Escalators Go Up

Our adventure began in an Overwatch safehouse. The team was informed that they would need to take Mr. A (now that I know how to spell his name, we’ll call him Aneki) into the arcology with them so that he could enter the kill codes for DEUS. Overwatch suggested that the team take advantage of Seattle’s illustrious and exclusive orc underground to gain entrance to the arcology and, due to an incoming military offensive within the arcology, recommended that the runners get their crap together and head in quickly.

As the runners went about their days, gathering supplies, thinking through plans, buying massive amounts of grenades, things started to get weird. Fixers that had been cooperative in the past started to get antsy and backed out of deals. Rhineholt got home one day to discover that his house had been broken into, and all three runners got the odd feeling that someone was watching them.

On The Day, the runners - accompanied by Ronin, Dodger, and Aneki - found themselves being escorted through the elegant and awe-inspiring Orc Underground by Tholm the troll and Slant the orc. Upon slipping through a manhole into The Underground, the runners discovered that it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. In fact, the tunnels were really pretty gross (like you’d expect from a tunnel, if we’re honest). After traipsing through the tunnels for a good bit, Tholm and Slant left the team at the entrance to a freshly-dug, well-lit tunnel, telling them that the tunnel lead to level B4, and that any signs of a fight would trigger an emergency (and quite permanent) closing of the tunnel.

After dropping through a hole in the ceiling into the corner of an underground parking garage, the runners were met by the sight of Medusa drones chasing terrified soldiers through the parking garage. The runners dove behind some nearby cars, hoping to avoid the scuffle. In her hurry to save her own behind, Pary bumped into poor unsuspecting Ronin, who stumbled out of cover and into the path of the oncoming drones. The drones, shocked and slightly embarrassed at the sight of Ronin in the open, turned their attention towards the team.

Medusa One (MO) leaped at the car sheltering the runners, crushing in the side and shattering glass from the windows. Medusa Two (MT) vaulted onto the top of the car and reached out for Clem with dual scorpion tails. Completely distracted by the sight of the beauteous creature before her (or something), MT missed completely. Clem grabbed her (its?) tail as it swung past and shot it (her?) with his SMG. MT, spraying fluid from various places, reared back in rage as MO scrambled around the side of the car and snapped menacingly at Rhineholt with its arms. Pary pulled out her shotgun and shot MT, who retaliated by lunging forward to snap at her. Pary dodged out of the way, and Clem took another shot at MT, destroying the drone. Meanwhile, MO whipped her tail forward to grab Rhineholt, who dodged the attack like a pro. Clem, who apparently has this thing about shooting things while they’re distracted, shot at MO and finished it off.

Having fought off the immediate danger, the runners turned their attention to the rest of the parking garage, where two soldiers were still fighting off (more or less), a couple Manta drones. (To be more accurate, one soldier was fleeing a Manta, and the other one had already lost.) Clem shot down the pursuing Manta, and the fleeing soldier asked the team for helping reconnecting with the other soldiers. The runners agreed on the condition that he would help them sneak past the other military forces. After a bit of hesitation, the soldier agreed, and the runners (plus Ronin, Dodger, and Aneki, who have done nothing useful up to this point) set off into the arcology.

Not far into the arcology, the runners and their guide spot some soldiers patrolling in front of a stairway. Soldier Fren bid the team a tearful adieu (not really) and led his buddies down an adjacent hallway (or something), so that the runners could sneak up the stairs and away into the upper floors of Renraku.

As the runners ascended, the extent of the chaos that had overtaken the Renraku arcology became apparent. Death and destruction reigned on most floors. More than once, the runners rounded a corner to be met with piles of decaying corpses. Other floors were spotless, apparently untouched by the madness that had been unleashed.

Upon reaching the end of a staircase on the 40th floor, the runners were creeping along down an abandoned hallway, innocently looking for the next available stairway, when they noticed some skittering sounds from up ahead of them. As they proceeded down the hallway, they could hear the skittering getting closer but couldn’t detect a visible threat.

The lights went out as the runners reached the halfway point of the hall. At the end of the hall, they could just make out a glass double door. The team rushed to the door only to find it locked. The skittering was getting closer. Rhineholt leaned against the glass and peered down, allowing him to use magic fingers on the push bar on the other side of the door. After a few minutes of intense concentration, the door suddenly swung open, bloodying Rhineholt’s nose and knocking him backwards into Ronin (that poor guy). There was a moment of ominous silence followed by a loud skittering and the sound of alarms.

The team bolted through the open door, letting it slam shut behind them. The area before them was cold, dark, and foreboding. They found themselves standing in what appeared to be a large common area, surrounded by apartment doors. Wandering the hallways at random, they eventually found themselves on the first floor of a shopping mall. Pary, hoping that Aneki was having a lucid moment, asked him for directions. Aneki’s eyes brightened for a few moments, and he rambled on about all the amenities available to those who lived and worked in the arcology, then pointed out that there were elevators at the top of the escalators to the left. Clem asked (as nicely as a barbarian can) for further directions, and Aneki shut back down, mumbling something that sounded like “Escalators go up…”

The team stealthily started up the escalators, but pulled up short at the sound of murmuring voices. The sound was vaguely humanoid, but there was just something a little off. Pary (with that familiar mad gleam in her eye), lit up her flamethrower (you know, just in case), and the team continued upward.

At the top of the escalator, the team found themselves at the edge of what had once been a standard mall food court. Instead of being met by the sight of people eating and the deliciously disgusting smell of mall food, they were met by a group of figures in ragged clothing huddling around a table, presumably feasting on whatever they surrounded. Pary, realizing that the creatures in front of them were ghouls and that there weren’t that many of them, lit the whole group on fire. The flaming ghouls screeched and ran away, and Pary felt pretty darn proud of herself.

For a moment.

As the screeching of the ghouls faded away, it was replaced by a rumbling murmur, which was followed by the sight of ghouls swarming in from every edge of the food court. The now-outnumbered team darted towards the elevators. Clem immediately began to pry the doors open while Rhineholt and Pary assumed positions to provide cover fire. Rhineholt tossed an incendiary grenade into the oncoming wave of ghouls; it skittered into a table before bouncing into the ghouls. The explosion lit the ghouls closest to the grenade on fire, but more ghouls continued on, streaming around their burning allies.

Clem managed to pop open the left door to the elevator. On the other side of the door, he found an empty elevator shaft with a maintenance ladder attached to the right hand side of the shaft. Realizing that the ladder was unreachable until the right side door was open, he turned his attention to the other door. Meanwhile, Rhineholt lobbed another incendiary grenade into the mass of ghouls, starting a fire that spread from ghoul to ghoul. At this point, the ghouls (bright creatures that they were) decided that their chances might be better if they stopped coming in one massive drove, so they drew back a bit to start flanking the runners.

Clem pulled open the other elevator door and helped Ronin, Dodger, Aneki, and Rhineholt onto the ladder while Pary provided cover fire courtesy of the flamethrower. Clem pulled Pary away from a pyromaniac’s wildest dream to put her on the ladder beneath Rhineholt, then jumped for the ladder himself. As he swung into position on the ladder, the first of the ghouls reached the elevator door and dramatically plummeted down the elevator shaft. Clem hurled an incendiary grenade back into the group of ghouls before following his teammates up the ladder. The runner’s way higher into the arcology was lit only by the flaming waterfall of ghouls below.