary he would like to schedule a meeting for now. Then he waits reading a newspaper with his feet on Chavez's desk until he gets there, and says he heard the Azzies have a 'dragon problem' (Sirrurg), and it just so happens that he did too (Ghostwalker).
Also, in Storm Front, in the Triumph of Aztlan chapter, Winterhawk implies that it was Harlequin who gave the Azzies their final push into creating Blue-227.
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@Mirikon
Winterhawk does imply that Harlequin was involved, but not necessarily in creating Blue-227.
The relevant part of the sentence is "some of these systems", and the chapter refers to various mana/tech integrated systems. For some reason, I find it highly doubtful that even Harlequin would be crazy enough to want to help create some sort of biological weapon targeting dragons with manatech, because it seems like the risk of "manatech" backfiring would be too great of a risk to awakened...
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Harlequin normally wouldn't do such a thing, yes. But when you're in a "I don't care if the world burns, so long as I get my revenge" frame of mind, that kind of thinking tends to go out the window. And the Jester Spirit, or whatever it was called, was also playing a role in his thought processes.
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Well, it was pretty obvious that the PCC got paid for letting the Azzies through with a chunk of Texas.
But PCC has been (I thought) pretty clearly GW's biggest supporter since he returned. Is Texas really worth that?
There are a lot of conflicts involved, another being that the Azzie military is actually one of two hostile militaries currently occupying sectors of Denver (the other being the UCAS) while the "legitimate" ZDF peacekeeping force includes CAS military personnel and mercenaries who have regular encounters with the Azzie presence because the ZDF patrols all of the sectors. That must be loads of fun.
Without a Treaty a lot of things are just running on inertia and arguably a desire not to go to war. But that also depends on whose interests are peaceful and who could capitalize off war and dissent in and around the Front Range.
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What do we know about the Jester Spirit? My reading of Lightning in Denver made me think it was a kind of wild card, masquerading as Harlequin to deceive Puck, and that the uglier actions (like the terrorist attacks on civilians) where due to it.
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Isn't that a Spirit Harlequin used once that broke loose and is now one of Harly's enemies?
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Well, I wouldn't say that they were GW's supporter, Crimson, but rather that they saw which way the wind was blowing, and they positioned themselves to profit accordingly. But remember, Ghostwalker had been looking... unreliable of late, including his being distracted during the artifacts craze, his actions in DeeCee, his long absence in the metaplanes, blowing the new Treaty out of the water, the rising chaos in Denver, his policies making metahumans second class citizens compared to spirits, and so on. So they decided to hedge their bets with a corp/nation that just showed they could go toe to toe with a great dragon and come off even, if not win. Plus, they get rid of part of the Ute lands that have been giving them headaches, and gain a bunch more in prime Texas lands.
But yes, without a treaty, things are looking nasty. Anything could start a war across North America, especially since if you look at the people in Denver, the UCAS and Sioux and the CAS and Aztlan have been having low-level skirmishes for years. Never anything that would be 'causus beli', but without a treaty all it takes is someone pushing the right button, and everything goes up in smoke. Ironically, I don't think the fighting would get too bad in/around Denver, because no one really wants to plan on fighting Ghostwalker and an army at the same time, but it could have big implications in Seattle, if the Sidhe-Salish get drawn in because of NAN alliances. The real problem is that a war between the major powers of North America won't stop at just redrawing maps. The Azzie-Amazonia war was in South America, and, with the exception of the Nicaragua Canal getting blasted and Sirrurg destroying most of Aztlan's food, didn't really have much economic impact outside the sectors directly involved. You were just starting to see the real impact in the world at large when the war ended. Part of this is because most of the fighting was around Bogota (not a major economic center) and miles of jungle. Advertisers, mercs, and munitions suppliers raked in the cash, but how much impact did the war have on, say, the average guy in Seattle? Until the shortages caused by Sirrurg's attack in the Carib League started moving through the system, it was business as usual at the Stuffer Shack.
Compare that to a war in North America. So many nations, with so many economic hubs, and so many corporations. If war breaks out for real, the impact will be felt immediately. Especially if groups who have been feeling oppressed decide to make their displeasure known in the chaos. PCC gets caught up in a war, the Ute rebels may stage a coup. The Manitou tribe might make another play for independence if they think no one's paying attention. The ripples could even spark more tension between CalFree and Tir Tairngir, especially since Hestaby isn't there to serve as a deterrent to war. Or the Tir could just sit this out, and start making Portland into a major port again, since Seattle will come under heavy fire if the NAN start moving. There's simply too many moving parts to this one, so it is impossible to know how it will end.
What do we know about the Jester Spirit? My reading of Lightning in Denver made me think it was a kind of wild card, masquerading as Harlequin to deceive Puck, and that the uglier actions (like the terrorist attacks on civilians) where due to it.
Isn't that a Spirit Harlequin used once that broke loose and is now one of Harly's enemies?
I... don't think so. Gwynplaine (the ally spirit that went free) isn't likely to help Harlequin. No, I think the Jester Spirit is something that has been haunting Harlequin a long time. Perhaps the first echoes of a mad Passion returning to the world.
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Isn't that a Spirit Harlequin used once that broke loose and is now one of Harly's enemies?
I... don't think so. Gwynplaine (the ally spirit that went free) isn't likely to help Harlequin. No, I think the Jester Spirit is something that has been haunting Harlequin a long time. Perhaps the first echoes of a mad Passion returning to the world.
Or a spook that's pissed about Harly stealing his outfit motif. :P
And so the Fashion Wars started anew.....
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I agree that Gwynplaine is unlikely to help Harlequin - but given that G absorbed (copied?) a lot of H's darker side, its efforts may have paralleled/mirrored H's own endeavours. Gwynplaine is likely to have been more affected by the pro-spirit ambience of Denver, and run just that little more wild. The gang leaders found flayed are more like G's style than H's - IMO (especially since they were elves). Same with instigating the attack on Weekday Eclipse - the level of carnage was outside Harlequin's normal style (which is not to say he definitely didn't set it up). The campaign of attacks against ZDF could have been either - although it does seem a little too . . . mundane . . . for Gwynplaine, even with the apparent magical support. I would say that both H and G were targeting Ghostwalker's spirit assets.
Besides, what Axis Mundi described (Storm Front, pg 99) pretty well points at Gwynplaine.
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No, the flayed gang leaders, the bombings, and attacks on ZDF members is what happens when you take a thrill gang that makes the Halloweeners look compassionate and give them access to the best gear Aztechnology has to offer, while providing them with magical support to keep them from being caught easily.
As for whether the rising chaos in Denver fits Harlequin's MO? I wouldn't say no. The flayings were more gruesome than he is wont to do, but that is explained by him simply saying to the Zombies to make the gang leaders into a 'message' and letting them run. The rest of the campaign was classic insurgent/psywar tactics. And while Harlequin may play the fool, he isn't an idiot, and he has lived through more than his share of battles. Combined with Aztechnology's resources to make things happen (money makes people say 'yes'), it is easy for someone like him to set these things in motion. Remember, ever since the events in Praxis, he's been building his own army of outcasts and ne'er-do-wells in preparation for this moment.
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I can see the move to occupy Denver to be supported by dragon or ancient types.....
There is a General pattern of Dragon activity around certain national activities, With nations moving to control one area or another.
The opposite of that is the African Continent where there is a movement to keep people out of certain areas, therefore Dragon activity is low. 8)