Who here genuinely felt bad for Feuerschwinge (The Firewing) in Dragonfall? I did.
For those not quite understanding, here's the deal. The whole game, you assume that the dragon of the Dragonfall incident (in which the dragon burnt up half of Germany in a massive rage) had taken the so-titled Dragonslayer, Vauclair, captive...when it's the other way around. Vauclair has Firewing's still-living body and her spirit - currently inhabiting a young woman - locked in a facility, preparing a Doom virus applicable to dracoforms exclusively to use on the Firewing's body...so that the dragon may be remotely controlled to raze Germany AGAIN in order to spread the disease right. Now, whether you fight Vauclair or you convince him not to go through with this (assuming you don't sympathize with him), in the end you have the chance to see things from Firewing's perspective IF you can assense powerfully enough.
Firewing, one of the Great Dragons, is one of the most magically-sensitive beings on the planet, heavily tuned to nature, even on a level greater than her peers (like Dunkelzahn, Lofwyr, and so on). She lives to keep the splendor of The Green (Nature) strong. And after her millenias-long rest, she awoke to see the human industry plodding along as it does, which she felt in the entirety of her senses and effectively screamed "MY GOD, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!", except it was expressed in the roar of a giant dragon bursting to the gills with rage and sorrow. Firewing is essentially an eco-terrorist who went mad with grief at seeing the world as it is in Shadowrun-verse.
So, they hit her with a highly-experimental missle that separated her from her body for years, traumatizing her very spirit as it came to possess a woman while the body lay dormant. Of course, Vauclair's men eventually found both because the Dragonslayer was a bit obsessed with her and the destruction of dragons. So, she's losing her mind even further over the course of years after all this, locked away in an underground facility. They broke a dragon, and one that is not a manipulative or controlling sort like most others. It's worse that they were using her body as a weapon, but even after you win, there's a really sad moment where Firewing is horrified that her body's had remote control prosthetics drilled into her scaley flesh.
I felt really bad. This is aside from the fact that my characters officially voted Dunkelzahn into office in head-canon. There's alot of bad things in Shadowrun, inhuman things going on. It IS a bad place, but the dragons are neither good nor evil, and they are necessary, as players of The Dead Man Switch (or people who know what higher mana levels bring) would know. Firewing torched a country full of people. I think the torment she received in return was enough. I told her the world wasn't ALL bad, I let her go, and I blew up the facility afterwards.
And that is why I have Lofwyr contracts.
On a second not about Dragonfall, Glory's story was also frankly shocking. I had heard of the Horned God, but I never really looked into it until I heard her story went "Oh shit, the Devil is REAL in Shadowrun.". I was glad to be a shaman, helping her out to take out the place in her side-mission. Honestly, I enjoyed them all, but Glory's was definitely a heartstrings-plucker.
And the Hong Kong story? The story itself is a genuinely dramatic situation, coupled with all of the Shadowrun hijinx that can happen normally. You're stuck in China because your adopted father sent for you...but you've been set up for a crime and people killed all around you. You're near the Walled City, a place that is exuding and focusing more negative energy than the apartment building that summoned Gozer...to about the same effect. Your father is MISSING and CONNECTED somehow, you're forced into the shadows, and life is just hell until you can put the pieces back together with the help of a ruthless crime boss. This is good story, and it's equally good that theextended chapter gave you the chance to return to your old life or embrace your new life.
