Out for Mushrooms

GM: Elena
Players: Aruka, Elena
Synopsis: The runners are hired to get some Mushrooms. Sounds easy, neh?
Date: Juli 6th 2071


It was a warm summer day and though the call from Heling, her Talismonger contact, was not unexpected, the reason for it was. The man in all seriousness was asking her to collect a kind of Mushrooms. In summer. Now she was not expert in that kind of plants, but she knew summer was not usually the best time for them. All started to make reason when the man told her that these special mushrooms where growing deep in the Ute parts of the Rockies. So this would be a trip of at least a few hours to get by car to the hunting grounds. Sitting with Aruka in the Redrock as the call arrived she looked over and asked, "Well, would you be interested in harvesting Mushrooms in the Rockies? Seems my contact is out of 'herbal' materials for his talismongering."

The taller woman that was Aruka raises a brow as she mentally goes over what she had going on for herself today, pondering for only a moment before she nods. "Yeah, sure. I don't mind a trip to help out. Can't say I've really explored a lot of the Rockies yet of course but it could be interesting."

Elena nods, "Okay, then…", she says and speaks into the Microphone. "He offers us 20K for 20 very rare mushrooms that currently are having their reproductive cycle. Aka, they will have visible mushroom bodies that poke up from the rocks the main fungus is living in. This is the only time of the year it can be harvested and Heling is a bit … Well, old, so he prefers not to make the trip in person. I have coordinates and all we need to find some halfway decent harvest grounds. Have you ever collected magic ingredients?", she then asks the other.

Aruka waves a hand and sighs, "I've watched a few people doing that kind of gathering before but I haven't ever tried my hand at it before, no. I will happily watch your back and hold whatever you want me to hold however. If nothing else I'm wonderful company."

It is lucky that Elena's van is standing right outside the diner. She smiles at her companion, then nods, "Okay, so I will do the searching and you will have to do overwatch.", she then says. "Just be aware out there things are rougher than in town. But I think you mentioned having some wilderness skills, so we should be good."
With that she leads you out of the diner and the ride drives towards the Border to the Ute lands, where a little border post is waiting for them.

Aruka makes small talk onthe way out there, "Well it was more that I was dumpped in a desert and didn't die more then anything hun, hehe." Good thing she'd brought what little she owned with her pretty much everywhere.

The border check is quick and … inefficient, as it proves that both fake SIN as well as hidden gun are not found out. Not that it would have been easy for the poor guards to do that with the limitations they work on. So the two pass the border and an hours long ride starts while they pass the grandiose Panorama of the Rockies. Still, busy exchanging all kinds of gossip and the different experiences in magic the two have they will most likely easily pass that time. The car will be on manual control as they finally stop in an quite mountainous area. A small side valley with mountains left and right rising quite steeply. Elena, looking up one of the slopes says, "Well, that's gonna be a challenge climbing alone… How good are you at that?", she asks Aruka.

Aruka whistles softly as if she were quite impressed at all the hard work the mountains had done getting to be like this. "Well I've done climbing before and being a bit taller is usually helpful when it comes to reach. I don't have any kind of harnesses or gear or things like that though. How about you? do this a lot?"

Elena shrugs, "Well, I got my little cheat with this…", she says making a fingerwiggling movement. "It's sometimes helpfull to overcome physical limitations with those you have a strength in…"

Aruka 's grin only get wider, "Well if you'd rather we could always go up flying, but I don't know what kind of things are wodnering about out here and some times things get kind of hungry gazing at the astral auras of spells. Not that it seems like anything too bad is going on, we haven't been mauled by anything yet."

Elena nods, "Well, do you have the spell?", she then asks. "I doubt we will find anything too spell hungry out here…"

There was a shift in Aruka as she gets a bit more business like, "I'm good for levitating, hiding, deflecting things, disguises and nets for the most part. I can do transformations as well if need be." Then she sets about scanning through the windshields causiously, "Anything else is a bit beyond what I've learned up to this point. Like I said, no flashy stuff."

Elena laughs, "Well, the levitation /is/ flashy stuff…", she says, then she gets out of the car, locking it behind Aruka as the other is out. "Well, let's get us some company and then fly up there…"


Aruka steps out of the car and tugs her long coat more tightly about herself to ward off the normal chill you'd expect from the rockies. she takes a few moments to go over her equipment, making sure her pistol was where she wanted it to be and the like before she begins to focus on being more resiliant to gravity.

Elena whispers some words in latin, conjuring up one of the areas Mountain Spirits, pleading for it's assistance in this potentially dangerous area and soon the thing will appear in the shape of a large 'rock man' beside her on the astral plane. Elena thanks it to appear and then asks it, "Mountain man, I beg you to keep me and my friend save from the hazards that may befall one who travels the mountains. Keep rocks slides and other dangers away from us." Then she too summons the mystical energies as and starts to floats upwards along the mountainside.

There were no subtle shifts of air or little swirls of magic in Aruka's spell. She simply wills herself to move upwards and that's the way she goes. she could have easily done the same to a log or rock, heck maybe even the car they'd come in if she'd tried hard enough. She glances back at you with a bit of a smile, waiting for you to lead the way as she sets about pushing a bit of her magic outwards to ward off any threatening spells that might approach.


As the two float up the mountainside, Elena notes something odd and only her reacting quick enough and calling out, "Aruka, there is something there allows the other girl to prevent getting hit unawares, as an Gargoyle that seems to live in this area launches a rally huge rock her way.

It was a big rock, aimed right at her while she was just hovering in place but through quick movements and a bit of luck Aruka managed to avoid taking most of the damage, her body spinning in the air for a moment until she can right herself again with a growl. That one she was going to feel in the morning…

Elena gasps as she sees that rock hurling her and Aruka's way. She is luckily not in the full path of the things rock and has a much easier time to dodge it, consequently she manages to be out of the way of that rock which hit Aruka she called out, "Aruka!", but then the rock had passed them, showing that Aruka had been lucky enough to avoid the worst.

Aruka floats upwards as fast as she can while reaching behind her to draw out the Fichetti Security 500 that she'd managed to get off one of her contacts. It'd be an amazing shot to make even with her smartlink given the terrain and the natural camoflage of the Gargoyle, so she chooses to keep hustling upwards and hopefully out of the range of any more rocks.

The gargoyle rises and attacks Elena with some fury as it sees she spoiled it's sure prey. Also the shaman might look good enough as prey as well, the gargoyle is not really choosey. Thing is … Elena proves to be much more agile than the beast thought it's claws and wings missing it's 'victim' again and again.

Elena smiles and places a hand on your wound, "Only if I get angry…", she says and the mask on her face intensifies a little bit, this time the gentle unicorn with it's horn glowing softly. She removes her hand and your damage is gone. "Not a bad reaction you had there.", she says to you, then. I was afraid that your time to meet the mother had come."

Aruka blushes a bit as she feels her body starting to recover quickly from the light bruising she'd taken from the first rock. "Well I'm pretty good at surviving if nothing else hun, thank for for the healing." She srifts around a little, trying to hold still in space. "So shall we continue then if we're not going to make sure it's dead?"

Elena then looks down on the unconcious and from the fall badly battered beast, if it wasn't such a stable creature it most likely would have been dead from such a fall, and she says, "No, I doubt it will trouble us again. Any creature of the mother will usually lick it's wounds after such a blow. And it most likely knows we're no prey now. I am no friend of needless killing." Lets go ahead and get the fungi.

Aruka blinks a few times and ponders what your talking about as she'd asked if we should continue, but shrugs and seems to udnerstadn that she was misheard some how. So she turns and starts to continue along the path we were going. Pistol out this time, "I've got qualms about that Elena. Either way let's get those mushrooms before we run into anthing else."
Elena nods and floats ahead. Up the mountainside, occasionally checking her GPS for the coordinates given by Heling.

Aruka seems to be a bit more in Overwatch mode then she had initially been. It's always easy to get a bit lax when it seems like you shouldn't run into more then jsut a few birds or an angry squirrel.

Mountains are known for quick changes in their weather patterns and this mountain is no exception. The first signs are faint, but the two women quickly note that there is a storm brewing. Elena starts to look out for a suitable hideout to avoid getting smashed in evil winds.

Aruka whistles softly as indeed the weather looks to be changing. She glances around the area trying to get a sense if it was near any type of shelter she might know about that the smugglers around Denver use from time to time. She'd seen a few maps and had been doing a good amount of research on things…

Elena finally sets her searching gaze on a suitable looking spot, a small cave at an deep falling cliff. She carefully approaches the place. After all in this time and age there might be more than a few birds in such a cave… The wind already picking up in force.

Aruka tugs her coat more tightly around herself with one hand and keeps her pistol ready to be used if need be, following along slowly behind you. "Think that'll be alright for a little while Elena?"

Elena nods, "It should be. We'll give it a quick investigation tough… There is some nasty things around… Well, who am I telling this…"

It was Lucky the two were carefull as they appraoched that cave, as two harpies flew towards them angry cries on their lips as the two women approached.


The Harpies are attacking both Elena and Aruka, but once again Elena can avoid that onslaught. She escapes to the side at the /very/ last moment to prevent getting hit by the beast. She then turns to once again center her attention on the beast her shamanic mask glowing angry again.

Aruka is getting really damn tired of gettign slashed at with claws and hit with rocks so she throws up some of her natural defenses. Assuming magic was natural. A glowing golden armor springs up around her, covering her how a knight might have been back in the middle ages, the light glowing and illuminating the area around her. She feels the little twinge of pain as she suffers some backlash from the spell.

The gargoyle suddenly goes limp and falls into the deep. Elena groans as she again feels an ache run through her body from the backlash, "This is getting a strenuous trip, she says."

Aruka is floating, hurt, angry and just watched Elena get clawed at. Not only that but she's got that aweful feeling that she's getting some kind of cold or something. So when her targeting system locks onto that other harpy's head she only mutters a little, "Yippie Kai Yay motherfucker." before pulling the trigger. Technology and her focus and anger put a slut right in that damn leathery thing's head! Not enough to kill it unfortunately…

Elena finishes that harpy off, but she pays a toll for it, as her nose starts to bleed from the backlash, "Fucking beasts…", she mutters.

Aruka pants softly and shifts, moving to help you into the hopefully now vacated cave and get you resting on the floor where she can take a look at you. Of course she doesn't have a first aid kit…

After that the young shaman was floating into the cave and dropped her levitation spell. She next took out the Medkit in her backpack and spread it out to help with her wounds.

After trying to heal her wounds the usual way, Elena finally uses her magic. It heals most of her wounds, just leaving some minor scratches.
She will get quite drained though. Her nose bleeding again.

Aruka settles back next to you on the floor and sighs softly, "Ugh, I really hope that your contant does something worth while with these mushrooms we're supposed to be looking for after all this trouble." Yeah, getting infected with VITAS-3 had damn well pay out. Not that she knows that yet of course. "You relax there for a bit alright Elena?"

Elena nods, "Can you deal with your stuff?", she then asks.

Aruka checks her pistol for a moment and smiles at you, a bit tired. "Well if I could borrow a couple of bandages out of your medkit it'd be nice."

The rest of the work is mercifully easy, as the two mages emerge from the cave after the quick storm ebbed off, using that time for some well needed rest the two find the place Heling had outlined to them easily.
After collecting the required 20 and a few more, though leaving enough that they will regrow here, the two float down the mountain without problem.

Elena had remembered that Harpies might carry infections and such she urges Aruka to check that out and luckily they are both not infected with any new kind of virus. Though it would be expensive to get the treatment. Elena mentions this with Heling and the Talismonger agrees to pay the treatment in addition to the fee owed for the work.
Elena declines pay, though, other than the treatment, telling him she wants to give him this as a token of friendship.

The End

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