| So who are these Jokers? |
| The Riders were never meant to be taken on, not frontally. They're what Shadowrun Companion Calls "superior" NPCs...they're better than you, they know more than you, and in the Rider's case, they've got backing most mercenary teams would blow in their pants over. They're plot devices, not NPCs you wanna screw with and try to beat. I dont think anyone except Morganna will ever know the full story behind the Riders, but I believe they're both involved with the CAS government, probably Aztech or Willmington Corporations, and maybe even the Bug Spirits. The Riders made their biggest effect in recent history during the Blight Blockade. Part of a massive Mega plot, affecting the whole eastern seaboard and MidWest UCAS, the Riders came in and levelled a Knight Errant Precinct office to buy them the cover they needed to crack an extremely well guarded item...a magical item or two, a Sceptre believed to belong to Moses, and the Armour of God, which was something to do with Jericho i think, I'm no theologian. These were biblical and massivley powerful. So KE, and by default, Ares, decided due to whatever reason (Part of the plot i dont know about) that the Riders had gone into the Blight. So they locked it down...and I mean locked it down good. PCs were trapped on one side of the wall or the other. Many made runs in trying to get things across. The fire of Auburn burnt huge tracts of the Blight to the ground as the water was shut of...gangers turned into Warlords, and anyone who could get water and food in become local gods. Meanwhile, shit was going down big time. Bugs were popping up. BlightMan, a dragon who posed as a helper of humanity, was around, and Big Things were happening. Damien Knight was missing, replaced with a meat puppet. Not all the PCs could keep up with this plot, many just hung on. Far more bitched and Moaned. In the end, Damien Knight (the real one) was rescued, PCs were rewarded, and the blight slowly returned to normal...in a way. The problem was, all the PCs knew it was the Rider's fault. Now, these NPCs are tough and mean, and sense would say you dont spit in their faces when they wandered into the bar. But, when it comes to NPCs, PCs rarely use common sense. Eventually, Whisper was killed...about 3 times in 3 seperate locations before we THINK the PCs finally got her. But A lot of collateral damage occured in the same time. So lets skip forward. Whisper is dead, leaving Ares the defunct front man. Ares, the god of War (Literally) was not a nice fellow who i believe boredred on an Ivan (Read : Deltaware experimental Aztech cyberzombie nasty thing), walks into the Barricade. Light chatter ensues. One PC in particular, stands up and insults Ares the man eating cyberpsycho. My PC, who was in the bar trying to get into Ares's good books, knew what was coming and got the hell away. The scene was set. The Riders were outside. The PC wasnt backing down. Then...Then...Morganna blinked first. |