(G2 08/02/2020 JF(GM), AP)

(G2 08/02/2020 JF(GM), AP)

M.A.V.I.S Corporate Logger System.
FILE #003
Selected Personality Type: 'Sassy'

DAY 4

At the crack of dawn Jim was driven through Rio to the favella. They city looked almost pretty in the morning light, despite the pollution. Jim sat in the back seat of the large van, checking and rechecking his gear, guns and ammo.

At the edge of the target area, the van stopped and our hero, the lovely 'Wee Jimmy' Cranky, jumped out and cautiously entered the alley directly ahead of him.

They alley opened out into a dusty street full of burnt-out cars. The locals were far from friendly though and two favella hoodlums went straight for their guns and started blasting at poor Jim.

He was heavily armoured in Metal Gear (tm) though and anything that hit just bounced off. Jim fired back and got one in the legs, then walked up and punched the other in the face, then chopped his nose of with his 'slice-n-dice' (a rather nasty cyberwear weapon if you ask me, that is a length of mono-filament that comes out of the tip of Jim's right pointer finger).

Three more hoods started shooting, from other alleys and semi-ruined buildings. Jimmy, the professional, calmly fired back, shooting the jaw off one and another through the right eye-socket. The last one fled down the street and Jimmy followed.

Bullets ricocheting off the ground and his armour, Jim moved down the street, pushing the hoods and cyber nazis aside like chaff. He met his first real challenge a bit further along though, another guy dressed in Metal Gear (tm). It was tatty and painted in swastikas, but just as effective as the armour
Jim was wearing. Jim was using an FN-RAL, but just standard ammo, and the armour was shrugging off the bullets.

The cyber Nazi was in the same boat. He threw away his Tech9 in disgust, and picked up a discarded M16. Still no effect. They closed on each other and started trading punches, with even less effect. Jim saw that this was going to be a tough fight.

(G1 18/01/2020 JF(GM), AP)

(G1 18/01/2020 JF(GM), AP)

M.A.V.I.S Corporate Logger System.
FILE #002
Selected Personality Type: 'Sassy'

So, after two boring months working for Mr Bates in Bay City, our hero, Captain Stephen 'Wee Jimmy' Cranky was ready to get into action again!

Jim go on well with Tam (although he is a mental) and pretty well with 'Alpha Team' the main security team even though a lot of them were 'corporate goons' with no military experience.
The only one he actually liked was an ex-RM sergeant called Carole Dee. She's lovely, just 5ft 2 and stocky, but  ex-bomb squad, and with full sub-dermal armour - not to be trifled with! She's 27 years old. (Alpha Team are currently just 10 people, but they do contract out for more when big events are on)

Where was I? Oh! I'd better start at the beginning:


DAY 1

My boss Will Bates (isn't he so dreamy?) wanted to keep this whole 'rescue my no-good brother from kidnappers in Brazil' on the down-low. So he officially gave Jim a holiday, but in fact sent him to contact a man called Lav Pernes. He was also given a DONG 5000 burner phone, a very expensive one, to contact the man on.

Jim jumped in a pool hovercar and booked himself into a hotel. At the bar he saw six nerds - netrunners and techies.
On closer inspection they seemed to be passing around a picture of a murdered prostitute! He decided to leave them to it. (Naughty Jim! There could have been adventure in that and a chance to kick some serious nerd ass - oh well!)

After a few drinks Jim went to his room and bed.


DAY 2

Today Jim spent some of his expenses money on new gear, wisely expecting to be in a fire fight some time soon.
This included a high tech helmet that could be worn around the neck and would cover his head in the first sign of danger. Jim had a morbid fear of being shot in the head.
The 'Bullet Smasher 9000' it was called and cost 1500 bucks.

After lunch he contacted Lav Pernes and met him at the 'The Pink Ice Cream Bar and Lounge'. It was a simple enough meeting though, he was given tickets to Rio and the contact details for Isabella.

Jim went back to his hotel and crated up his gear. He'd pick it up on the flipside.


DAY 3

It was a morning flight and he got in to Rio at 3pm. He was met at the airport by Isabella. She's a nice enoughgal as far as I know, in her 30s, has some high end cybergear. She's part of the Antifa crowd down that way.
She drove him into the city in an expensive looking 4x4.

That's right folks, Nigel 'Mazzie' Bates had only managed to get himself kidnapped by Nazis! And not just Nazis, but Cyber-Nazis! And believe you me, that's the worst kind of Nazi. He'd fallen in with a bad crowd, apparently, and this was how it had all ended up. Isabella filled in Jim with more details as she drove him to a safe house.

Jim noted that the air quality in the city was very bad. The safe house contained two tough looking Antifa guys. Together with them and Isabella they went over the plan. It was straight forward enough. They'd drop him off in the area of the favella where Bates was known to be, then once he was found, Jim was to send up a flare for Osprey extraction and straight back to the good old USA. Go Team!

He spent the rest of the evening gambling and drinking tequila. They had a nice room set by for him though and he went to get some kip before the big day.

Cyberpunk 2020

M.A.V.I.S Personnel Record (MAVIS = Megasoft Artificial Very Intelligent System)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Name: Captain Stephen 'Wee Jimmy' Cranky 
Birthplace: Twatt, Orkney, Scotland
Age: 24 years old

Current Location: Bay City, USA

(Bay City is a West Coast Tech Hub)

Reports to: Will Bates, CEO of Megasoft

Notes:

Captain Cranky was born in Scotland. His family emigrated to the USA when he was 14 years old.
He is a US citizen.

Current Assignment: Personal Bodyguard to Will Bates, CEO.

Other Duties include: Liaison with 'Alpha Team'. Co-ordinate with them during convention and other activities involving the primary. Back to Back with 'Big Tam' Mcleod.

'Alpha Team' currently run by an ex-corp black ops woman called Bella Witchelm.

Notes:
Tam and Jimmy do not get on with Ms Witchelm.
They are good friend with another Alpha team member - ex-RM sergeant Carole Dee.
Tam is very snobbish about non-military 'corporate goons'.
Jimmy is on day shift, Tam on nights.

3 years degree - Mechanical Engineering

1 year officer training

- 3 years in army
inc 1 year in Delta Force
- 1 tour Iraq
- 1 tour Afghanistan
- 1 tour Edinburgh fighting the SNP separatists

Note that this current set up, of two 'body men' that follow Mr Bates 24/7 and a secondary 'Alpha Team' that cover the conventions, travel arrangements etc. was put into place after the attempted assassination that resulted in the death of his wife.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

M.A.V.I.S Corporate Logger System.
FILE #001
Selected Personality Type: 'Sassy'

Howdy folks! Well that's the boring stuff out of the way, let's get down to the fun shall we? Jim and Tam were great pals, but it's fair to say that Tam, being clearly a mental, was not so favoured by Mr Bates so when he had a very sensitive task to perform he turned to the lovely young Jim for help!

A special mission you ask? Why, of course! It sounded simple, but these things often do. Take a flight to Rio, meet a girl called 'Isabella' who would give him more details on ... wait for it ... rescuing Mr Bates's wayward brother (Nigel 'Mazzie' Bates) from kidnappers! Go to the favella, hunt him out and radio an Osprey for extraction.

Well, our Jimmy jumped at the chance of course! His job had been so boring up until now. He smiled to himself, thinking of getting back into the action at last.

(G398 09/11/2019 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA61


DAY 460 (6th Kythorn)(June) cont ...

Fenrir and Veddic spent some time fiddling with the AC/DC device and between the two of them managed to figure out a lot of what it could do.

They also talked to Avadeti some more, who dredged up old memories from when he had lived back in his world.

'I remember the wizards that survived with us saying something about how the magical weave of our world had been made back to front.'
When asked about these "wizards" he said;
'Oh, they have all either moved on to other planes or were hunted and killed. A lot of people were very angry with them back in the early days and blamed them for the loss of our world.'

When asked if it had been the device now in their possession that had done it he replied, 'Oh no, not this one. This is just a small device, they were not so uncommon. The one that destroyed the world was much bigger, or so I was told, and when it went wrong it left nothing but a huge crater.'

That evening the spend the night with Avadeti and share food from the supply  crate with him and the other refugees.

DAY 461 (7th Kythorn)(June)

Today the tried using the AC/DC device. They put a shard on the devices plate, one with a picture of a paladin on it. A spell was cast that made them feel much stronger, which was considered a good thing, but after that they could not get any other shard to work.

It appeared that all that was needed to make it work was the casting of any kind of summoning spell on the coil on top of the device, but there seemed to be  quite a lot of fail safes built into it though and after a day of further experimenting they gave up.

They suspected that it was not working due to the hostile nature of the FAMP, but they did come up with some ideas for the next day.

DAY 462 (8th Kythorn)(June)

Today the put the shard in the device that seemed to offer a choice of five colours (Red, Green, Blue, Black and White), but they could not get it to work in the Plane of Shadows.
A message was shown on the obsidian plate that stated such shards could only be used on the 'home plane'.

They carried it through to the FAMP and tried it there.

The wind suddenly stopped and an area of pastural plains popped into being. They could even see small creatures suddenly surprised to be back in business. Insects and birds  flew about, other creatures could be seen. The land they had created seemed to be about a square  mile in size. They could see the howling dust winds at the boundaries, but some magical barrier was holding them back. The air was rich and clean.

Delighted with this, Fenrir popped back to the Plane of Shadows and proudly showed off their handy work. Avadeti seemed very happy that at least a small part of his world had been reclaimed.

The rest of the refugees (eight men, six women and two children) also came through, blinking into the light after a lifetime quite literally in the shadows.

It was much nicer, but not necessarily safer, as an hour or so later two zombies came through the barrier. Fenrir blasted them to bits.
'Well anyway,' mused Fenrir. 'You might not live here, but you could use it as a farm.'

The grateful refugees handed over some shards they had been hoarding, ten in total. They had various pictures on them. One of the women thought a shard had her husband in it.
Fenrir were not so sure she had very good eyesight though - not unless her husband had been a fifteen foot tall ogre.

Instead of risking the ogre, the next shard they tried was of some druid type people around a tree and that was exactly what popped into existence when they used the device.

Nine initially confused, but then very happy druids appeared, along with an oddly shaped tree that they could apparently use to cast skrye spells with.

Next Veddic summoned another square mile of plains, and then a square mile of swampy mire. They formed their new kingdom, if that was what it was, into an L-shaped.

Finally they summoned a woman called 'The Lady of the Mountain'.

She did not speak, but she would write in her own language and Fenrir could understand her letters with one of his magical items.

With their new domain now three square miles in size and numbering 27 souls they set up camp for the night and cooked their evening meal around a warming fire.

(G397 02/11/2019 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA60

(G397 02/11/2019 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA60

DAY 457 (3rd Kythorn)(June) cont ...

Fenrir, Veddic and Milo did not know what to make of the girl. There was no sign, magical or otherwise, of anything untoward, and yet they felt there was something very unnatural about her.

Milo went in and hailed her.
She replied:

''
Late, late yestreen I saw the new Moon'
With the old Moon in her arms
And I fear, I fear, my Master dear!
We shall have a deadly storm.
''

Any other question returned similar cryptic answers.

Fenrir asked, who are you?
'The friend I've mourned with, and the maid', she replied.

There was a chest in the room and when Fenrir went to it, she said,
''
One bee comes over!
And attacks me!
And stings me!
And does mortal damage!
''

Very disturbed and distrusting of this strange soothsayer Fenrir decided to try and drag the chest out of the room by a length of rope - but when they pulled all that came out was the frayed end of the rope!

They decided to move on.

In the next room they were attacked by four more cinderghosts and something that sounded like a liche to me, but that was maybe not so powerful. Sadly thought it was strong enough that, in the confusion and melee Milo was hit twice and the life  was drained from him.

Once the 'ghosts were dispatched Veddic cut off Milo's finger (presumably to be used as part of a Resurrection spell later) - which was a good thing - but then used his Raised Dead spell to animate Milo's poor body!

I don't know how you feel about these things, dear reader, but to my thinking it was not a very nice thing to do to a comrade in arms.

In any event it was close to midnight now, or so the reckoned, so with Milo standing guard, the got some rest.

DAY 458 (4rd Kythorn)(June)

In the large chamber that they were in was a strange device and they spent most  of the day trying to figure out what it was and what it did.

From what I understand it was about the size and weight of a sewing machine, shaped like a  giant microscope, made from brass. It had a plate under the lens about the size of a saucer  and a dial around it that could be turned.
The dial had a brass pointer. On top of the main tube of the device was something that looked like a Tesla coil sticking out of the top of it.
On the side was a hopper, about the size of a soup bowl. There was something like a sooty  residue in it. On the other side, set into the brass casing was a shiny plate of what may  have been obsidian, 12 inches by 4.

They spend the day and night here, resting and recovering. Doing what we adventurous types always do in downtime like this, mending armour, sharpening weapons and talking over old times.

DAY 459 (5th Kythorn)(June)

They left in the morning, taking the strange device with them, stuffed into a bag of holding.

They spent all day wandering around in the dust storm and getting thoroughly lost. Eventually Veddic realised that there was a spell that he could use called 'Find the Path'. He had not memorised it that morning, but as they were in an area of Wild Magic, by luck he was able to cast it anyway.

They arrived at the portal after three in the afternoon, dirty, wet and fed up. Next they returned directly to Spectre Island and were sat having a nice cup of tea with Random by ten.

They talked well into the night, relaying all that they had encountered in the FAMP. Random said he would arrange for Milo's return to the land of the living, but that he doubted he would want to join them again after the way he had been treated. Grudgingly Fenrir also handed over Milo's share of the treasure (up to the point he died of course!) and that was that.

Fenrir, not knowing what the strange device was that they had also recovered offered it to Random, but changed his mind when the cunning tiefling seemed to be rather too happy about it.
'Probably best you keep it for now anyway,' he grumbled.

DAY 460 (6th Kythorn)(June)

The next day they went all the way back to the FAMP portal. Their luck holding, they were not attacked or otherwise molested on the way.

Fenrir talked to Avadeti who told them:

''
It's an "Accumulator Contraption/Discombobulator Contraption". It was a common device once, for drawing magic from the weave and creating shards. Much as a scroll is created with pen  and ink, our wizards would use these to encode our magic. I am not a wizard, so I don't  know how it works.
''

Was this the device that broke your world? asked Fenrir
No, replied Avadeti. That was much bigger, he had never seen it, but he had been told the device that had destroyed his realm had been the size of a temple.

(G396 05/10/2019 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA59

(G396 05/10/2019 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA59

DAY 457 (3rd Kythorn)(June) cont ...

It was hard to keep track of time in the Plane of Shadow, let alone the FAMP, but Fenrir judged it to be late in the afternoon when they entered the portal again. With cloth masks and goggles to keep the dust out of their faces they began to explore a little around the portal.

It was a broken landscape, very hard to traverse. Cliffs and crevasses were everywhere. There way was constantly blocked either by a sheer rock wall, piles of scree, or drop offs into darkness.

They followed a cliff around for a few hundred metres until they saw the jagged outline of some ruins on the horizon in the distance. They could just make out the flickering light of the portal behind them.

Veddice used Stone Shape to create a 10ft stone pillar to act as a marker and they continued through the storm. In the distance they could hear rock falls, as stones and boulders fell from higher places and tumbled down the scree slopes.

Eventually they cautiously entered the ruins, that offered some small shelter from the wind. Here they were attacked by undead, creatures that I will here name as 'hexrot zombies' and 'ash ghosts'.

Veddic made short work of them though, turning or destroying most of them. What he didn't get, Fenrir destroyed with his eldritch blasts. There was work for Milo too as there were chests in some of the rooms, containing treasure and 'shards' which were the equivalent of scrolls on this plane.

The found a set of steps that lead down into a dungeon area and here they fought an 'ash morgh', but again the undead creature was no match for Veddic.

They had more trouble with two 'black horrors'. As best I can make out these were like black puddings but a bit more tentacly.

As they continued exploring they found a room that seemed to have a little girl weeping in the corner. What in all that was good and natural, they wondered, was such a one as her doing in a place like this?

(G395 28/09/2019 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA58

(G395 28/09/2019 via Roll20 - AP, JF(GM)) WA58

[Alas dear reader - we will have to wait a while longer to find out what the hairy belly of fate had in store for me! In the mean time here is some more of Fenrir's adventure in the FAMP (Failed Alternative Material Plane).]

Just a quick re-cap. Fenrir was now the leader of the Magical Arm of the City Watch of Westgate. A role that suited him well.

He was told by Random (the mildly-naughty mastermind the mainly lived on a rocky island five miles north of the port) that the next part of the plan was to get him in charge of the entire Watch. Behind Random was Cavu, the somewhat naive but likeable bard, who in turn was working for Gertrude the White, a very powerful and only occasionally seen Oracle of Illmater.
They wanted Fenrir in a position of power for when they made a move against the vampires that were infesting and trying to take over the city.

Oh - a couple of other things happened since we last checked in on him:

Fenrir was given a seal by the Croamarkh in a swearing in ceremony wore he swore many oaths to protect the city et al.

-

Fenrir chose a new secretary, from a shortlist of three. He selected Mia the Magical who was a goodly soul who was much loved by the watch. He was so impressed with the reputation of Portia Cadger (a halfling rogue) that he also took her on as a 'Special Advisor' - whatever that meant!

-

Just before we had left him Fenrir (DAY 426) was to fight a duel against 'The Bastard of Cormaeril'. However, Random had instructed him to lose it (as Random said they were not in a position to make some very powerful enemies over the matter) and Fenrir grudgingly did so.

-

On day 444 Lady Dreggleblot came to his office, demanding the 'files' on one Arlert Whammyth. For some reason she had been wearing armour and carrying a sword. Her leg had also grown back.

The info (two months old) Fenrir had on Whammyth was that he was a jewel thief, currently hiding out in Teziir. He told her, out of mischief I suppose, that the thief was headed to the Sword Coast.

-

So that's us all caught up!

Anyway - so while I was flapping about the Sword Coast, Fenrir was about to have a change of plan.

DAY 457 (3rd Kythorn)(June)

It all began when Random realised that Fenrir was just too unpredictable to carry out the next part of the scheme - namely to get rid of Hammersong (the current leader of the City Watch) and set Fenrir in his place.

Randim already had a complicated plan to get rid of Hammersong and to knobble all the other likely candidates to replace him, he was just sure that Fenrir would mess it all up somehow.
The warlock was immensely powerful, cunning and charming - but he lacked subtlety. He was stealthy up to a point, but his plans always lacked the days (weeks? months?) of preparation that came easily to Random.

And so, he decided to send Fenrir off on a quest. Far from being a wild goose chase it was actually something that needed done. Not so long ago Fenrir had been sent into the Plane of Shadows to find a portal to a 'FAMP' or rather a 'Failed Alternative Material Plane'. He had done so, but had not yet gone through it.

It was located south of the city of Bonespur, along the Bonebreaker Pass and not far from the "Dark Spire of Ghastly Evil".

When they had talked to Lord Soslow (a mindflayer that lived in Bonespur) he had said:

''
Oh yes, a failed alternative material plane. I don't know the specifics of that particular FAMP, but it will have been destroyed in some horrific and horrible way I should imagine.
There may not even be any land, or air, or anything, so take care. It could have completely evaporated, but from my experience they are usually nothing more (or less) than barren wastelands.
These sorts of places are not so uncommon in the Plane of Shadow. This plane acts as a conduit between the material plane and all sorts of other interesting places. It's one of the reasons I'm based here.
''

In a refugee camp outside the portal they had met an old man called Avadeti who was a former native of the FAMP.

He had, among other things, told them:

''
It is an infinite sorrow that I carry with me, the destruction of my world. We were a world of great power and magic. My people walked the planes, they crafted many wondrous items, they researched a thousand spells. But the arch mages grew too powerful, too bold and too proud. They attempted to build a device that would turn anything into a spell. Put a rabbit in and you got a shard (we used shards to store our spells, they functioned in the same way as scrolls) and you got a spell that summoned a rabbit. Point the device at an ocean and you get a spell that created water. You understand?
Well, the first time the device was used, it didn't turn something into a spell, it turned EVERYTHING into a spell. It stripped the entire top layer of our world off and converted it into shards. Only a few of us survived, I've no idea how. I can never return, I would be turned into a shard, so here I wait.
''

He went on:

''
Don't spend too much time in the Voidlands. Undead lurk in the mists and even just breathing the fetid air will kill you after a while. No one can survive long there, but sometimes, rarely, people come through the gate. Little flecks of habitable land still remain of our world. How to find them I have no idea. Also, it is a world of what the scholars call Wild Magic. Spells will have strange effect unless you are a real master.
''

So, with all that in mind Random dispatched Fenrir and Veddic back to the portal. He also provided them with a cunning rogue called Milo, a young halfling. In the meantime Random would pose as
Fenrir (using his Hat of Disguise), going to his office each day and working his schemes and plots towards his goal of getting a seat at the table in the Merchant Tower.

Fenrir, Veddic and Milo went through the portal on Spectre Island (where Random was based) and arrived in the Plane of Shadows. It took them most of the day to travel to the FAMP portal, but they arrived without incident.

Avadeti was still there and greeted them. Fenrir asked him if he had a chicken.

The warlock then put it in a small cage, tied it to the end of a stick and poked it through the portal. Stick, cage and chicken were wrenched from his gasp and vanished through the portal never to be seen again.

Avadeti informed them very firmly that he had no more chickens so Veddic (being a bit stronger than Fenrir) tried it with a long stick with nothing on it.

I do wonder, you know, such powerful magic users, both of them, and they could come up with no better plan than poking it with a stick!

Well, anyway, after a while they got bored of that and finally decided just to go in.

They stepped through and were nearly swept of their feet by a strong howling wind. As they regained their footing they realised they were choking on dust and thin air. There was hardly anything to breath and they could hardly see either through the dust storm. The wind screamed through their ears and fills your eyes, nose and mouth with dust. Walking without being blown over required great effort and even breathing was virtually impossible.

Choking and coughing they returned to the Plane of Shadows.