Setting: Shadowrun by FASA, for those of you who aren't familiar, Shadowrun is a setting set in the near future during a rebirth of magic. Technology is similar to cyberpunk, as well as the themes of urban decay and corperate control.
PC1: Wayward, a dwarven mage who has rejected popular culture and methedology refusing to act in the way society dictated he should, or even practice magic in a conventional method.
PC2: Stalker, a jaguar shapeshifter and shaman from what is left of northern South America. He was able to escape but is trying to save money to bring his family north away from the Azetechnology, a particularily nasty coperation that controls most of South America.
PC2: Katherine, A dwarven Rigger (someone who mentaly controls vehicles and remote controlled robots called drones) who has a love for technology, both building and taking it apart.
PC3: Jimmy, A young naive Coyote shaman from one of the Native America Nations which were formed from the midwestern USA after the colapse of the United States Government.
I took over from another GM who wanted a chance to play, the first part of the campaign involved the group getting out of Seattle to avoid some nastyness that was coming their way (literaly).
Anyhow, after droping off one of a couple of the characters, (my old character and the character of one player who couldn't be in the group anymore) the players headed north eventually leading them to Portland, there they stop in a bar to get some drinks. Wayward, who was not yet part of the group is approached by a young, partly asian woman who looks a little desperate. She introduces herself as Juliet and claims to be an employee of Aztechnology who is seeking enployment in another coroporation, however, since she was involved in some important research Aztechnology is less than willing to just let her go and their agents are looking for her to bring her back, or worse... She offers Wayward a rather large sum of money (about 150% the normal going rate) to take her to CFS, (California broke away from the USA becoming the California Free State) She said that she would be safe there since Azetechnology has little hold in CFS.
Wayward doesn't belive her story but the cash is too good to pass up. He noticed the other players enter the bar and can tell that they are travelers. Wayward approached them and askes them if they can take he and a friend of his to CFS. With nothing better to do Stalker and Katherine agree. With the deal made they take some time to relax.
Thats when trouble starts. Over their table the group notices three men who have just entered the bar, one of which is dressed in a green, shiny overcoat and a pair of shades modeled to look like an aztech sun hat. The three men slip the bouncer some money and start walking through the bar checking faces. Wayward decideds to use his mind controlling spell (If the target fails his save, the caster can dictate the actions of the target for a certain time period) He targets one of coporate goons. The guy fails and Wayward makes his take out his gun and shoot his leader, the guy with the sun hat shades. The leader goes down, a second later the third goon shoots the shooter for betraying their leader. Panic ensues, with shots going of and people rushing for the doors the party is able to slip out unoticed. Quickly getting into their van before law enforcement arrives they rush for the edge of the city.
Listening in to the radio they learn that trafic barriers are being set up at all roads leading out of town (yes corps do have that much power in Shadowrun). They arrive at the checkpoint just as dawn is breaking. The checkpoint consists of cement deviders and a quickly set up toll both. The party counts about 6 guards in Azetechnolgy colors with two summoned spirits. The gaurds are carefully checking each vehicle and running ID checks on the passengers. Wayward tells Juliet to keep her head down and tells Katherine to floor it when he tells her to. Just as the car infront of the parties van leaves the checkpoint Wayward uses up his summoned Earth Elemental (in Shadowrun elementals are summoned in advance and used as the need arrises) He and stalker then take pot shots at the surprised guards. A few gaurds fire at the van, scoring only glancing hits, while most are just trying to get away from the angry earth elemental. The spirits attack the elemental and manage to force it back to the astral plane, but not before the pary is able to navigate through the checkpoint and make a dash down the road.
More to come!