Sandman 2
Date & Time: Sunday, December 18, 2022 11:30 AM Players 3-5 Mission Type: Data steal, Foundation Run Expected Length: 3-5 hours Venue: roll20, Theater of the Mind Challenge level: High
With the entropic sprite, Sandman on the loose, Mr Johnson is looking for a group of runners to go and hunt down its source code in the hopes that it can be decompiled and banished back into the dissonant realms. But challenging a powerful entropic sprite is difficult enough, let alone in its home base. Are you brave enough to go under?
Disclaimer: While it isn't strictly necessary to be a hacker in this run, having some player knowledge about decking, hosts and Foundation Run will be needed. HnS pg 133
Threat Level: Medium
The Big Bad Wolf
So, remember that twisted sprite I mentioned last time? That was the Sandman, and our primary mission was to find its source code and bring it to a representative of Summer_Knights so they could destroy the sprite once and for all. Smogg's contact gave us a secondary mission: find and extract "Miss J" from the foundation of the host she was in. "Holy drek, those two things were related!?" said no-one in the history of metahumankind.
The thing about host foundations is this: when you enter one, you ... OK, imagine you're watching a trid series or playing a Matrix game and your chummer says to you "Imagine what it'd be like to be one of the characters." You with me so far? Now, imagine you have to be in that series' world as one of the characters and the world around you is watching your every move to make sure you stay in character. That's what being in a host foundation is like. As for what kind of trid series you're in? Ghost only knows until you actually get in there.
On this occasion, it was a series set in a high school from the Fifth World. With it being the last day of school before Summer vacation, this week's episode must have been the season finale. Starring Ivory as the jock, Smogg as the preppie, Polaris as the goth, and yours truly as the nerd. With special guest star Miss J as the math teacher. We acted out our roles while we tried to find which role was being played by Sandman.
(Continued below) The Big Bad Wolf — 12/18/2022 6:34 PM Ivory and I set up a situation where he "bullied" me and got both of us sent to the principal's office, although it didn't seem like the principal was there. So I picked the lock on the door to the office, went inside, and saw the principal's secretary. When she asked me what was wrong, I played along at first, but it wasn't long before the secretary broke character. And started sprouting fingers from her fingers. No prizes for guessing her true identity.
Thankfully, the other guys were able to discorporate Sandman while I tried to keep the school from suspecting us of anything. We then went to the teachers' lounge to convince Miss J to come away with us and, after a lot of convincing, she agreed. Unfortunately, just as we started trying to leave, the vice principal showed up and demanded to know what four students were doing in the teachers' lounge. We tried to provide a cover story but I'm not sure he was buying it. The school itself certainly wasn't.
Yes, I did say "itself" - the weather was nice and sunny when we arrived, but as we left the building, it turned dark and stormy. The rain came down so hard, I couldn't even see the gate where we had to leave through! The teachers were after us and, despite our best efforts at covering our tracks and running as fast as we could, they caught up to us as we shook and banged on the chain link fence, desperately trying to find the exit!
I don't really know how we made it out of there in the end. I just kept pushing against the fence, my eyes squeezed shut, and then somehow I was back in our world. Did the exit suddenly make itself known just for me? Did I somehow make a new exit? I don't know, but I can't rely on that kind of miracle happening again.
We got Miss J over to Smogg's contact, we got Sandman's source code over to the Summer_Knights guy, and I am getting my hoop over to the nearest bar because I need a fraggin' drink or ten!