Runners
Aleiron Grey
Butter
Eion Smash
Three Card
Watt Tinbo
Yanko Lazer
Grackle
Blue

The team does some digging on who’s after them and finds that Jenny has been tortured and/or BTL’ed to death, seemingly having been swept up by the folks looking for them and sold at an illicit auction, which they heard rumors of but did not investigate. Butter mourns, but decides to feed her remains to Eion, who has transformed into a gnawer after getting tons of ghoul blood in his radiation wounds. Squeamish guided his transformation (and ran some experiments) to maintain his sentience. However, Eion is now terrifyingly strong and seems crazier than normal. A problem…

Conferring with Annie, the team decides to flee the city for a while (Annie thinks things should clear up after the election a bit), and do some work in Denver, where Annie says they can strike back at some of Brackhaven’s allies, as both the Human Nation and Flaming Sword are very active, and it seems like FS elements within the Metroplex Guard are likely behind the assassination attempts on the team. Another hit squad almost takes out 3 Card while the team splits up an flees the safehouse, but Blue doubles back and saves her, before going into hiding with the Reality Hackers.

They warn Riot and Hans Yolo about potential repurcussions, and pay up front to keep the safehouse for a bit while they’re out of town. They decide to fake their own deaths to throw Brackhaven off their trail, and arrange to smuggle out to Denver with a small-time T-bird operation run by Blackhawk and Osprey. They get a connection to a meta/eco friendly AA corp called Sierra Corp through Jamaal Quigley, and the corp seems to like the team due to their beef with Brackhaven, and agrees to generate new SINs for the team to travel under. They transfer payment and arrange delivery via a data courier named Mango Chutney.

To generate the funds, they arrange a sale of their tarot 8’s info, bringing Annie in to not piss her off, with an AI named Orior, who seems to be the entity that has been hiring Grackle for odd jobs, as well as monitoring Tyrese and Blue (who had their contact from MotherFather). Orior also offers to help with their escape from Seattle, and says they have contacts in Denver that could be helpful if the team proves cooperative. The team arranges to extract some data (and gather up some wimp clones to use for their fake deaths) from an EVO facility in Snohomish, after which Squeamish will use bio-matter from the team to camouflage the wimps as them.

They call in their favor with Dana Oaks to get her to collect and verify ID on the bodies after they stage the incident. They arrange to steal a boat from one of Trailblazer’s subordinates (who she wants to punish slightly), and plan to stuff it with explosives and “die” in a massive explosion following a shootout with EVO security. After they get this all lined up, they plan the run itself. Checking ShadowSEA, they find some sidejobs and accept a few, including one that will help them access the facility. A disgruntled scientist who has ethical concerns about the data she can see, and wants someone to dig further and get info out.

Orior says they also want access to the facility, and will help with the matrix end of things, distracting the onsite spider while the team does their biz. The team gets an ID card from the scientist (of a colleague on vacation that she doesn’t like), and manages to sneakily plant Orior (or an instance of them at least) on the scientist’s commlink, to get them into the facility secretly. The team plans an entry, and hijacks and EVO supply truck, ko’ing the guards and hiding them in a supply crate.

They get to the facility and Orior seems to be doing their job, as their truck and disguises pass scrutiny and all the cameras seem to be ignoring them. They KO a few more guards, and smuggle Eion and Yanko into the lower levels inside a crate full of meatfeed. Aleiron and Butter start a distraction outside by freeing a cage full of test primates, but come under attack from security warforms. Grackle keeps and eye on the truck and exfil route. 3 Card and Wat get into the first floor lab and bluff their way into getting the 2/3rds of the info they owe Squeamish.

Wat and 3C run into some trouble and try to sneak further down, but get ko’ed by a gas attack (after 3C breaks protocol by killing 2 scientists). Aleiron and Butter disguise Butter as a manager (who they KO) to get past the now active onsite security, who are fighting the primate outbreak, and gain access to the medical facilities on a lower level. However, they are shunted down to the sub-basement after they find the basement in lockdown.

Eion and Yanko pop out of their meat crate once they feel themselves stop moving, and find themselves in a grotesque subbasement lab. 2 armored guards with shockprods attack them and they quickly kill them, also breaking protocol. They then fight/survive 2 grenades, 2 auto-turrets, and 8 experimental warforms, which seeming to be terrifying human/primate merges amped up with implant tech. Butter and Aleiron arrive to assist, and the whole team is heavily inured or KO’ed during the fight.

Meanwhile, 3C and Wat wake up strapped to tables in a clean basement lab. A researcher named Suheyl Alfredo chides them for slaying his interns but says they look like promising test subjects. 3C desperately negotiates to save their lives, and manages to convince Alfredo they’re more useful alive. Alfredo says he’s going to implant them with an experiment based on Monad work from Mars, and that they will provide monthly updates. He makes them heat and cold resistant, but says there will likely be some unexpected morphogenic consequences.

He also says he needs them to descend a level and kill or permanently damage his colleague, who is blocking his promotion. They agree, and he overrides the level lockdown to send them down. They emerge and help the rest of the team clean up the warforms, and then break into the secure office and kill the lab manager as requested. They also find the 3rd piece of data they need for Squeamish. They grab some medical supplies and find the wimps and head back upstairs. They get into a brutal gun and grenade fight with a guard on the way to the truck, and are in trouble til Grackle sneaks up and saves the day.

They get to the truck but some of the wimps are damaged and the team is crashing bad from drugs. Yanko and Grackle drive while Aleiron tries to stabilize everyone in the back. Wat and Eion both flatline before they can reach a medic, but Trickster’s Daughter manages to stabilize them in time to prevent death, though Eion’s brief braindeath makes him a bit more pliable (TD refuses to allow a gnawer into her clinic, so he goes with Squid from the 162’s). Wat is permanently deaf, hearing a blood roar from kamikaze overdose forever. He’s sad he can’t hear ADA bark.

The rest of the team heals up while Aleiron and Grackle help Squeamish set up the fake death. They sell him the 3 undamaged wimps to pay for travel, medical, and getting set up in Denver, and use the 7 damaged ones to present as themselves. They steal the boat, and Butter remote pilots it. Grackle helps rig the charge for it, and Squeamish uses his alchemical talents to sprinkle the wimps with the team’s bio-signs. They call EVO security and Knight Errant to tip them off to wanted runners trying to escape Puget Sound on a smuggler boat with a load of EVO tech and data, triggering a chase and shootout, followed by the planned massive explosion. EVO clears out after verifying their tech isn’t there, and KE claims jurisdiction, allowing Oaks to ID the bodies as planned. They burn their FBI-provided SIN’s.

Heading to Izzy Heidelberger’s remote farm in Snohomish, the team all sneaks overland from individually to avoid attention. Tyrese shoots (and maybe kills) a random civilian who spots Butter. Butter gives Hans Yolo admin access to his car while he’s gone. Izzy seems as forgetful as advertised. The T-bird smugglers load them up, locking them in back after realizing Eion’s condition, and they take off. They leave the bay door open for a bit, and the team sees the light of Seattle dimming as they skim off towards the mountains. For most of the team this is their first time out of the city, and they prepare for a long flight to Denver…

Runners
Aleiron Grey
Butter
Eion Smash
Three Card
Watt Tinbo
Yanko Lazer
Grackle
Blue

The team completes their work paying back Imaginary Annie Goldsmith by sabotaging one final candidates press conference in Puyallup by instigating a gang brawl, revealing that the politician was bribing local gangers to act as out-of-uniform security. They barely escape intact, but make a clean getaway. They also call on Izidor Kurtlanik to get some last minute bonus info on the hardest candidate to investigate, Corinne Potter. They find out she is likely a Dawkins Group plant (or similar), and pass the info along. Annie warns them to be careful- DG is nothing to fuck with. She also says she will warn the others that they’ve collaborated with, and declares them square. She also leverages her new influence to better personal connections in Seattle which can only help the team.

They have a party to celebrate after they all heal up, and are feeling pretty good for a moment, until they notice Eion is missing. He had a weird dream of Glow City and headed there. Encountering some Halloweeners, including their leader Nightmare, he followed them to the melted reactor at the center of GC, Nightmare occasionally seeming to beckon him on. He found a terrible shrine of mutation there, and witnessed the Weeners seemingly experimenting on locals and releasing mutants after their experiments. He also accepted assistance from a strange new magical force, and his mentor spirit became Mutation. Though still irradiated, he insisted on heading back to the safehouse to spread this new power to his “family”, as he gained new abilities in his transformation.

This is a problem for the rest of the team, who make him go hang out in the junkyard til he’s no longer emitting radiation. This kills one of his pet bandits but makes the other stronger. So it works? Aleiron also receives warning from Kurtlanik about a new cult in town, seemingly with some Amazonian ties, called “The Suffering.” She does some research but can’t find much, other than that they worship “She Who Thrives Beneath the Rot.” The team also grabs the 2 feral ghouls, Eion having traded another body to Squid and the 162’s. They go to Squeamish, and get well paid. He impresses Eion by explaining that his experiment is to see if rumors are true that infected cannibalization boosts their powers, so he’s going to make one eat the other and see what happens. This fits perfectly with Eion’s dark Darwinism, and he also sells Squeamish some reagents from GC.

The rest of the team is increasingly concerned about this, especially given that Yanko gets more creepy warnings from Cobra, the prophecy child, about his future (or lack thereof), and the whole team is warned by Annie that someone has been throwing money around looking for info on them. They find out that there is a private “alive or dead” bounty on them currently, offerer unknown. Also, something called the Null Sect ate Blue’s sprite in Marry Me, Kat Katana, and seems to have also killed 1 dev and a few players, as well as flat-lining others. Wat, 3 Card, and Blue are all distressed. Grackle does another quick delivery for his strange side job employer.

Runners
Aleiron Grey
Butter
Eion Smash
Three Card
Watt Tinbo
Yanko Lazer
Grackle

The team gets fixated on the recent reappearance of the Taco Temple franchise, which they all remember from their youths but have no evidence of actually having existed. They make great tacos though, and there’s one just down the block from the safehouse, so aside from Aleiron they’re thrilled. They begin doing some digging and smear campaign prep for Imaginary Annie, and manage to secure a solid lead for Kathleen Shaard in the race for Underground Mayor. They also make the dragon-backed opponent out to be a radiation-spreading madman, and use the same tactic against Kalanyr’s candidate for governor. They also find out that Charles Seaver, another candidate, is likely possessed by a shedim. A voudoun summoner named Shockwave warns them off of pursuing him further, given his likely power level, but the Draco Foundation is interested. Jenny is off in the wilderness somewhere, the team finally having forced Butter to expel her from the safehouse.

Eion and Grackle bond on a trip to Glow City, and Eion and Yanko progress in their magical trainings, both initiating; Eion in the Painted Horse Lodge (which seems suspiciously dark magic-friendly), and Yanko in Vigilant Iron Schooling House, after honing his skills at Sticks and Stones. They finally pay the Reality Hackers back for their help in prison by rescuing some technomancers from the Yakuza goons who are rounding them up for delivery to MCT, including a new team member who decides to stay with them instead of going to the technohaven the RH’ers provide. Blue seems like a skilled hacker and sniper, but a real weirdo. Should fit right in. Eion continues training his new bandit “pets”. Aleiron expands her messaging for her cult.

The team takes some sketchy work for decent pay, mostly because Wat wants a motorcycle. After doing very little research, they end up in a war zone, between Northern CalFree and Southern TIr Tairngire, TT seems to be taking the opportunity of Hestaby’s absence to push south, while militias fend them off. Merc’s work both sides. The team gets caught up in some murky ARES corporate infighting over some various arms deals, for which they are initially working for the unethcial side (wetwork, chemical weapons, etc), but eventually swap sides and (secretly) betray their hirer (affiliated with Damien Knight) for the other faction, which seems aligned with Arthur Vogel, a dwarven environmentalist on ARES’ board (thought of as the corp’s conscience). They got dosed with Laes in the coverup and lose some time, but get paid and think it won’t come back on them.

Butter heads out in search of an alchemist named Squeamish, who is supposedly very paranoid but in possession of a lot of useful info, including the location of the PNW’s famed “parliament of cars”. Grackles becomes a full Halloweener, and spends hours crafting the perfect skull makeup design with Iva Linus Hathaway. Aleiron consults with Izidor Kurtlanik about spinning the recent wetwork they did in CalFree as opposing metaracism (given as the arms dealer they killed was affiliated with the elf supremacist Brat’Mael). The team digs into a bunch of 6th World Tarot stuff, finding both hints that Taco Temple is more than it seems, and that the deck as a whole seems to hint at something big- seemingly including a map?

Butter gets some leads on Squeamish via a Puyallup PI named Jimmy Kincaid. He decides not to make contact in order to help the team on another job: tracking down some more technomancers in danger for the Reality Hackers. These TM’s might not come willingly, and it’s unclear exactly how many there are, between 1 and a half dozen. The RH’s offer a bonus for any hackers they rescue as well. The team finds out that the TM gang, called the Resonance Junkies, is on the run from a corp hit squad after developing some software for the corp.

They track them to an abandoned trainyard in Renton, where they are guarded by some surviving Night Hunters. The team decides to full frontal assault while Yanko sneaks, not sure if the TM’s are guarded or hostages. The team almost gets killed by Night Hunters but Yanko manages to sneak past them, climb the tower, and grab the leader of the RJ’s, then convinces them that he is there to help with a stunning intimidation. The rest of the team gets scooped up by Butter to flee the bloodthirsty NH’ers. Butter comes back after dropping Wat and the team off at Trickster’s Daughter’s clinic, and comes back and grabs the TM’s/hackers. However, there isn’t room for all of them, so they leave Yanko and one of the RJ’s behind, who Yanko shortly ditches to escape from the NH’ers, while the less agile RJ is torn apart, screaming.

Butter also does some digging into Tommy Vermont, his recently CFD-infected friend/cop contact. He gets his medical file from an info broker contact and forwards it to Riot to take a look. Riot examines it and says that it’s beyond her, but passes it along to her street doc mentor, the legendary Butch. Butch, through Riot, says that if the team can safely bring Vermont in, in containment, she may be able to help: she is developing an experimental treatment, but will need the assistance of a submerged technomancer as well as all her medical skills. Butter says that this will have to wait, but is interested.

The team does some more political digging, and finds dirt on all the remaining candidates for governor, to various degrees of quality, with one exception. They help Shri manufacture a scandal about Choi, and ex-FBI candidate, by knocking out a surveillance detail on one of her people. Grackle and Wat manage to salvage enough tech from the surveillance van to upgrade Grackle’s deck and Wat’s link. A composite sketch of Wat is released, but he was disguised enough that they’re not worried. The team also meets a PI named Glenn Steele, who’s been double-checking their info for Annie, and doing some secondary digging. He seems competent, and him and Grackle bond a bit.

They also finally make contact with Squeamish, who proves to be even more paranoid than advertised, but they talk him out of killing them, and make a deal. They will bring him pairs of HMHVV infected (ghouls, vamps, etc) to experiment with, and for the first pair they bring he will tell them where the parliament of cars is. He also has some various reagents he needs on his quest to become a Master Alchemist, so he gives them a list and says he’ll pay well for delivery. The team track down a gum toad in eastern Redmond, and meet up with an IOND magic-school graduate named Linnie Han, who helps them slay the gum toad and harvest its excretions in exchange for pay. Plus now they know a mage, which could be handy.

3 Card gets help from Wat to romance Gina, Grackle witnesses firsthand how terrifyingly powerful Nightmare, the leader of the Halloweeners is, Grackle goes on another mysterious package delivery quest, Blue keeps leveling up in “Marry Me” via a registered sprite, Yanko visits Cobra, the child who delivered his ominous prophecy (and only gets more disturbed by cryptic hints), Eion makes a deal to get 2 feral ghouls from the 162’s in exchange for 2 bodies, Butter makes a pact with a wild spirit and receives a strange boon (perhaps a friendly introduction to the Parliament), Aleiron becomes better at profiling people and deepens some connections, Wat writes more stories for “Marry Me”, and the whole team enjoys their new access to ShadowSEA!

Runners
Aleiron Grey
Butter
Eion Smash
Three Card
Watt Tinbo
Yanko Lazer
Grackle

The team buys a car, which Butter lovingly tinkers with. Jenny comes to stay with them for awhile, which many on the team are unhappy about, though Grackle is thrilled. Tyrese keeps asking for an intelligence upgrade, which Butter promises he’ll save up for, but he tries to teach Tyrese some stuff too. Disturbingly, Wat gets a call from Kevin, who seems to still be alive- he tells him that if you give anyone a chainsaw, they can become him too! It being April 1st, Grackle decides to prank the team, and fakes a visit from Kevin, freaking everyone out before Aleiron calms them all down. 3 Card tries to counter-prank Grackle, but it doesn’t quite work out, and Grackle ends up just paying for a bunch of pizzas for the gym downstairs. Aleiron finally does her interview with Kendall Semorov, youth reporter for the Barrens Bearings shadowcast, and does some more rep repair for the team, as well as trying to establish her cult: essentially seeking meta-unity to fight against the threat of CFD and the Monads.

The team gets a few calls about work: Kathleen Shaard wants help ensuring her victory in the mayoral race in the Underground (first ever!), and Imaginary Annie Goldsmith wants them to dig for dirt on all the mayoral candidates to pay off her favors. They also get an urgent call from Hardacre, and the gruff troll has immediate need of them. As he tells them, a getaway driver named “Wheelie” bailed on the rest of his heist crew mid-run, with the loot, and Hardacre needs the team to track him down and recover the loot. He doesn’t care about the driver, as he’s sure someone will deal with him.

They agree, and do some digging. Wheelie sometimes runs with a smuggling crew in Redmond called the Death Heads, so the team goes cruising to find some of them. They succeed after some clever planning, and manage to get them to talk- the didn’t know about Wheelie’s plan to abscond, but he did just call them looking for help. They were debating whether to get involved when the team showed up. They decide not to, for the moment, but give the team the comm number Wheelie used to contact them. Grackle is able to backtrace it to an address in South Snohomish, and they head there.

Finding a trashed house and a shot-up getaway car with a dead mafia goon in it, they proceed cautiously. Wat finds evidence that the loot was in the trunk, but isn’t anymore, he also finds a Tarot card. Inside, they find Wheelie interrogating another mafioso, who he quickly shoots when the team enters. He manages to flee out the back as they confusingly try to negotiate and also shoot at/stab him. He jumps in a souped-up muscle car and hightails it, but Butter pulls some fancy tricks and manages to keep up. Aleiron and 3 Card manage to negotiate with him and get him to stop.

It seems that some mafia types snatched his daughter in order to make him betray his team, calling him mid-heist and telling him first that the rest of the team was planning to geek him after the run, and then when he balked on delivering the payload to a new location, threatening her if he didn’t hand over the loot. He gives them half the loot in exchange for their promise to help free his kid, having hidden the other half.

Grackle and Wat break the encryption of the threatening calls, and trace them back to a farmhouse in rural Snohomish. Knowing this is metaracist mafia turf, they proceed cautiously. Grackle disables an exterior camera, enabling the rest of the team to approach, but Butter sets off an alarm anyway. Eion takes out the guy who comes after Butter, while the rest of the team breaches the house. They injure another goon, and manage to convince the boss upstairs to release the kid in exchange for their lives. They head out and Wheelie gives them the rest of the loot, as well as putting out the good word about their helpful deed (although his rep is also not so great at the moment). Aleiron tries to get a foothold in his gang with her cult, given their multi-meta membership.

Hardacre is thrilled with the recovery effort, and reports back that it seems like the double-cross was a mafia underboss getting a little too clever for his own good, so he doesn’t think the mob will be taking an extra exception to the team’s actions. They prepare to delve into politics…

Runners
Aleiron Grey
Butter
Eion Smash
Three Card
Watt Tinbo
Yanko Lazer
Grackle

The team cruises around in Shelby Everton’s limo until Jaeger, Nabo’s head of security, comes back to from the drug paralysis. They interrogate him about the optical disc they are seeking, and find out that he never possessed it, but had set a meet to get it. They head south to Tarislar and pick up some laes to erase his memory before leaving him in a public park, not wanting to worsen their rep. Checking the matrix, word (and some footage) has already leaked about the violence backstage at the concert, and the runners are fairly identifiable to anyone who knows them. Wat starts doing some research for a cover story while Aleiron plots a long con to get the public on their side.

Grackle manages to backtrace the message Jaeger received, and ID the sender: “Zipper”. The limo takes off to go pick Shelby up, and the team heads to the site of the meet- a bar in Tacoma called The Cathode Glow. 3 Card has Grackle bring the old school simrig from the safehouse to trade for info, as they heard it was an old-school techhead joint. Arriving, they find a dwarf decker named Zipper who quickly spills the beans, as she seems to recognize them from the footage leaked from backstage. She does a very poor job of not appearing intimidated, but they do trade her the simrig to keep things somewhat friendly. Yanko tries to hit up a local dance spot while this is happening, but the bouncers seem to recognize him as well, and threaten him, so he dejectedly leaves. He is worried about what long-term effects the team’s rep is gonna have…

She points them to the supposed possessor of the disc- a bar owner in Auburn named Kerwin Loomis. He’s an ex-ganger who still lets his old crew sell drugs and BTL’s out of his bar, across the street from the dump/scrap-yard that is their main turf. They head over, but find that Kerwin has already fled (warned by Zipper? or maybe just saw them coming), so they track him across the street, into the dump, and find him cornered by another team, smaller but a bit better-equipped. They managed to get the drop on them (literally in Yanko’s case) and kill one, KO one, and injure another, before making a deal for that team to take their wounded and retreat.

Yanko manages to spot Kerwin’s hiding spot, and snatches the disc out of his hands before he can make good on his threat to break it if they come closer. 3 Card pays Kerwin a small amount of money after he gives them a sobs story about how his bar is floundering, and he was only selling the disc to keep it afloat. He claims he inherited it when his dad died some years ago, and seems to be telling the truth, which doesn’t match at all with what the Johnson told them. Perhaps worth digging a bit more… He also says he couldn’t get past the encryption and has never heard what’s on the disc, and doesn’t know of any copies. They leave him there, howling at the injustice of the world, and head off with the disc. They travel separately and buy a bug scanner to make sure the other team doesn’t follow them to the safehouse.

There, Grackle and Wat manage to break the first layer of encryption on the disc after jury-rigging a hookup from their deck to the optical reader. They find that the files contained are 7 songs, obviously the long-rumored lost JetBlack album. Yanko also recognizes the backing band as The Shadows, a less famous but still well-known group that JB palled around with. The disc says “Carrion Sessions” on it, as well as some cryptic phrase about “absent friends”, and Grackle and Wat report that they can’t get a clean copy of the music, or access all the simsense and other files on the disc, without some kind of decryption key. So the team decides to dig further.

They find that 1 of the Shadows died some years back from an OD (Kerwin’s dad?), and that the remaining 3 have kind of drifted off the public scene. At least one is thought to still be in Seattle however. They also find that “Carrion Studios” was a big deal spot back in the day, but went under in the early 2060’s, shortly before the Crash. Since then, it’s been reopened as a bargain bin practice space and studio for local acts to cut demo’s. They head over to see if any records remain. They find a surly teen dwarf manning the counter, who rolls her eyes and ignores them after brushing off their inquiries. However, an older ork janitor pokes his head out, and seems more than willing to recount the glory days.

3 Card poses as an audio nerd, and they geek out for a while with 3 Card casually steering the convo and Yanko name-dropping some different major acts that recorded here. It turns out the janitor used to be a recording engineer here before it went under, and stayed on as a janitor and property manager after. He says they are welcome to take anything they find in the old storeroom. They find massive piles of water-logged and busted equipment, and musty files/discs/chips/etc. They call Eion in to deal with a devil rat infestation, and he successfully convinces them to back off, with food, in order to avoid a fight with their demon rat leader.

After digging around for a bit, they find a box with the relevant dates, and grab that and some other stuff to conceal their true purpose a bit. They warn the janitor of the rat problem, and head out. Digging through the files, they find that there does seem to have been a secretive JetBlack session shortly before his death, and that the only listed studio personnel present was the head engineer (and owner) Delphia. Doing some digging, they find that she still lives in town, and has become a dealer of especially hardcore BTL’s, a habit which also was behind the business’ collapse. They find a locale and decide to send a few members in as buyers, hoping to get some info about who the “absent friends” might be, and finish unlocking the disc.

Meanwhile, Aleiron has launched their spin on the events of the previous night. She puts out that the team was merely there to make a drug deal, and had no metaracist motivation. She says some of the guards had a bad reaction when sampling the drugs, possibly an effect of combining them with whatever they had already taken, and that things escalated from there and they disengaged as quickly as they could. The team collectively burns through their street cred getting the story out, but it does seem to help. They also shortly receive a call from Izidor Kurtlanik, offering his assistance in spinning the story. He says that his employer is happy to back up the team’s version of events, so long as they stick to it forever, in return for not interfering with their tangential campaign to use these events to further build Nabo’s brand.

The team agrees, as Kurtlanik seems quite connected, and the “official” narrative becomes one of Nabo’s near-impossible escape from a life of crime in the Barrens, and his valiant attempts to bring his whole old crew along, and the tragedy that some of them didn’t make it, even though they were so close. Nabo makes an emotional public statement, filled with vague threats of revenge, along with promising to continue the world tour, so as not to let down the fans. He sends a bunch of money to the dead men’s families, along with visiting for some photo ops, before embarking. His sales spike as a result.

The team tracks Delphia down in Redmond, and arranges to do a favor for her- they’ll pick up a new shipment from the Yellow Lotus Triad, in exchange for the info they seek. After passing a test of etiquette, they receive the chip from the Triad, and had it back over. Delphia seems amused by whatever horror it contains, and Grackle and Wat see an opportunity, offering to sell her a serial killer’s experience, knowing they can get Kevin on board. However, they give away a little too much info for free, so she doesn’t pay them much. They decide to call the cops on Kevin instead, to curry favor with Butter’s contact there, Tommy Vermont. Later that night, they hear reports that KE SWAT got into a fatal showdown with a chainsaw-wielding serial murder suspect in Redmond, and assume they’ve done their “good deed” for the day.

With info from Delphia, the team heads downtown to meet Marli Bremerton, one of the players on the last JB sessions, who Delphia thinks may be the absent friend. They find a haunted mansion, but manage to ingratiate themselves with Marli (especially Wat), and fend off another attack from the mysterous merc hit squad. Capturing one member, they confirm that they are working for another music exec, also seeking the disc. Marli also tells them more about their own Johnson, confirming that he lied to them quite a bit about his role in the whole affair. Marli also says she’ll reach out to someone who might have the other disc, and see what she can do about helping them complete the run.

They head to a midnight meetup in a cemetery to see Marli’s contact, and at JetBlacks grave find a group of 5 goths waiting, armaments present but stowed. Eion, from an overwatch position, sees another group of 5 waiting nearby, and noticing one of them turn to mist, they surmise that there are 1 or more vampires present. Deciding not to risk a fatal fight, they agree to sell their disc to these people instead (as they claim to be working on behalf of JB’s interests), but get them to agree to ensure that the team’s rep doesn’t take a hit for backing out on their Johnson.

They get paid (extra!) and head home. The next day, a disappointed Mitch Stuck tells them they won’t be working together again after he received a somewhat panicked call from their Johnson, but news soon breaks that the johnson is handling all PR for the upcoming JB’s ‘lost album’ 30th anniversary release. This is likely to be a herculean task, but presumably the vamps didn’t want it. The team calls it draw and washes their hands of it, looking forward to a few days R’N’R and to spending that cash.

Runners
Aleiron Grey
Butter
Eion Smash
Three Card
Watt Tinbo
Yanko Lazer

The team, having survived their epic adventures thus far, decides it’s time to relocate away from Mitch Stuck’s area of control, for their own good. They decide to stay in the Carnival while they finish a few last jobs through him and set up a new safehouse (above the Sticks and Stones gym in Puyallup). They custom fit it for all their specific needs, and Butter develops a serious crush on the property manager Riot. Eion finds a spot to sleep in a pile of busted cars in a nearby junkyard, in exchange for nightwatchman duties. Grackle goes off on another mysterious quest for the modulated-voice caller and is out of touch for a few days.

The rest of the team completes the required mission for Shelby Everton. They poison some liquor and sneak it to his parents ahead of his release date. They then follow them to the hospital and interfere enough to make sure both parents die, thus ensuring they don’t alter their will and corporate contracts to cut Shelby out upon his release. Having kept that promise, they look into the 2nd of Stuck’s personal jobs. They meet a Johnson at a local nightclub and find out that they are to retrieve a mysterious optical disc stolen from his employer. Yanko gets distracted partying and misses the meeting.

On the quest for the optical disc, they track down a strange scrap dealer in Auburn, where Butter also buys a persona chip from a BTL dealer for his dog drone, Tyrese. The scrap dealer, Forsythe Septus, sells 3 Card an archaic sim rig that’s all hard-wired. He also gives them the info that a security guy for a local rapper named Nabo who’s just breaking big came in looking for an optical disc reader. They do some digging. Nabo just got signed to an Aztechnology and is about to embark on a world tour, and has set up 1 last hometown gig in a Redmond warehouse before he leaves.

3 Card has virtual sex with Gina Holgersson via the new rig, which is fairly addictive, and Tyrese’s new personality creeps out much of the team, though Eion seems to like him. The rest of the team scopes out the warehouse and makes a plan. They enlist Shelby Everton to provide some drugs and pose as a music exec, and also use his limo. He’s thrilled to partake, and still an asshole. Wat bribes his way in using coke, having heard the security guy is a fan, and makes his way backstage through the dense crowd. He ko’s the security guy with a drug cocktail Yanko prepared, but gets in a firefight after getting spotted.

Eion, Butter, and 3 Card race backstage to help as more guards also head back, the noise of the fight obscured by the music. Yanko and Aleiron head around back from the limo to secure an exfil route. Inside, Eion and the rest kill 3 of the guards, all members of Nabo’s crew from when he was coming up, surely making an enemy there. Plus the rest of Redmond isn’t going to be too thrilled to see a bunch of promising youth who almost made it out get cut down (by fellow Redmonders, no less). AZT will surely use their PR might to spin into more success for Nabo- a tragic final bit of his escape from the barrens. But they get the security head, Jager, as well as the optical disc reader he bought from Septus, but no disc….

They escape out the back into the limo and flee, worried about this is gonna do for their reps….

Runners
Aleiron Grey
Butter
Eion Smash
Grackle
Three Card
Watt Tinbo
Yanko Lazer

The team, receiving Wat’s warning, questions Corrigan and makes sure he won’t try to escape- he seems willing to work with Dana Oaks, understanding that Kenneth Brackhaven planned to have him killed very shortly. Although he makes some metaracist comments, he seems legitimately grateful to the team. They eventually reach the Everett marina, where their pilot unceremoniously dumps them and tells them not to call again. They spot the gangers Wat warned of, and ID them as members of the Night Hunters.

Wat steals an old LoneStar cruiser model for him, Butter, 3 Card, Aleiron, and Corrigan, while Grackle steals a slightly heavier ride for himself, Yanko, and Eion to use as backup/a distraction. Eion and Yanko pincer the 2 gangers as the first car leaves, giving the team a headstart. The team calls in both cars to Oaks to make sure they don’t get messed with by police, and she says she will send some officers she trusts to intercept them and escort them to the FBI safehouse downtown.

Butter really comes into his element, driving them through a series of ambushes and attacks, including a jack-knifing semi-truck, some motorcycle pursuit, an old, tattered limo full of wizgang mages, a noxious air spirit attack, and eventually a Halloweener ambush amidst the traffic jam of downtown. The “trusted” KE truck finally reaches them as their car is disabled by gunfire and pumpkin bombs, and they manage to get Corrigan safely in, though most the team is ko’ed and near death. The KE truck races off to safety, and Yanko, Grackle, and Eion arrive just in time to get the team loaded in the other car and away before the whole area gets closed down by investigators. Oaks ensures they are able to leave hassle-free.

They head to Trickster’s Daughter’s clinic to heal up, and awake to some major news 2 days later: Brackhaven has been removed from office and has apparently fled the city (and thus likely the country). The gubernatorial race, suddenly wide open, is flooded with candidates. The Night Hunters have been almost totally wiped out. Also, Oaks was as good as her word, and has cleared the team’s charges, paid them, gotten them new Seattle SINs, and given them each 1 minor get out of jail free card.

Mitch Stuck seems well-satisfied with how this all played out, and they plan to stay at the safehouse while doing more jobs through him while they find a decent place of their own to replace the NUMpad. Yanko parties, Butter gets back in touch with old contacts, 3 Card romances Gina Holgersson. Aleiron and Wat decide to run some classic pick-pocket performance scams with ADA, but people are a little too impressed with the talented dog, and she becomes a meme. RUH ROH!

Runners
Aleiron Grey
Butter
Eion Smash
Grackle
Three Card
Watt Tinbo
Yanko Lazer

After scouring the recently deceased Gregory Zane’s ‘link for data, the team finds that Emile Corrigan has been moved to a private “corporate reeducation” facility on San Juan Island. They may have tipped Kenneth Brackhaven off during their inquiries, and decide they better grab Corrigan quickly before KB does away with him (especially since Zane is dead- KB may have noticed people closing in on him). They contact Dana Oaks who agrees to help them with securing ID’s for the job, as well as offering a small cash reward for witness retrieval. She provides an encrypted file that she tells them to show Corrigan to prove that she is their backer, if he doesn’t believe them.

Posing as sex workers, the team takes the ferry to the island, having stocked up on small/concealable blades/knucks/etc. Grackle hides his deck inside a stereo system. Ada stays behind. They also arrange for a private boat to be waiting in the harbor as a backup extraction option (though the pilot says he won’t be much use in a chase). So they plan to attempt subtlety. The island is split in 2 effectively- 1 side a pleasure palace for the wealthy and for a reward for corp drones, the other side the reeducation center/corporate jail. They also pick up a few side jobs through Mitch Stuck while they’re out there. Grackle delivers a strange package (possibly a head?) and is told to film the recipient’s horrified reaction. He does so with great glee, and is quickly paid and told that his services will be used again.

On the fancy side of the island, Wat and Aleiron attempt to bluff or sneak their way down to the underwater security center, but are foiled by a persistent maitre’d, but manage to get his room ID. 3 Card, Butter, and Eion all head off to the other side to recon the prison facility, but are quickly intercepted by some workers. They manage to convince the workers that they’re there for some side work while on the island, and the workers are excited to have some relatively attractive visitors, so they partake and make arrangements for the 3 to come back later that evening with more friends, after establishing some rates for various acts performed. Eion does some gardening while all of this is happening to cover for the workers.

Back on the fancy side, Butter and Grackle break into the maitre’d’s room and steal a hotel ID card and uniform (as well as prank him by greasing his shower floor with soap) while Eion and 3 Card keep watch. Aleiron and Wat game a high-stakes poker game to ensure a particular player’s victory, using a combo of sleight of hand and social manipulation to drive other players out. Yanko provides some distraction. Their desired player wins and they get paid (the Johnson had provided their invites and their stakes), but someone seems to have spotted Wat’s deft card tricks, and he is hauled off by casino security. The team leaves the ID and uniform at the hotel desk for Wat (in case he gets free and gets a chance to get to the security center), while they head back to the other side of the island.

The guards pick them up partway again, and tell them that the facility staff is really excited to party with them tonight. They have it set up in hour shifts, with 1 client for each team member each hour. The team agrees, and makes a plan to knock out the first batch once they are partially unclothed, and then try to take down the 2 workers guarding/running the whole thing without them triggering an alarm. Luckily they are once again taken to an outbuilding, which gives them some leeway. They crank the music, and manage to take the 6 clients out quickly, only accidentally killing one, and only one gets a shout off. Yanko, Eion, and 3 Card chase down and ko the 2 guards outside, and the whole team changes into the facility staff’s uniforms. They match up ID badges by appearance as best they can, and prepare to head in and get Corrigan.

Meanwhile, Wat has a dangerous encounter with casino security. They luckily don’t seem to know exactly what he did (or why), and he manages to keep Aleiron out of it. However, they cut off 2 of his fingers, break both his hands, and tell him they better never see him there again. He doesn’t get the feeling that it will alter the outcome of the job, as the casino can’t admit that they allowed cheating to occur, so he feels hopeful that the Johnson will be pleased at least. He heads back to the mainland on the ferry, his crudely bandaged hands held aloft, before he is eventually approached by a woman who says she was sent by a friend, and introduces herself as Trickster’s Daughter.

The team mostly manages to bluff or sneak past the front desk guards, aside from Butter who is ko’ed with a taser. Yanko keeps watch over the passed out and dead guards in the shed until he gets bored and heads in to check on his friends. The rest of the team gets into the basement using Grackle’s lockpicking skills. They fight through a few armed guards, and find Corrigan in an interrogation chamber. They manage to disarm or kill the guards and mage interrogating Corrigan before they can kill him, but they do let free 3 feral ghouls into the chamber, seemingly the body disposal method of choice. They stabilize Corrigan, and begin fighting their way back out of the facility amidst alarms going off and a large number of guards. Luckily, Yanko has entered behind some of the guards, giving them a tactical leg-up. Eion uses a ripped-off door as a shield and bullrushes down a long hallway with the rest of the team behind.

They eventually get clear, and Butter finally gets to steal one of the facilities trucks. They race back towards the marina, shooting down some unarmed pursuit drones on the way. Butter stages a crash over the cliff edge to throw off pursuit, and the team sneaks on foot to their rendezvous with their rented yacht. They head towards the mainland, but have to pay the pilot extra to take them into Everett as there are apparently unusually heavy police/Metroplex guard patrols about (looking for Corrigan?). Wat calls to warn them that there are some gangers waiting at the docks seemingly looking for the team, before going to a street clinic to get his fingers reattached and then passing out for a while.

Runners
Aleiron Grey
Butter
Eion Smash
Grackle
Three Card
Watt Tinbo
Yanko Lazer

Watt and Grackle spend a few days going through everyone’s gear to remove any trackers, and spend some time setting up everyone with new “Marry Me Kat Katana! account. Butter tries to find info about ”/characters/jenny" class=“wiki-content-link”>Jenny. Eion, Yanko, 3 Card, and Aleiron begin on the first job for Mitch Stuck, investigating a feud between 2 of the fanciest restaurants in the Carnival. Keith Sellers believes his rival instigated a massive food poisoning at his spot a few years back, which he has just financially recovered from through sheer force of will (his words), but has been unable to find proof. He wants the team to find some evidence.

They review all the video footage he has, and also finding nothing, eventually manage to track down some mob muscle ork who was onsite for a brief moment that night, and had visible cyber-eyes. They call in a favor with 3 Card’s on/off gf Gina Holgersson, who runs the face of the ork through their user profiles at Miracle Shooter and finds a match. They go to the user address, and 3 Card entices the mafioso to dinner at the restaurant under a false name, using a combo of seduction and lift-bro attitude.

They meet at the restaurant as planned, and manage to convince him to share his footage from that day, though he is quite unhappy about the false pretenses, and comes dangerously close to recognizing Eion. He leaves after Sellers agrees to reserve a table for the Mob on a permanent basis. They review the footage and Sellers is crushed to find no new evidence, though the team notices some possible paydata at the end of the footage.

They bring it to Stuck, who seems pleased- the footage suggests that one of Kenneth Brackhaven’s various missing former underlings was disappeared by one of his current underlings, and Stuck seems excited about this potential “lever” as he calls it. He tells the team to make sure that neither Sellers nor the mafia goon still have a copy of the footage before they make a move, and to start doing some digging on the story that the clip suggests. He wants Sellers to survive this digital erasure, but doesn’t care about the mafioso so long as nothing sordid goes down in his district.

They manage to convince Sellers that they uncovered a virus in the footage, and he grants Wat access to his ‘link to clear it up. Wat makes an impressively skilled edit, and saves a copy to use later as needed. Grackle pulls out all his tricks to hack the mafioso’s ‘link and swap in the footage that Wat made, as well as getting some paydata. He sells the bonus data on to Pepe Wash, who seems to be fishing for info about the team, a little suspicious. Grackle is a bit deceptive about the amount he got for it with the rest of the team, which triggers 3 Card’s paranoia, but Butter and others are able to prevent a brawl from breaking out.

The team then does a good amount of research on some different options for who to sell the info to that Stuck has provided. They rule out the megacorps, due to a lack of connections there, but seem to have tipped someone off during their digging and start getting a lot of interested calls. ORC and other various Ork Underground groups seem very interested, but have less access and power than their final choice: District Attorney Dana Oaks. She seems likely to be able and willing to both help out the team and help out Stuck with their various legal troubles, should the footage prove useful in bringing down Brackhaven.

They meet with Stuck, present their findings, and get paid a bit. He agrees with the choice, and they head back to the safehouse to set up a meet, but are ambushed on the way by members of the Night Hunters, who carve them up pretty good with blades and some machine guns. However, the team emerges victorious, with Grackle finally proving his combat worth. They leave one alive, and are quickly spirited off the streets by Stuck’s private security. After questioning the man (hearing him being disposed of after), they have a new name to track down: Gregory Zane, Brackhaven’s shadow fixer.

After detecting some surveillance, they manage to trace it back into a bar in Renton, a notoriously metaracist district. They disable the trackers on the surveillance cats (Eion’s cats survive luckily), and hope whoever’s watching doesn’t get suspicious. They surround the bar, and head in cautiously, approaching the man at the bar that the signal leads to. However, he turns out to be a plant, and the team comes under fire from Zane himself at a back table. After a brutal fight in which 3 Card almost dies, they kill him and get his comm, but not before Butter gets into a road battle with some Night Hunters, including their leader Bios-Fear.

The team comes out to help, worried about further reinforcements, and manage to take out the gangers, though their car is pretty much wrecked. Butter manages to barely jury-rig it back together and they race to the ork underground followed closely by a huge battlewagon full of Humanis goons. They trade them a credstick they found on Zane for safe passage and flee into the Underground, and the orks seem quite surprised by the size of the “donation”…

The team is given access to the medical facility funded by Aemon Burst, due to their donation, and healed up under the watchful eye of some Skraacha guards. Eion and 3 Card both leverage their outsider dwarf status to avoid getting too much hate. The team makes a plan with Stuck, and contacts ORC to trade most of the info on Zane’s ’link for some of the specific info they need as well as for hacking assistance. Kathleen Shaard makes the deal with them, and they head to ORC offices to make the decker for hire: a youngish ork named Tauren.

Tauren hacks the ‘link successfully, and gets the team a lot of useful info: Corrigan, the man they seek, has come under suspicion by Brackhaven (possibly due to their inquiries) and moved to a secure location. Also, Brackhaven was behind the setup that implicated them, trying to start a gang war to burnish his law and order credentials ahead of the election. They forward the proof onto Imaginary Annie Goldsmith, who says she’ll try to clear up their rep and legal challenges. Annie also shares some personal info with Wat in exchange for some updates on the team’s activities. The team drinks some mournful/celebratory Hurlg with Tauren and Kathleen, who found some heavy intel of their own.

After (barely) surviving the hangover, the team recuperates, rests, and plans out how to get to Corrigan…

Runners
Aleiron Grey
Butter
Eion Smash
Grackle
Three Card
Watt Tinbo
Yanko Lazer

The team starts getting ready to trigger their escape plan. They bribe the Reality Hackers with more gear and a promise of some future work to assist in gathering info. Between the RH’s and asking around the prison, they find out that last 1/3rd of the of the missing prisoners on their list are technomancers, who are gathered up when detected and sold off in a monthly auction to various corps- Mitsuhama Computer Technologies and Horizon seem to be frequent buyers. Horrified by the likelihood of corporate torture and vivisection, Watt vows to try to free those that he can.

The team also finds out what they can about D Block cold storage, and the inmate they have to get out of there- it seems that she is housed under an alias and was thrown into D Block almost immediately upon arrival. They can’t find out more about her true ID, but seeing as Elisa Seawind was the one who approved the transfer and edited the file info, they assume she’s a runner being kept on ice for some reason. Aleiron gets a lecture about how awful D Block is by tricking a guard, and they confirm that it will mostly be mechanical/drone security- not many cameras and not much metahuman presence. Supposedly the interface for retrieving prisoners’ pods is simple, so they hope to be able to bypass it easily.

Meanwhile, Eion has run into some trouble: after attracting a large amount of rats with Drekbomb’s corpse, and starting to teach a promising few some useful tricks, he hears some commotion in the steam tunnels, and hides himself and the corpse just in time as some guards in full tactical gear start searching. He manages to elude them while holding the rats at bay, but uses most of DB up doing so. The guards seem to be working directly for Seawind, and looking for evidence of where everyone has been disappearing to. Eion has to stay on the run in the tunnels as the patrols continue for the next while. He manages to climb a ways down the hole, and finds that the jagged collapsed portion empties into slick mud chute after about 5 meters. He can see heat sig’s at the bottom that look like some small moving things and a larger stationary object.

He manages to teach 3 rats some tricks (mostly to keep the other rats from eating him), by feeding them DB’s portion of the food that Yanko continues to deliver, believing them both to be alive. However, Seawind’s patrols found the opened grate and welded it shut again, so he’s having to just kinda mash all the protein paste through the bars. Yanko has also been moving useful bits of sharp metal and other supplies the hole underneath the mechanic’s shop to the team’s hidey hole, in preparation. Unfortunately, all of this smuggling has cut into his drug acquisition time, so Aleiron makes a deal with the Nova Rich instead. She agrees to ensure the murder of an NR members parents within 2 months, to ensure that he still receives the family inheritance upon is release. He fears they plan to transfer control to his younger sibling due to being ashamed of his circumstances. In return, he gives the team so cram to keep themselves going and a cocktail that Yanko chose to wake up the cold storage prisoner.

3C and Butter spar some, working on combat skills, and Butter designs a boring drone that he can juryrig out of all the scrap bits they’ve been saving. Butter also makes a fake cover for Watt’s datajack, which Watt manages to carefully open without injuring himself, under the pretense of needing special tools for his IT work. Feeling as ready as they can get, they all put in for transfers to the cleaning crew, which due to the cult spreading rumors of something “wrong” in the basement, and the fact that a number of prisoners have vanished, is currently understaffed. They get the transfers, and work a few days to get the routine down, as well as warn Eion of when they’ll move. Yanko also figures out how to concoct a bleach bomb to clear the bottom of the hole of threats before they go in.

The day of, the team is on 2 cleaning crews of 4, having convinced 2 cult members to come with. Each crew has a guard overseeing (with the new tighter security). At the preset time, both teams attack, unfortunately failing to fell the guards before they can call in the attack, partially due to one of the cultists slipping and knocking himself unconscious. Watt and Grackle try to impersonate the guards, confusing things a bit, but aren’t able to keep it up long. Grackle and Aleiron race for the tunnels in a panic while everyone else hightails it to the hidey hole to get supplies. Eion, hearing the sound of a prison alert system, uses the crowbar to pry open the grate again with a massive feat of strength, as Aleiron and Grackle arrive and yell back for the others to hurry. Eion heads into the tunnels to direct them team along the correct path.

The rest of the team grabs the stashed gear, and hightails it to the tunnels as they hear the riot squad chasing after them. Butter barely dodges a shotgun blast as he rounds a corner, and only avoids an SMG burst as it hits the cultist right behind him. He staggers as he is hit with another shot, but manages to stumble out of sight for a moment and dive into the tunnel behind the rest of the team. Eion sees some flashlights headed down the tunnels from another direction looking to cut them off, and calls on the team to hurry. Yanko chucks his bleach bomb towards the lights to slow them down, which seems to help, and the team dive into the hole, not having any time to dally. Slamming into a pile at the bottom, Eion is the only one to avoid injury as he had time to scout it out a bit.

The rest of the team hears a sort of humming and sucking sound coming from a large machine next to them, and some slavering noises coming from the darkness nearby… The team splits in 2, with Eion, 3Card, and Yanko heading off to fight tunnel ghouls in the pitch black, while Butter, Grackle, Aleiron, and Wat break through the wall behind the machine. They determine that the machine is a sump pump, removing water from the adjacent area, which they decide must be D Block cold storage. After getting his boring drone to help out, they manage to open up a human-sized hole.

Getting in, Wat manages to hack access into a pod on the lowest storage level and fake a medical emergency. Wat, Aleiron, and Grackle all grab hold as the retrieval arm hauls the pod up to the gantry at the top of the deep cavern. They hide as an alarm rings, and a medic and guard enter. They manage to disarm and incapacitate the guard, and intimidate the medic into surrendering and leaving. Wat hacks access into the control system for the arm, and retrieves the pod they were after. They ride it back to the bottom, and pull the woman inside out, who introduces herself as Shri Moreau. Correctly assessing that Aleiron is the semi-leader of the party, Shri starts subtly undermining her.

They rejoin the rest of the team, and manage to revive 3Card, injured by ghouls, using the medic’s kit. They head further into the tunnel, descending through water until they reach an area they’ll need to swim to cross. They enter, and fight off another ghoul in the murky water, before emerging to find the ghoul’s feeding area. They emerge victorious after a brutal brawl with a variety of infected variants. They continue down the tunnel, eventually finding a split that seems to head towards either Vashon of Fox Island. Yanko wants to go to Vashon and sneak in through a club in the tunnels there, to get drugs and new clothes, but is outvoted. The team heads to Fox, and ascends a long rusted ladder, emerging into a fenced in area surrounding the concrete pad poured over the tunnel mouth.

They flee through the fence, but alert some drones to their passage, and have to destroy them. They flee to the nearby woods to plot their next move. As the begin crashing from cram, they realize that they are all in somewhat wet clothes in the winter in a remote setting, and decide to build a shelter in the woods (where the KE drones don’t seem to want to go), while 2 of their healthier members scout ahead. Aleiron communes with Wolf, who offers aid to her pack. A spirit wolf comes running along atop the soil, leaving no trace, and leads them to the magical lodge of a shaman named Chavo. He helps them get the rest of their team back to the lodge with the help of his ally spirit, and heals everyone up while they rest.

He tells them that this is the Forest Lodge, and that they will be safe from the law here. Aleiron finds some appropriate gifts to present, and the team rests and heals for a bit. Chavo provides them a commlink, and they make contact with Trailblazer to make arrangements to get off the island and back to the city. They arrange a point of contact, and head out from the lodge. They hide in a place in town with a friendly talislegger for the day, and then are smuggled to the coast, where they hide in some tidal caves for a few days while they make contact with Imaginary Annie Goldsmith to arrange a longer term safehouse.

They settle on Stuck’s Carnival, and contact Trailblazer to get there. She arranges to smuggle them in a van through Salish territory around the outside of Seattle and back in to Auburn. They arrive safely, owing more and more favors with each stop. They get dropped in the basement of a casino, and meet Mitch Stuck himself, who says he has a use for them. He puts them up in a safehouse in exchange for doing some semi-specified future work for him. They agree, settle into the safehouse, and get real excited to find that Annie made good on her promise of tracking down their gear. They check it all, change ID’s on comm’s etc, and get ready to do some work.