Runners
Prot0
Jonny Silver
PepperJack
Ratched the Hatchet
Guy
Aylin Carewell
and introducing: Kinnie Zest
also introducing: OverEasy

Jonny convinces Micval to sing with Weekday Eclipse and they put out a single together with a Micval remix of one of Jonny’s tracks. Erika Knowles reminds them to check out Project Hammer at the ARES training facility and they get some leads. Smedley tells them to go to an art opening to meet an “old school” thief who needs a team to help steal some artifacts around town. They find out a bit more about the Null, and Prot0 convinces the team to do a bunch of jobs fast to improve their gear and skills so they can raid the ECSE and get the enormous payday it seems to promise. Jonny is summoned to a meeting with an AZT fixer named Metoataske Cynosige who hints that the blood mages in Swampscott were a bit far afield and out of touch, so no big loss for AZT, so long as the team will deal with a problem for them: Horizon Dawkins Group operatives have been working around town and AZT needs them ID’d, compormised, or eliminated. They will pay a bounty. Jonny agrees, lacking options.

Guy initiates with some of the Urban Tribalists who are cleansing astral space, and hooks them up with the “ASPS” and Kostas. Kostas reminds him to do a few jobs to pay for the crystal eyes he wants, and tells Guy that the ASPS has a runner coming in to assist. He gains the ability to astral travel, and can now communicated with his car spirit. He begins planning an astral quest to retrieve it’s True Name and bond with it. The team decides to give Ax. S. Grant the body of their cyberpsychotic dwarf safehouse guard, worried that someone else might hack him the way Prot0 did. Ratched puts him out quickly with drugs, circumventing the rest of the team’s plan to make an elaborate digital scenario for him. Ax promises the team drone and vehicle use/support during the upcoming Peabody raid, and also tells them team to go to the upcoming art opening Smedley had mentioned to meet up with a contact with some specialty gear for the raid (to deal with Nocebo, to the corrupted AI). 2 jobs, 1 location: great!

Jonny befriends Lil’ D with his and PPJ’s Boston Unity plan. The team meet up with a new runner named Kinnie Zest, who Smedley says is a skilled weapons tech (as well as an MIT&T doctor) who needs to make some cash. He seems useful, so the team brings him along on the next job: rescuing Grimes, who is under house arrest after a new Bishop arrived and took his church at the head of a Blackheart Security merc detachment. Silke tells them that Archangel has an object to trade that they can maybe use to get Grimes free, and they head back to the ghoul base to see about that. They encounter some vampire merc’s, and are told that non-infected aren’t welcome there anymore, but do manage to meet with Dark Angel and get the object: an old bible signed by JFK to the people of Boston. One of the vamps follows the team home in astral and talks to Aylin. He intro’s himself as Alastair, and says the the ghouls are now protected by Messerzahn, who should be a name to be feared. Aylin, being a weirdo, befriends him instead of feeling threatened. So now the team has that info for BBE.

They head up to Stoneham next on a lead from Smedley, and meet up with scholar named Trinity Ellario, who called CFD before it happened, and is holed up with some other civvies being protected by SSU 211, the other merc corp BBE needed info on. SSU is all Monads, stable headcases who don’t want to spread their infection. BBE makes a deal through the team to have SSU raid Malden (rampant nanoapocalypse) in exchange for materiel support and a ride out later, and also makes a similar deal with Messerzahn to clear the Labyrinth. The team gets paid and upgrades their gear quite a bit. They meet up with Kostas’ contact, a mirrorshades runner named BlackJack, and do a quick job with him, paying off a Wuxing employee to retire early and write a letter recommending a certain replacement. They then get a list of three other names to do similar with, and BJ convinces them to help him track another target: a personal mission.

They follow astral traces and rumors of a serial killer and missing people to an abandoned orphanage in Dorcester, where they fight a shadow spirit and a knife-wielding free spirit maniac. BJ dies in the fight, but disapparates, so he was apparently also a spirit. They win, barely, and flee and enraged Purist/Pariah militia, asking that the militia help the various poor souls in the orphanage as they do. Prot0 also accidentally shoots a baby when they shadow spirit uses it as a human shield. Ratched punches him for it (and then heals him). They rest up a bit, then get fancier armored suits etc to go to the art opening. They leave Kinnie watching the gear nearby-ish, and walk into Downtown. They stop by the Taco Temple opening to eat on the way, and PPJ almost signs up before the team convinces him to run against the Temple of Terror instead of participating.

The art opening is happening but Prot0 thinks it’s a little derivative. A drone taps him and a man who calls himself Hamshallow tells Prot0 to take a box the drone is offering up- Prot0 does, just as some kind of no-label corp deathsquad bursts in. They shoot Hamshallow but it turns out he was a hologram, so it just wavers and then vanishes. They seem to want to acquire the package so Prot0 hoofs it, and accepts a grappel assist from the other person they were supposed to meet here: the thief Liam Adelbern. They escape unnoticed while the rest of the team tries to deal with the shooters and get people safely out. They all succeed except PPJ, who stays behind invisibly and fries the drone, in case it had info on it, but unfortunately has some bad luck and gets knocked out and captured. The team tries to figure out how to go back in, but have no gear or real armor with them, and decide to flee and rescue PPJ later.

After looking into it, they find out the group that has him is a pan-corporate (but non-official/maybe fully illegal) rightwing deathsquad called Omega Dawn that targets political agitators, SINless, runners, and “terrorists.” Ax S. Grant, when filled in, accepts the package, and says that he asked a spirit friend to do them a solid- he tells the team it wiped PPJ’s memory back 6 months, so he lost everything since his graduation in Denver, but literally knows nothing (and has a reasonably clean SIN), so maybe he’ll get cut loose? Other contacts are more skeptical and tell the team to watch out for OD but not to expect their friend back. Meanwhile, PPJ wakes up in a room he recognizes from the show: the Initiation Chamber in Temple of Terror Season 3. He is very confused….

Prepping for the Peabody raid, the team needs a few more gunners, and Smedley recommends a local ARA activist/ex-merc named OVerEasy, who seems pretty competent. They also get 3 roto-drones from Ax as as an armored van, and are told there will be an infiltration specialist going along who will use the device they got to deal with Nocebo. The team just needs to make sure the infiltrator can reach the dissonant servers. They also get 2 SSU 211 mercs named Jazz and Cosmos, a sniper team who agreed to help out against some natural enemies. They head north, and get Fennel to watch their spirit van. They rig the armored van with a cowcatcher and a bunch of explosives charges to blow out three sides, and cruise up. The infiltrator, SemPar, and the 2 mercs hop out to do their parts.

The team rams through one of the rager barricades and plows through some shamblers, before dragging to a stop a Y intersection just inside town. They leap out the back after turning on a jammer to attract headcases, and then blow the charges when there’s a big mob of them around. The team makes their way through town, a harsh and destructive slog under constant grenade and sniper fire. Jazz and Cosmos keep their rear clear, though, so they don’t lose anyone. They reach the Dissonant’s base, an old government center, and subject it to a serious assault, beaching through the front doors and the roof. They kill all the TM’s, and fight a bunch more ragers, shamblers, and CFD-infected animals (probably intended for the fighting pits once rigger interfaces are installed), including a massive bear. They emerge victorious, and SemPar completes whatever their task was.

The team walks back to the wilds, taking out a last few shamblers on the way, and meets up with Fennel, who offers them a stay in a Warpath safehouse deep in the woods for the night. They accept, and get paid a bounty for the Dissonants they killed, including a major leader, White Rabbit. They also hang with Grimes, Silke, Wolfgang, and Gibson, who are all holed up up here, and warn them about Omega Dawn. Wolfgang has a long talk with them about the risks to Boston of the current situation: syndicated and corps moving in hard, if not met with resistance, will change everything. But he says there’s still a chance. The team heartily agrees, and then sells the info about clearing Peabody to BBE, who will likely move in and seize it. However, to help the Neo-A cause they buy them a ton of rocket launchers to harry corp supply flights with. They sell some of the other paydata to other contacts, and post a high price file about PAX/Whit Rabbit making deals with both AZT (to research cyberadepts as soldiers) and the Null (to hunt AI’s, TM’s, etc) to Jackpoint. Noone bites (yet) but after sharing a bunch of other info for free, the team gains full membership.

Back in town, they heal up and plan next steps: they have a few more small jobs to complete, and maybe 1 big one, before the ECSE. They scout out the ARES Project Hammer facility and make another deal with Messerzahn to clear a path of any headcases so the team can get in through the Catacombs and deal with whatever’s there (with Messerzahn getting access to whatever’s left in the facility after, and having one less potential threat on their flanks). A lawyer named Genowefa Gale also contacts them on behalf of a firm called Stark, Thiessen an Van der Mar, which is setting up a Boston office, and seems to be the lawyers PPJ was hearing through his crystal spine before he got grabbed. She says she thought the team looked competent and tells them to get in touch if they’re available for more work.

The team gets worried that Dawkins Group might be manipulating Omega Dawn, but has no solid leads, so they decide to deal with Dawkins and wait til they have anything to go on for PPJ. Bubby is distraught and says he won’t rest til he finds PPJ, which worries the team but what can they do… he heads off into the astral to search. Liam Adelbern tells them that he has done some solid recon on the 3 sites he wants to hit (where possible): DIMR and Atlantean Foundation offices, as well as a Harvard lab in the MCZ. OE wants to get into the MCZ to check out a Manadyne lab there as well, but Kinnie warns the team how bad it is, so they decide to do that one last perhaps. The team decides to put together a baseball game to bond and also continue the Boston unity dream that PPJ and Jonny shared, and put out the word about it on shadow channels after securing use of the Centurion’s arena for an afternoon. Guy gets his crystal eyes put in- weird but effective.

A pretty good roster turns out, and gives it a good go- Damon on one team, some skilled Hellriders on the other, plus the lawyer, the mayor, the team, Kostas, a guy with some Null info for Prot0, and various others split between both. The team’s local rep improves significantly, but Jonny gets some bad news from a Horizon reporter who covers it: Micval has backed out and signed with Horizon (maybe under duress). They post the footage to JP and get a very enthusiastic response (especially from one of the mods). They go to do karaoke at the Tipsy Dragon with Liam in tow, and do some good team bonding. Liam tries drunkenly to get Guy an invite into the Hotel Continental (where Liam is staying) but gets turned back, told that they will review Guy’s application. The team rests up, feeling well-accomplished and closer than ever.

Runners
Prot0
Jonny Silver
PepperJack
Ratched the Hatchet
Guy
Aylin Carewell

The team does a bunch of little job cleanup while practicing and waiting for Jonny’s show. Meanwhile, PPJ gets levitated by the weird lil spirit, and flown way west to near the wall, where he enters a nondescript facility. A nerdy middle-aged woman explains that she had word he was interested in blood crystals, and the his and the team’s actions against AZT impressed her group enough that they are willing to provide him with one for free, and possibly more in the future if the team does more work for them. PPJ tries to suss out who they are, and make sure they aren’t Black Lodge, but it seems like they’re ASPS (or affiliated). They seem not to like AZT, the Tan Robes, or the Atlanteans, and seem neutral on the IOND, so it’s chill. He agrees, and gets a replacement spine, which pulses and protrudes slightly, but makes him faster.

He returns to the team, and the spirit introduces himself as Kostas after wiping PPJ’s memory of the location of the lab. The team agrees in principle to do more work, and Guy plans to get the next reward. They do one job linking up some urban tribes with the ASPS, but Kostas says additional work is needed for the level of crystal Guy wants. They do get one magic bullet each from the master alchemist Maestro in exchange for helping her tribe in their goal of cleansing astral space for the Spirit of the City. Ratched also orders better armor from BBE, and the team plans to work on their batch of open jobs soon. The team also takes delivery of a package from the Murai/BM scientists, who give them each a single dose of reversers, saying that if combined with a pulse spell, this should prevent infection from a single exposure to CFD. They team invests in faraday pockets to keep these nanite syringes secret.

PPJ and Guy head up the IOND to check on some stuff and report in, PPJ seems to be having some success getting them to engage more with Charlease’s help, and Olivier agrees to support plant spirit Wilds and NAN enclave sovereginity in exchange for a rare reagent supply chain, and agrees to lend the illusions instructor, Prof. Thornblossom, out for Jonny’s show in exchange for PPJ making sure IOND sponsorship is clear and putting in a good word with the Mayor. He also pays the team less insultingly this time around.

Prot0 fixes up his drone, and does some digging on some matrix jobs, inquiring with the TM’s at the safehouse about a few things, and finds out that Guy’s contact Ax S. Grant might know something about “Garmonbozia.” They go to his shop and ask, and he locks it down, pumps gas into the room, shoots them with gel rounds, and says he really wishes they hadn’t asked that. He tells them if they just let him erase that name from their memories he can let them go, but they refuse. They kill what they think is him, but it turns out to be a rigged body, as he is an AI. They eventually make a deal to work for him on behalf of GB, promising to keep any info about GB offline (including the Conservatory).

He tells them it is an AI nation on the matrix, looking only to exist peacefully and do their own thing. They know that the corps would never allow this, which is why the extreme secrecy. In exchange, he gives them a bunch of info on the Null (including solving the Jackpoint/Nexus beef), and agrees to assist them against the Dissonants in Peabody, who may have made common cause with the Null as well. Using this info, Prot0 finally makes peace between JP and the Nexus, and the team gets provisional access to the local JP hub, gaining access as well to the old team’s dossiers on Boston biz.

The night of the concert arrives, the three opening acts (Grim, Kombat Karla, and Micval) are a success, and with a stage show combining AR from Prot0 and some TM’s and spellcraft from PPJ and Thornblossom, and a tarot assist from Aylin, Jonny gives one of his best performances, and insures that he’s taken seriously by the local music scene. He also makes progress on recruiting Micval to his label, though Micval says Damon is also interested. PPJ briefly talks to the Mayor and plans to rep the IOND to her during office hours, and Guy gets to ride Wyatt’s bike, with the car spirit inside. Exhausted and happy, the team gets ready to gear up for some difficult and deadly work.

Runners
Aleiron Grey
Prot0
Jonny Silver
PepperJack
Ratched the Hatchet
Guy
Aylin Carewell

The team goes over the info from the NeoNET and Murai labs, after Prot0 cracks it all open. Not only do the learn a lot about the truth of what’s going on in Boston, they get a ton of valuable paydata. They decide to look further into some of the other jobs on their list, and head to the Roxx. They witness a duel at the Coliseum foretold on one of their Tarot cards, and wager a small amount. They should have bet more as they double their money and the card goes blank afterwards. PPJ meets a spellcaster with implanted Blood Crystals who agrees to pass his contact info along if he himself is contacted again by the mysterious group who provided them to him.

They make nice with the Centurions, who seem to be ex-spec ops and are protecting a large civilian populace near their arena, although the whole Roman thing is a bit much. They then head further south, and set up some transmitters for the Wicked, in exchange for that gang getting a message to the Murai survivors, who have joined up with ex-Boston Manatech employees to start an anti-corp “free” lab somewhere in southern Boston, hoping to eventually make contact with the Ex-Corporate Scientists.

The Wicked are setting up an ad-hoc comms network in southern Boston and requests the team find high/hard to access points to mount the relays to make it less likely head cases will get to them. They mount 3 at various points, encountering a toxic wolf adept sniper at an otherwise abandoned university but making a deal with him to avoid combat. The Wicked reward the team with a meeting with a Murai scientists, who seems only too happy to fill the team in on Reversers as well as their overall plan, after Jonny butters him up. They make plans to coordinate further, and Prot0 convinces Victor Markwart to join them after they learn the Coriolis stream together under Grimes’ protection.

While in the Roxx, they also visit some Urban Tribes and find many of them claiming to work on behalf of the spirit of the city (which makes the Denver survivors a mite nervous). They recruit Charlease Newman to the IOND at Olivier’s request, after PPJ makes a deal that she can keep brewing potions to help the enclaves down south. PPJ also views her as a potential ally to change the IOND from the inside.

The team then meet with the new Vatican reps they’ve heard are looking for them, and apparently seem like such a low threat that the reps basically pledge to stay out of the team’s biz so long as the team stays out of theirs. They won’t say that they’re “cool” with the team no matter how many times Jonny and Guy ask. They then link up with Tyrese, who has changed his name to Tyreseus, explaining that he voluntarily innoculated himself with a “friendly and stable” CFD strain to protect himself from other potential infections. The team decides that seems ok for now?

They gear up at Uptown Arms and Ax. S. Grant’s mechanic shop, fitting out an SUV with extra seats, armor, and an LMG mount, before heading towards Salem to assassinate 2 AZT hitmen and any guards they have (for money and an in with the Neo-A’s). They bypass some sketchy enclaves on the way, figuring they’ll start in the far north and work their way back to the city, doing jobs as they go. They make a deal with some powerful plant spirits protecting one of the NAN separatist enclaves (due to Aylin’s good spirit rep) to get safe passage in exchange for taking out the AZT team and leaving the NAN and plants alone. Aylin splits off at Nahant to look for Erika Knowles, her missing contact.

The rest of the team, with a gung-ho young plant spirit named Fennel along, recon and assault the AZT position. Jonny goes in undercover as a Hellrider (as they see the gang delivering supplies in exchange for processed BADs), and eventually manages to detonate a huge bomb Ratched made, collapsing the school building they were using as a base. The rest of the team slugs it out with some blood adepts, drones, and other guards, barely surviving and losing the car in the process. Ratched and Guy get it to run one last time, racing to the school and saving Jonny from certain death, while Prot0 pulls out all the stops to slay the final AZT cybersolider (one of the main targets). Unfortunately, Tyreseus is killed. Prot0 doesn’t want to approach too close due to CFD fears, so they leave him where he lies, and find an empty building not filled with drained corpses to rest up for the night.

The next day, PPJ projects down to link up with Aylin at the proposed spot, and discovers that Aylin has found Erika Knowles holed up in a ruined lighthouse, injured and hiding out from the mob of shamblers that she unleashed on the former ARES facility to deal with the bug problem there. They make a plan to rescue both of them and heal up before hoofing it down there on foot. The Hellriders also show up looking for another BAD delivery from their AZT contacts, and Jonny has to do some fancy talking to convince them not to turn on the team. Luckily the Hellriders don’t seem to care who gets them BADs as long as someone does, so they put the in touch with Fennel and the plant spirits and facilitate a deal. The plants are also absorbing Swampscott at a rate of about a block per day.

The team heads south to Nahant and sneaks through town, finding an old wireless-free minivan that Ratched and Guy get running. They rig a zipline to get Erika and Aylin out, and escape the mob of headcases with no injury. Erika gives them a bunch of jobs and asks to be dropped off in the Leather District or Nub. They decide to check out Salem, Marblehead, and Peabody first to get the lay of the land. Peabody seems to have a stange matrix signal and lots of headcases so they steer clear for now. Marblehead has a bunch of signs warning non-ARES personnel not to approach, a large earth spirit in astral space, and they lose their flyspy scouting, so they leave that along for now as well. They try to enter Salem but get trapped in some magical fog an find a druid and his ally spirit guarding the border.

They make a deal to hunt down any Tan Robe/Group X operatives in Boston in exchange for future entrance, and notice another huge matrix signal somehwere north of them, presumably either in Salem or at the wall. They head back south, drop Erika off, and heal up. They also check in with Grimes and find that the church’s replacements have told him he is being summoned back to Rome and replaced as soon as the quarantine lifts. They also hear that the Corp Court has engaged some pro assassins to take out highly placed headcases ahead of the end of quarantine.

Prot0 gets some work from Viktor Markwart helping other TM’s, since Grimes may be losing his sport, and the team upgrades their safehouse to accomodate more survivors and give them some stuff to do. The team also gets paid for the AZT mission, with Neo-A’s providing a bounty for the grunts while a rebuilt Tyreseus (though seemingly nearly all Cereus now) gets them their cut of the main bounty. They are disturbed by his changes but he offers them more wetwork as desired. They also go to Mama to get approval for the TM/safehouse plan, and make a deal. Aylin drops Mama a tarot card and is gifted a Tarot card in response.

PPJ leaves with a strange spirit, thinking it may be related to blood crystals, and misses out on all the expansions. The team does some digging on Peabody, and finds that the arena in the Shipyards is getting deliveries from up there of the riggable CFD-infected people and animals they use in their pit fights. The arena is one of the few safe network zones in Boston as they use jammers and crazy repellers to prevent signals leaving and headcases entering, so there is also a local mesh, which Prot0 loves, and it seems like a hot spot for anonymous info brokers. They buy some intel on a few open jobs, and head North again. They sneak into Peabody, past a bunch of rigged shamblers, but are spotted by some leashed ragers. They do a quick recon, spotting what look like some dissonant TM’s, and Prot0 tries a quick matrix scout before being attacked by a powerful AI (Nocebo) and fleeing. They hightail and escape with some clever distractions.

They head back South and report in to BBE, ordering some more armor and another crazy repeller after getting them the plans. Jonny sets up a concert at Avalon, which the Hellriders will do security for and keep the proceeds from (as well as dealing at) to recoup their losses from the missed BAD shipment. Jonny starts booking acts and training his friends to participate, after Prot0 does a mediocre AR show during an open mic.

Runners
Aleiron Grey
Prot0
Jonny Silver
PepperJack
Ratched the Hatchet
Guy
and introducing:
Aylin Carewell

The team enacts a massive con against Frank Incense, smearing his name as an outsider looking to make trouble for the local church, which under Grimes has been quite helpful during the lockdown. They double down on PPJ having done the right thing in warning Grimes (even though he betrayed the Johnson in this case), and Guy trades on his good rep locally to help sell it. Prot0 and Jonny both expend some of their rep trading on big names/connections from their pasts. Silke gets ahold of the team after a few days and tells them she has a plan- she has made contact with a dangerous spirit who hates disorder, and thinks that they can use PPJ to lure Frank into a trap, now that he is seen as a disorderly presence.

The team agrees, and Guy pilots a boat out towards a crystallized island, the team having spread the rumor that PPJ is trying to flee town by running the barricade. PPJ and Silke are both aboard the boat, and the rest of the team posts up nearby to provide cover. Some Knights of the Red Branch members engage the side time, as they were trying to set up a sniper position of their own. Some more KOTRB with Frank are closing in on speedboats, and Frank, Silke, PPJ, and Guy all exchange spells.

The team’s boat is partially disabled and drifts near the island, as the team shoots the KOTRB boats full of holes. Frank walks on water towards them, blasting PPJ and Guy with a dart gun that cuts off their access to magic. As he nears to secure them, a crystal spar shoots out from the island and impales, lifting him up and encasing him. Problem solved? Silke says a thank you to the crystalline entity and suggests the team get far away quickly. They do so.

They decide to handle Mama’s request next, and dig into Franklin Nockai- he seems to be linked to commuter and transient disappearances going back a ways, and their intel says he should be in or near the sub basement labs of the old NN HQ. They find the spot, and find increasing amounts of larger and larger roaches watching them, which seem to have some kind of gestalt consciousness. PPJ also reports astral space feels roachy. They find a massive vault door sealed up but on approach it swings open and 2 humans in dingy white robes (seemingly altered lab coats) greet them and welcome them.

They bring them to a back room where a cyber-samurai named Norbert is plugged into an old NeoNet server, from what Prot0 can tell he is running a constant memory loop program that seems to be serving the function of keeping him sane(ish). He insists they leave all their weapons and armor, and they do. They begin to be initiated into the cult, eating a strange nutrient paste, and noticing occasional disappearances amongst other members. They are told they will meet Nockai soon for a blessing of his protection, but don’t really make a plan of any sort.

Most of them are summoned to Nockai, Jonny tries to follow but is KO’ed by a guard. Meanwhile, Ratched is worried about the team not turning back up after she’s worked on the safehouse for a few days, and convinces Prot0’s drone to take her back there. The rest of the team finds Nockai seemingly trying to summon a roach queen, but something is messing up the ritual, creating a huge flesh monster composed of the missing cultists. There are also some incomplete merges assisting him. Prot0 sneaks off to Norbert’s chamber and edits his memory feed to trut Prot0 and hate bugs, and then blasts open the observation window into the main ritual chamber (a repurposed lab that the team worries might be the original site of the CFD/dragon experiment).

Norbert starts firing on the bugs and fleshmonster, as Nockai and the bugs attack the team below. Ratched and the drone enter from the front and slay some cultists before joining the fray, and then getting boxed in by more merges. It’s a total bloodbath, and Guy and Aleiron are both badly inured and nearly killed. They do emerge victorious, and Prot0 convinces the team to bring Norbert and the NN server back to their safehouse with them, and also save three cult survivors.

They return to the Nub and drop the cult survivors off, 2 join Aleiron’s cult, and 1 is executed by a Mama’s Boy who assenses him and apparently notices something sketchy. Aleiron buys the others a hotel for a bit. They then go tell Mama what happened, and she seems happy- she says she has been interfering in his rituals as best as she can but it is good to have it done with. She offers a boon for their service. Prot0 and Guy had already headed back to the safehouse with Norbert and the server, so they ask for free rent on their behalf. Mama agrees so long as they stay on her good side. Ratched and PPJ unlock some increased abilities, Jonny gets a large local rep boost, and Aleiron asks to travel to the metaplanes. Mama opens a portal to the Fey Realm and Aleiron dives through, barely saying goodbye, just passing her cult off to a child reporter in Seattle and asking Prot0 to make sure to get a badge to Taysacs.

The rest of the team, surprised at Aleiron’s sudden exit, heads back to the safehouse and recovers. Prot0 preps to do a deep dive on the NN server, and PPJ offers to watch his body while the rest of the team starts looking further into Murai/Reversers. They get some initial info from less secure server partitions- it seems Norbert used to be on a team with a cybersoldier named T1, who has been raiding black labs around town to keep himself and his team functional after their secretive employer was shut down by runners. Norbert was abandoned due to cyberpschosis reducing his functionality. But they get a few other leads of spots to look for more info.

Bubby also shows up with a curious magical-oddity investigator in tow. He introduces her as Aylin Carewell and says that she seems useful, curious, and trustworthy. The team grills her a bit and she seems solid and useful, so they agree to bring her along on the first recon as a test. They head to the only official Murai address they have, on the 128 corridor out at the edge of the QZ. They find evidence of a massive gunfight, seemingly between T1’s team and facility security. T1 won, and took over the facility with some scientist hostages. It’s unclear what they were up to there exactly but they seem to have used it as a base for a time, and the team finds a jump drive that escaped destruction to get Prot0 to look at.

Murai itself seems to have been running some kind of intense nanotech experiments with significant security, while on the outside looking like a run of the mill subsidiary or small medtech lab. Interior infection protocol and prevention looks intense though, and T1 and crew seem to have executed and burned most of the non-scientific facility staff, later executing the scientists as well. There is also evidence of torture. The team finds a mysterious button, and Aylin decides to press it. Everyone else leaves after making sure they haven’t missed anything else, and Aylin presses it, triggering the destruction of the facility through a series of humorous circumstances. The team escapes, and heads back to the safehouse to go over their info…

Runners
Aleiron Grey
Prot0
Jonny Silver
PepperJack
Ratched the Hatchet
and introducing:
Guy the Driver

The team restocks and trains new skills in the BBE supply depot/camp, before heading into the QZ with Frank Incense. The take a gunship and drop PPJ and Aleiron off near the MCZ in order to make contact with the local IOND branch. They succeed and Aleiron gains a new follower in the form of a depressed spirit of man named Lys. PPJ meets the local branch head and strongly dislikes him- not the new father figure he was seeking. Bubby shows up and PPJ sends him on some astral recon around town.

The rest of the team (including Tyrese) drop into the Leather District, and make contact with their driver/guide Guy, and local fixer Smedley Pembrenton. They arrange a dead drop for messages and a storage locker in one of Smedley’s places, and then head underground to find a safehouse. They meet some merchants and survivors in the Nub, get the lay of the land, and make a deal with Mama’s Boyz to clear out a catacombs site for a satellite community in order to be able to use part of it as their safehouse.

PPJ and Aleiron, with a long IOND quest list, catch a ride down to Fort Point with some Vory gangsters, passing a weird crystallized island on the way. They rejoin the rest of the team and they head out into the tunnels to clear some room. They find an old storm overflow chamber with a train car incongruously crashed in the middle of the sloping floor. They fight off and burn a bunch of shamblers, but 2 haters escape. Scouting the area, they find a map of “suspicious technomancer activity” areas that the haters had compiled, and Prot0 wants to dig further.

They climb up to where the train fell from, and find another car still up there but off the tracks. They decide this could be a perfect safehouse, and set explosive traps and a watch for the night. A rager swarm (possibly sent by the haters) attacks and detonates the trap before any team members get exposed, blowing out another chunk of the train tunnel into the chamber below. This leaves the remaining car with holes on either side, but seemingly stable atop an arch- even better safehouse. Ratched heads back to the Nub to get assigned some survivors and get supplies and start building it up.

The rest of the team starts working their first few jobs. They track down some info about missing persons via the Sprawl Scouts and Skraacha in the Leather District, and Mama’s Boyz in the Nub. They find a True Communion sanctuary deep in the Catacombs to the west, and meet their leader Dark Angel, who vows that they aren’t infecting anyone against their will, but are helping the desperate and possibly infected. They also seem to view themselves as in good standing with the local Catholic church under Grimes, though they take their version of communion in their sanctuary. They don’t know who’s behind the disappearances but suggest that there may be a nexus of activity originating under the old NeoNET HQ.

The team, satisfied with that info, heads out, but are approached by an Asamandan ghoul named Klana who asks if they’d like some work: infecting a few particular individuals with HMHVV and convincing them to take Asamando up on a citizenship offer once the lockdown ends. They decline, feeling this is a bridge too far. Klana seems very pro and polite. They head back and are summoned to meet Mama, after Aleiron sees a vision summoning her to The Deep during one of her Blood Eclipse dreams.

They pass through some Mama’z Boyz checkpoints (the inner circle all seem to be ghouls), and Guy decides to hang back. The rest of them head down a cable car through what looks like some kind of massive unfinished dig site, to a huge cylindrical pit. They climb partway down the inside on a rung ladder bolted into the wall, and find a small platform on which they perch, somewhat terrified, as a huge booming voice echoes up from below. The voice sounds grinding and is hard to understand, so the team quickly accepts an offer to switch to telepathy.

They receive some visions of Mama’s history, going back a loooooong way, and very slowly being uncovered, gaining followers, and rising in power. Aleiron is the only one who gets a full understanding, the rest of the group gets fragments. Mama tasks them with tracking down and destroying a man she believes responsible for the disappearances, and who has holed up in some exposed labs beneath the old NeoNET HQ. She says they may become her children if they wish once this task is complete. Aleiron drops a pamphlet into the pit, and Mama says she has learned much from things people have dropped to her. Prot0 can’t find a resonance connection but vows to keep trying.

They link up with Ratched, finish setting up the safehouse with an escape route, protein printer, some security and entertainment, and a small garage with access to the old MBTA yard/repair center, which looks pretty shot up and is overrun with headcases, so they spend some time clearing a secure route in and out of the train tunnel. Guy pulls a car in and they head out to do a little digging at Grimes’ church. They cross paths with some Hellriders on the way, and PPJ takes the chance to look into one of the IOND jobs. They find out that the leader, Wyatt’s, bike has some sort of astral signature (which Aleiron speculates may be a Parliament of Cars-esque spirit), and they arrange for the go-gang to provide security and party favors for Jonny’s next show, hoping to get more info then.

They reach the church, meet Grimes and various other Catholics and survivors, and also some Neo-A’s and a very chill technomancer named Viktor Markwart who Prot0 wanted to find anyway- they make fast friends and plan to collab in the future. Jonny gets in with the Neo-A’s, who are impressed by his stories of taking on Ghostwalker. They find out from Grimes (and ghouls in the basement) that the church has been actively protecting HMHVV-infected and technomancers, as well as a variety of unaffiliated individuals who got stranded downtown when the QZ went up. Grimes actually seems pretty rad, but this also confirms a lot of the suspicions Frank Incense/Rome wanted investigated. Prot0 and Grimes notice that they are both TM’s, also, and plan to communicate further.

They head back to the Leather District, get a message from Frank, and head to South Boston to the address he provided as a meet point. They find a corny but well-kept house with a “welcome” mat and a mana barrier around it. They are allowed through, and enter, finding Frank peeling off some bleach covered gloves and apron which still doesn’t quite mask the smell of blood. They see the kitchen is full murder-room: plastic taped up over everything etc. They are instantly a bit creeped out. He says that he had a rough initial contact with the Knights of the Red Branch, but that they’ve sorted everything out.

As usual, they have a hard time reading him, and he seems to be able to easily see through their attempts at deception. They pass along info and location about the True Communion-ists, and also what they learned at the church downtown, though they stress that Grimes seems to be doing a good job. Frank doesn’t seem interested in their opinions. He says that he may have more work for them in the future but that he considers this satisfactory payment, and Prot0 takes a quick poll about whether the team should kill him. He seems to catch the vibe and readies himself. Guy and Ratched leave, not wanting any part of this.

The rest of the team also exits, slowly, though Aleiron and PPJ especially are pretty pissed. They head back to the safehouse, and PPJ astrally projects to the church to warn Grimes, and ends up telling his bodyguard Silke all about Frank Incense and where he is/what he’s up to. He tells the team, and Jonny and Guy (especially) are piiiiiissed- selling out a Johnson is majorly unprofessional, especially as they are new in town and Guy has made extreme efforts to be cool with everyone, in order to be able to get around. They all planned to warn Grimes but giving away Frank’s info was too far. They team decides to take a vote to determine if PPJ can remain in the crew or not, and Prot0 launches a massive PR campaign, pulling on all of his street cred to do it, to smear Frank’s rep in town before he finds out and burns them.

Runners
Aleiron Grey
Prot0
Jonny Silver
PepperJack
and introducing:
Kayra
Ratched the Hatchet

Before they head to meet, Prot0 gets a load of investigative jobs from Perri, who wants the team to look into some cybermercs Bennett was using called Zero Day, as well as continue investigating the Null Sect, and another assassin/group called Synapse. Someone has been installing cranial shields into kidnapped TM’s, as well as persecuting and framing AI’s, e-ghosts, and TM’s, and Perri wants to know who. She also thinks one or more of these entities may be behind the Nexus’ beef with Jackpoint. And finally, she wants any info the team can get on De la Mars’ plan for a matrix security overhaul, which she is apparently planning to roll out in GW’s “New Denver.”

The team also hears reports of mass casualties and detainment centers in the AZT district, grudging cooperation from the PCC and Sioux, and lots of bluster and big talk from the UCAS/CAS, but not substantive action. The troll street preachers and militias have increased their activities, and ZDF troops have continued to let Warrens gangs roam free anywhere except the Hub, while the respective districts slowly dissolved and evacuate in preparation for GW’s seemingly inevitable takeover.

The cold calculation of the dragon only becomes clear in retrospect, as it has come out that the same day he made his demand and shut off the Denver matrix, the Corporate Court stripped NeoNet of it’s AAA and announced significant damages against it, as well as banning Richard Villiers from any CEO position for life, in response to their findings of fault for Boston. They also finally gave Spin Industries it’s long-sought third “A”, proving that Johnny Spinrad’s machinations and campaigns of the last few years were successful. The CC also possessed NN’s new home, the St Louis Archology, leaving them baseless. Reports of desperate new SINless former NN citizens flooding the streets (and shadows) have emerged globally.

Amidst this, the team is hired to look into what has been causing these reality rips that have been troubling the town. They get a bit of info from Darien Black, and some more on the Nexus, as well as some from their Johnson, including a dossier on where to start looking, before a rip opens at the meet, and they have to hustle the Johnson out, bringing another group of runners and THEIR Johnson along in the chopper. This other group is quite grateful and offers their services if needed, and the Johnson says that if they find any more tarot, SK is very interested.

PPJ captured one of the strange cartoon-ish creatures that emerged from the rip, and hands it over to Darien (and the team gets to witness some of their very unhealthy dynamic). Darien promises to share the IOND’s findings asap, and the team heads back to the safehouse to start digging. They decide to start their investigations in the warrens, at the first site picked out by the Johnson.

Using astral observation, matrix research, and social skills, they home in on an abandoned and run down mansion that seems to be the epicenter of local reality rips. They infiltrate through a disheviled garage and find it heavily armored and reinforced on the inside. They destroy some cameras, but maybe not in time. They also find a ton of small aerial drones and vats full of chemicals, with a system to load the chems into the drones. Ratched ID’s the liquid as a catalyst that will trigger a genetic sequence that Paladin clinics have been implanting in metahumans throughout the sprawl. They disable the system and rig some grenades to destroy as much as they can, and then find a hidden elevator into a tunnel to the house’s basement.

They get into a major firefight with a cybered-up goon and a decker, as well as two powerful spirits. They take them out, and Ratched steals the goon’s legs. Prot0 manages to get some data from the decker/spider’s setup, but loses some of the data to security measures. They also find a magical lodge, and determine that this is a Black Lodge chantry. PPJ gathers what he can, but all the mana being slung about during the fight opened up some reality rips and they have to flee further into the basement from the things that come through after them.

They fight off 2 terrifying biowaredogs that seem possessed, and find a hidden passage into what looks like an old mine shaft, and another huge ritual chamber ringed with orichalcum. They interrupt the lodgemaster and her 2 acolytes, and get into a brutal brawl. They manage to defeat the lodge members, with Aleiron in wolf form using her vengeance tarot card to chase down and kill the leader as she tries to flee further into the mine. This reminds the team that they had heard rumors of an old mineshaft under the nearby Paladin clinic, which was used as body disposal. They decide to flee that way, and eventually make their way out another exit in the south Warrens.

PPJ, thinking about what they saw, realizes that the ritual was in its early stages, and likely many more BL members would have been there had they gone later. They also hear reports of a large explosion in the Warrens, seemingly having destroyed the house they just left while the were underground. There go their dreams of orichalcum riches…. They report into the Johnson, and heal up for a bit before starting the next leg of the investigation. PPJ splits off to go over all the Lodge material at the IOND.

The team heads to the CAS sector next, and finds it a shitshow. As the evacuation deadline comes up, there are miles long traffic jams, and CAS/LoneStar checkpoints everywhere, with ZDF “observers” aggressively keeping an eye on it all but not helping. They make their way to Doorkickers to try to find out what happened to the last operative Mr. Johnson sent here, and continue his digging. They manage to find and defuse a tense standoff, mostly due to Jonny Silver being so cool. It seems the shops owner has been hiring runners on behalf of a CAS general (secretly) and one of the teams took some heavy hits on a job and came back looking for revenge.

Jonny talks them into taking product instead, and gets info on the General from the proprietor in exchange for helping save his life (though he had enough explosives to go out on his own terms). The team then buys a map from a street dealer to sneak through back alleys to the amusement park where the CAS military evacuation of the sector is based. Jonny leaves the dealer a MeFeed review, which later gets the dealer killed. Woops. The team successfully makes their way to the park with no major trouble, thanks to the map, and starts looking for a way in.

They decide to take out a small motor pool squad that is ditching civilian cars in a mall parking lot after the civvies get sorted in the tent city in the park to await air evacuation. The team’s ambush goes quite sideways, but they do eventually succeed, and get uniforms and badges for everyone. They are aided by the chaos of the situation, and the last minute/impromptu nature of the camp. They also meet a real urban survivor ork child who is holed up in a Stuffer Shack who comes out to loot the military dudes while they’re ko’ed (or dead, for a few).

The team bluffs their way onto the base, and Ratched heads to the med tent to maintain their cover, restock the medkit, and find an escape vehicle. The rest of the team heads to the command post to find the General. However, someone got there first- all of the command staff is dead, and some kind of deck has been plugged into the main comms terminal. They race upstairs to find more bodies, and the General dying from a bad sword cut, having only gotten a few shots off. The assassin leaps out the window as Kayra enters, leaving a beast Jaguar spirit to cover her retreat, she seems to be an elf woman and looks like probably the same person who followed the team on motorcycle before an AZT assault previously.

The Jaguar heavily injures Prot0 and Kayra and chases off the others, before also exiting. The team flees the building, barely escaping before it is levelled by some missiles launched from some mysterious jets that do a supersonic flyover. They flee in a medical jeep that Ratched steals, and head back to the mall, where they swap for a civilian mini van and head back to the safehouse to heal up. They rest for a day and a half while Jonny makes a very popular guest appearance at a Front Range benefit concert to cover medical costs for people injured in the recent troubles and “heal Denver.” Jonny advocates for the poor and downtrodden, and gets the crowd riled and invested.

The team then heads to the Sioux sector, via Rhinegold’s smuggling services, to look for a smuggler who may have some intel. They hit up a bar he supposedly frequents, and manage to successfully navigate the subtle nuances of Sioux culture well enough to get some info. Some local runners try to drink them under the table, but also tell them where the smuggler’s mechanic shop is, and warn them that he’s been real paranoid and recently came into some big paydays. Sounds like they found their guy…. The team heads out to check it out. They eventually discover him dead amidst a bunch of disabled or tripped traps, and find his place trashed- looks like someone beat them there.

They find a shipping manifest, and find out he’s been bringing in rare reagents and powerful ritual supplies, and track the deliveries to Horse Trot Ranch. They infiltrate (with an incredibly brazen distraction, when PPJ intentionally causes a rift, gets captured and interrogated, and has his memory erased), and find a powerful circle of Sioux shamans, aspected towards multiple mentors, and some impressively clean mana/astral space. The shamans explain that they are trying to keep the city from falling apart, and keep the rips from spreading towards Yellowstone, and are prepared to sacrifice themsevles if needed. They hint that Aztlan might be behind the various deaths and conspiracies, and coordinating against GW. They then KO the team, and they wake up again back in the smuggler’s lair. They escape the Sioux sector and lay low to heal up.

Heading for the last job segment, they interview some rift watchers in the PCC and then get into a gunfight with an AZT strike team hiding out seemingly keeping an eye on a large arena which may contain a ritual. In over their heads, they call in the ZDF, and Prot0 uses his last use of the 404 tarot card to help them escape. They meet the Johnson who’s a bit disappointed with the final leg of the mission, and pressures the team to do one more thing for a little more money- they agree, and he opens a rift and sends them to a metaplane.

They work their way through multiple lairs, detonating small packages the Johnson gave them, which seem to sever the lairs as they go (and based on their clown theme suggest that Harlequin is either behind this or someone wants it to seem so). After traveling to the peak and surviving an ambush, they find a strange tower filled with arcane mysteries, and verify that they have been traveling through the metaplanes GW assembled to bring Zebulon back. However, they have to hurry as the plane and mountain seem to be coming apart under them. They find a fight between GW and Harlequin happening on the tower’s peak, and agree to help Harlequin destroy Zebulon to save Denver, and do so.

GW and Harlequin, both injured, survive the fight and the tower’s collapse, as does the team, but Zebulon is destroyed. Harlequin opens a portal back to Denver and suggests the team join him, but Kayra decides to take a chance at her revenge and shoots GW, to no effect, and is swiftly eaten. PPJ, seeing this, keeps his anger in check and the team flees. They emerge in the Warrens, and Harlequin suggests they get out of town ASAP, and then splits.

The team contacts Frank Incense, their Catholic contact, and make arrangements to leave via BBE merc corp, who has fake ID’s and whatnot prepared to get them out of town. They bail fast as GW’s deadline comes, and the Denver borders and matrix get locked down. They land outside Boston in what looks to be staging area BBE is setting up to run support for other merc’s pushing back into the city sometime soon, and start gearing up to head in and lay low for a while, as they hear GW is looking for them…

Runners
Aleiron Grey
Three Card
Yanko Lazer
Prot0
Jonny Silver
PepperJack

The runners meet a Johnson about a high-paying smuggling job, but something seems a little off. As best they can tell, he’s receiving live instruction on how to respond to them, but they pay’s quite good and they can’t find anything obviously fishy so they agree. They hear shortly after that the remote junkyard that was the site of the meet exploded spectacularly shortly after their visit there, and are they glad that they narrowly dodged…. something?

They meet up with Michael Wind-Rider, a risky but respected local t-bird smuggler, who is recently back in the air after getting shot down on a border crossing a few months back. He tells them to prepare for a few days travel and they take off. First they fly to another junkyard outside Reno, this one looking like old US military from the teens, and meet a dwarf rigger, who passes over the package, a sealed and warded crate. They load up and head north through the PCC, dodging patrols. At a refueling stop, they almost lose a fight with some snakes.

They then cross into SIoux terrirtory (Prot0’s TM abilities proving quite useful!), and make another fuel stop at a smuggler’s alliance depot, but find it overrun by Prairie Igasho, obnoxious “lost cause” nomad survivalist types. PPJ successfully negotiates with them for fuel, but then Jonny insists on getting involved and blows the whole thing (they aren’t fans, as it turns out), and 3 Card ends up killing a teenager and feeling rather bad about it (though he was attacking her). They escape with the fuel, and Michael launches a missile into the half-built terminal the Igasho were using for shelter, as revenge for killing his friends who previously ran the place. The team speculates that this may have killed as many as a few dozen people, mostly children.

They fly on, crossing into UCAS territory, after setting down to wait for an ideal time and covering the craft with ruthenium tarps. They make it to a remote private terminal at Stapleton Airport/Base and call for a pickup, but quickly come under attack. A blood adept that the team recognizes from the Los Espejos base nearly kills Jonny, and an invisible blood mage badly injures Yanko and a few others. A sniper kills Michael and almost takes out other team members before sneaking away (and seemingly leaving no blood magic traces). An ork with a military look shows up from the Johnson and gives the team a van to leave with, saying he’ll clean up at the airfield. He gives them Wind-Rider’s share as well.

The Johnson also provides a hotel safehouse in the UCAS sector. Prot0 upgrades his medical drone, which keeps watch over Jonny and Yanko while the rest of the team scouts and attempts another job for the same Johnson: a quick snatch and grab at a local brothel. They have a pretty enjoyable time scouting, exploring various new areas of their respective sexualities, as well as getting a lot of useful info on their target and the house’s security. However, when they come back for the grab, with a lot of specialty tools, they find they’ve been set up. One of the targets bodyguards (who turn out to all be secret service) have killed him and the other guards, and badly wounded his companion for the evening.

The team manages to stabilize the injured woman, but the guard’s head explodes from an implanted bomb before they can capture- he briefly registers a look of hate and disappointment before they detonation, seemingly knowing what’s coming. They flee the house, not encountering anyone else as they are funneled to the street. KE shows up suspiciously quick, and the team is debating a blaze of glory ending when Prot0 gets a message signed with a rabbit mark that says “surrender and trust me”, so they do.

They get interrogated by some bruisers and kicked around a good bit, until “a fed” shows up to take over their case- apparently the man they are believed to have killed is none other than UCAS rep Iain Lesker, and they are being implicated in the bombing at his office as well. However, the fed is none other than Puck, who says that if they agree to help him he will get them clear of this. They do. He gets them out and to a safehouse in the warrens, where they catch up on the news of an eventful few days- Lesker wasn’t the only government or corp type to get hit (or vanish), and there have been some major infrastructure hits in the various sectors as well as mercs massing on the Aztlan sector border, seemingly under ZDF command.

Meanwhile, Yanko and Jonny barely survive a hit attempt at their hotel “safehouse”, and manage to make it out, make contact with Puck, and also get to the safehouse. They noticed some large explosions at a UCAS military base nearby and a power substation, so something is kicking off. Puck suggests it’s GW making a move of some sort, and say he wants to find out what, and also get back at the team’s traitorous Johnson, GW’s special ops/intelligence cleaner, an elf named Bennett.

The team agrees, and they pull a wild data heist at the ZDF command center in the Hub, which Puck has been preparing for. He and Prot0 get the data (barely) while the rest of the team holds off the guards and gets them out of there (also barely). They heal up for a few hours at the safehouse until Puck insists they head out, seeming very distraught- the ZDF know one of the Nexus’ new locations and are going to hit it shortly. The team must help! They reluctantly agree when promised money and other rewards.

They race to a rundown area near the CAS border and warn Perri and the other admins who are there, who start calling in favors and evacuating people- this is where most of the sick, young, and injured from the last attack washed up, as well as being a major data center, so they have some work to do. Meanwhile, a broadcast comes out from GW giving a very short deadline for anyone not loyal to him and him alone to leave Denver, and promising hellfire for Aztlaners. Then the matrix shuts down.

The team starts helping to organize a desperate defense, giving the defenseless people and the data time to get clear via secret escape tunnels that the ZDF seems unaware of. An eclectic mix of runners, mercs, hackers, dealers, bikers, gangers, smugglers, Sons of Sauron and Diamond Eyes band together into impromptu squads and divy up the armaments onhand. They demo a few nearby buildings to create more bottlenecks and slow the ZDF’s approach, and the team splits off to attempt a possibly suicidal alpha strike on the ZDF’s rear command post, where Bennet will be. Prot0 activates a tarot card he was sent by Zany Zuni (the rabbit mark entity- apparently connected to the Denver Exchange.)

They successfully make their approach, hearing the whole time over shortwave that the defenders are taking heavy losses, but slowing the ZDF to a crawl as the evacuation continues. Yanko engages a milspec armored ork (the one with the van from before), using a power granted to him by a tarot card gifted him by an elderly Russian sniper at the Nexus. He channels pure electricity through himself, obliterating the ork as well as himself in the process, and creating one of the “reality rips” the team has been hearing about. Prot0 uses the tarot power, a rose icon on his comm, to brick 2 devices, saving the last use for an emergency.

The rest of the team, shocked, takes out other ZDF guards and drones as 3 Card makes her way to the command trailer. Bennett emerges in more milspec to take them on, but is engaged by some sort of pure electrical spirit in Yanko’s shape that emerges through the rift, before pulling them both back through as it stitches closed. 3 Card slipped through the door as Bennet exited, and in her chemsuit, drops 2 7-Seven grenades into the mass of deckers and riggers, who all quickly jack out, presumably spotting their peril on camera. They rush 3 Card with hand weapons and small arms, but she is an expert of 52 blocks, and she keeps them from the door til they all die.

This gives the Nexus folks just enough time to finish the evacuation and blow the building just at the final ZDF wave arrives- 12 troops in full milspec, who finished off the last of the defenders. The team hustles to the rally point, finding only Puck and Perri waiting. They get brought back to the Warren’s safehouse, paid well, and proclaimed heroes for saving the Nexus (they are also made members). One of the Diamond Eyes had told them to expect a call as “their boss was interested in the team”, and sure enough, a mysterious new Johnson calls to set up a meet, though as far as they can tell it isn’t Harlequin himself.

After restocking, healing, and mourning their dead, they agree to a meet. Sadly, their team is down a few members: 3 Card, finally having earned enough for a near-perfect fake SIN, says her goodbyes and flies back to Seattle after some cyber-alterations, to start a new life with Gina, completing her goal of :get good, get out, and get the girl", though she pays a price in nightly PTSD flashbacks to the things she did and saw to get there. Yanko’s name is inscribed in the memorial wall at the original Nexus site, a pilgrimage spot for hackers and TM’s, alongside those who died fighting the wyrm Jormungandr during the 2nd Crash, and the defenders who died during the ZDF’s last assault.

Aleiron, distraught at the loss of exit of her 2 longterm companions, retreats to Frantic’s bar, where Frantic opens a portal to the astral crossroads city of Yann Ti. She finds another tarot card on her pillow on her 2nd night, seemingly offering a path to revenge on her enemies, and she debated returning to the team. Puck has brought in a new runner in town, a Neo-A medic from Chicago named Ratched, and they team also hires an extra gunhand named Kayra through Darien Black. Off to the meet they go!

Runners
Aleiron Grey
Three Card
Yanko Lazer
Prot0
Jonny Silver
PepperJack

Yanko goes on a (sober) bender while the rest of the team digs into the newly acquired set of Tarot cards. Prot0 goes on his first Resonance dive in modern matrix and finds his way to the Endless Archive, seemingly the home realm of his Paragon The Archivist. To get there he has to pass the Event Horizon and overcome the Cipher’s test, which involves showing Prot0 what effect “helping” Caribou actually had on both Caribou himself and the other residents of the Warrens. Prot0 resolves not to act without full info again in the future, and Cipher accepts this as a lesson learned.

Prot0 trades some info he has acquired that has never been digitized before in trade with the strange librarian sprites at the Archive in exchange for secret info, mostly on the 6th World Tarot. He finds hints at what powers the cards might have, how one might use them, some theories about possible origins, and a number of groups interested in the cards for various reasons. He also confirms the team’s interpretation of the cards- predicting the return of a figure from Hopi legend, which could be a big shakeup in the power structure in Denver during the ongoing Treaty re-negotiations.

Meanwhile, PPJ takes a thorough astral look at the cards, and does some digging at the IOND’s libraries (or at least the sections he’s been admitted to), and finds some further info, about rituals and the like involving the cards, as well as about Hopi magical traditions. The team has a long back and forth on what to do, and makes some calls to get some price options. Their Mona Lisa program has also returned some results from faces visible on the cards they have, and one of them seems to be a A-rated corp CEO from Azania named Joseph Mnguni, and unwisely calls him with no research (breaking his recent promise to Cipher and himself).

PPJ is able to tell that the cards are magically connected in some way, and that the Matrix card has a fire-y aspect, so they head into the Warrens to meet up with Frantic and enlist her help. Jonny is doing a club appearance for his label, but tells them to call in a pinch. They get to Frantic’s bar, and she says the card is actually electrical not fire, and suggests they consult Sam at the gadget shop next door. Prot0 gets a call back from Mnguni, who threatens him a bit, and Prot0 hangs up and does some research- apparently he’s known for taking excessive revenge against adversaries and is currently being courted by none other than Johnny Spinrad for a potential merger. Prot0 vows to actually stick to his earlier vow from now on.

They head to Sam’s shop, run a current through the card after some study, and debate what to do- Sam says it seems like it wants to discharge into something and shouldn’t be harmful, so Prot0 touches it and gains some additional TM powers, though they feel fleeting. The card is also destroyed in the process. PPJ takes off to get an offer for the set from the IOND before any more cards get wrecked, and shortly after the team comes under attack from a bar patron at Frantic’s who seems possessed.

Frantic asks them to leave so she can clean up the other dead patrons in her bar, which they do, taking up a defensive position outside til Grog arrives with his cab to drive them to the exit. Unfortunately, he also is possessed and crashes the car and attacks them. They manage to fend him off and hoof it to the exit, where Jonny is waiting with a van and some smooth-talking to get them through.

They agree they need to get the cards sold ASAP, and get prices from a Hopi rep and from the IOND. The IOND pays a little more, and seems to plan to pass the cards on to the Hopi to gain influence with them, so the team sells to them (over Aleiron’s objections, who wants to give the cards to the Hopi nation as the rightful recipients of the prophecy). They get the IOND to promise to share research info on the cards. Jonny and 3C use their big payday to upgrade some ’ware, while PPJ takes a major hit on his cut to make the deal happen.

The next day, they finally meet up with the Papal Delegation, and arrange to make introductions to Lupus’ clinic in the Warrens. The Catholics want to fund and expand it, but need to move quietly. The team thinks this will likely be both a major medical improvement for Warrens denizens and also a front for Catholic spies, whatever they’re up to here. The Bishop also hints that the Church would be interested in hiring the team to escort a Vatican investigator into Boston to look into reports that the Archdiocese there has gone a bit far afield.

The team is terrified, but the promise of secure transport out of Denver, a big payday, and the possibility of tracking down the Reverser Nanites for a potential CFD cure all seems quite appealing. They agree to think on it. PPJ and Jonny head into the Hub in disguise, to deliver the package they received from Los Espejos, as they got a message saying delivery should be done that day. They find the address, the offices of the UCAS Council rep, and decide that in case this package is sketchy they should use a cutout. They hire a courier, but sketch the first guy out too much, so they hire another courier from a different company and send the package. Shortly thereafter, there is a report of an alchemical explosion at the office, and they hear some screaming in the distance. They quickly exit the Hub, and switch SINs and disguises, worried about what they just did (though it seems they missed the UCAS rep, if that was the target).

They head back to the hotel to hole up for a bit, and the team gets a reminder that they have a smuggling job on the table, which is coming up- they accept, and get the details for the meet.

Runners
Aleiron Grey
Three Card
Yanko Lazer
Prot0
Jonny Silver
PepperJack

The team, including the various new members, takes on another wetwork job, this time killing 3 associates of Brackhaven/the Human Nation’s, who were revealed by Prot0’s successful hack at the Paladin clinic. They carefully research and plot, and manage to do all 3 really pro, impressing the unknown Johnson (a blank humanoid matrix avatar who sounds like old money). They fake an allergic reaction with 1 PR hack who looks to have been coordinating with Aztlaner elements, stage an accidental OD with a member of the Diversity Council who’s a secret metaracist, and brutally murder a Corporate Council advisor from Brackahven Investments on july 4th at a celebratory Miracle Shooter fest. They get paid, well, and told they’ll be contacted for future work as needed.

They soon get an inquiry about looking into the death of the unofficial Aztlan sector’s Mayor, the official story says heart attack but the Nexus says arrow… They also come across a number more tarot cards, and contact Annie about them, as well as upgrade their fake SINs via Sierra Corp again. Annie tells them Wat is back in Seattle but seems “off”. They worry, but what can you do?

They get hired by the same mysterious matrix contact to look into the AZT Mayor, and do some research on how to cross that border. They eventually make contact with an old man at the Conservatory in the CAS sector, which seems like a hub for AZT spycraft (GW’s ban be damned!) and get a map to a location in the abandoned tunnels under Denver. They make their way there and encounter an AZT spec ops team, with a frighteningly powerful spirit. They are all magical, and seem connected slightly to blood magic, which PPJ is not pumped about, but manages to deal with for the moment.

They agree to the strike team’s terms: the runners will be allowed into the Aztlan sector, but will be guided throughout and will be expected to draw a certain conclusion (basically that GW is behind it), though they are free to examine “all the evidence” (or so the strike team says). The team, lacking alt options, agrees, and heads in. They find it very clean and orderly, but with a heavy military presence, and the obvious refuse of some heavy fighting against CAS and LoneStar elements. Also, most of the CAS-imported businesses seem to have been looted or destroyed.

They do a bunch of digging in the morgue, the Mayor’s office, and the assassin’s perch, as well as examining her commlink contents, and are also given a video file of GW’s voice meeting with Tir Tairngire reps shortly before the assassination, and draw the conclusion that the strike team seems to want them to: this is the work of the legendary elven assassin Toast, and likely GW who hired him. Prot0 reports that to the Johnson shortly after ignoring another message from a sprite asking him to contact a commcode before completing their mission. They also report that the Aztlaners seemed to want the team to reach this conclusion, but figure the Johnson will do what he wants with that.

They get paid, and the Johnson says, again, that he’s satisfied and will be in touch. They also get 2 more tarot cards, and piece together a puzzle predicting the return of Pahana, a figure from Hopi legend that could (if true) prove a major upset in the local power balance. They do a lot of research, but hold off on selling the info for now. They are also contacted by a new Johnson about running security on a smuggling gig in a few days time.

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

The team engages in an aerial firefight with some Great Hunt Tir border patrol militia, but manage to barely squeak by. Limping into the UCAS sector of the FRFZ, their pilot Blackhawk tells them to put on diamond insignia and makeup, just to help clear security. The team, lacking other info, complies. They land, leave the military area of the base/airport combo, and remove their disguises in the bathrooms before clearing customs. It seems Sierra Corp did good work with their new SINs, as they get through without much trouble.

They notice an unusually large percentage of orks and trolls, as well as a fair amount of troll COTD street preachers. The UCAS sector also seems exceptionally tense, with a well-armed citizenry. The team splits into 3 groups- Butter, Aleiron and 3 Card head to the Hub to try to make some local contacts, Grackle splits off to fix up his armor and deck from the last run, and Eion, Yanko, and Wat head into the Aurora Warrens with Ada on the motorcycle and sidecar, aiming to have a look around before the meet with the Johnson later tonight.

The Hub team makes contact with an anti-corp magic user named Digger, who hangs out at a multi-tier club called Tower of Babel. He gives them some local intel, and they also meet an older elf technomancer named Prot0 who offers his assistance as a local guide and matrix expert (he’s looking into the team on behalf of the Nexus). They hang around for a while and wait for the meet to get a little closer before heading into the Hub. Meanwhile, the Warrens team has hit a rough patch. They get in just fine, but the guards are pretty clear that people generally aren’t let back out. They also don’t see many vehicles inside. And they have a lot of decently expensive equipment and are obviously not from there, instantly marking them as targets.

The team sees signs everywhere that a gang called the Zombies seems to have taken over all of the turf in the Warrens, tagging over other gangs signs and posting lookouts all around. The lookouts seem to be reporting on the team’s movements, so they they decide to force a confrontation. Some gangers on beat up bikes arrive for a classic shakedown, which Wat almost successfully negotiates before Eion starts a fight. The team wins, but are pretty shredded (Wat and Ada especially), and more gangers incoming.

They head for a local street doc that Butter gets contact info for, and they race to the Smoky Hill Bazaar in the south Warrens. They meet the Doc, a sketchy transhumanist named Lupus Doubek who says she can only save either Wat or Ada. Eion and Yanko choose Wat, and approve Lupus’ plan to use some of Ada’s parts to “improve” him. The Zombie gangers quickly show up outside the clinic, and their leader, and ex-Yakuza troll named Ohnee, challenges Eion to single combat, which Eion accepts.

Eion gets a couple good hits in, and Yanko is starting to think it might go his way, when Eion has a bad dodge and gets decapitated by Ohnee’s combat chainsaw. Grackle quickly makes a meme of the footage and shares it widely. So not a very subtle arrival in Denver overall. However, this seems to placate the Zombie gang, and some of Eions Infected blood splatters some of the gangers so it seems likely some of him may live on…

Lupus is fascinated with the Evo mods that Wat has, and Yanko puts her in touch with Squeamish, and she arranges some experiments, sending Ada and Eion’s brains to Seattle. Wat, upon waking, is horrified by this whole sequence of events, and leaves the team, making a withdrawal from team funds to cover bribes and transit, and seemingly bound for Seattle, claiming he needs to prevent anything else from happening to Ada. 3 Card is pretty distraught, having lost her 2 closest team-mates. Butter warns Squeamish that Wat may be inbound and looking for trouble.

The remaining team heads to the meet with the Johnson, and get the lowdown on the job- a local clinic that provides cheap and free medical care to the Warrens poor is possibly engaged in some sketchy activity and they want the team to investigate. Prot0 suggests getting another local runner involved, a rocker face named Jonny Silver. They make contact and meet him at his concert that night. He agrees to help, and asks around about rumors about the clinic, and finds that they seems to be sterilizing metahumans using “existing injuries” as a cover.

The team does a casual infiltration of the hospital, minus Grackle, who has gotten in good with the Zombie gang, and is mostly hanging with them. Mostly, it goes well, and Aleiron and Prot0 manage to get the data they need from the basement with an escape assist from Jonny Silver. However, 3 Card’s plan for being on scene goes sideways, and she ends up getting sterilized. Extra angry and sad now, she’s in a dark place, and is ignoring Gina’s calls or responding with terse texts. They meet the Johnson again, who is quickly assassinated by human supremacists.

The team succeeds in surviving after a tough fight, taking out the human goons in the bar, but allowing the 2 more skilled assassins to escape. However, they capture one of their silenced pistols, which has an ornate engraving of a Flaming Sword on it. They also capture their roto-drone with a mounted assault rifle. Butter and Prot0 start fixing it up. Meanwhile, the Johnson’s friend introduces himself as Parker James, and says he’s the money behind the job and he wants the team to keep at it. He asks them to rescue a street doc named Hippocrates who’s gotten himself in some sort of trouble. Most of the team takes a cab over to his clinic, while Butter decides to walk.

The clinic is in a strip mall renamed “Paradise Lost” that some ex-runners retired to, opening up 7 businesses adjacent to each other, surrounding his clinic, he being their longtime favorite local street doc. Pretty much a one stop shop for runners. They don’t have much time to investigate, however, as the clinic looks to have sustained some battle damage. They hurry in, neglecting to warn Butter of the glowing eyed dogs their cabby warned them of on the way. Butter, walking over, finds himself stalked by said dogs, and after failing to take some border guards into helping him, he gets caught and killed by them. Tyrese leaves the team to run to a would-be rescue, but is too late, though he manages to drive off the dogs before Butter’s body is too badly damaged.

The rest of the team finds a total slaughter in the clinic, it looks like some human supremacist goons got into with the clientele, leading to multiple casualties, and Jonny finds a group of more goons waiting nearby. He lures them out but they give chase heavily and the team ends up in a rolling firefight. The team members inside find a man hiding in back who says he’s an employee who hid during the slaughter, and doesn’t know where Hippocrates went, and seems surprised when they team suggests he has a safe room onsite. They find it, and open it up, finding the Doc, but the man they found reveals himself as an assassin and tries to take out the Doc.

3 Card throws herself in front of the shot and is nearly ko’ed, and the team gets into a hard fight with the cybered-up madman. Tyrese rushes in at the last minute and saves the day with a machine-gun burst and then dives on the man’s suicide grenade. The protection spell from the Parliament of Cars reassembles Tyrese from his exploded components, shocking the team. Yanko takes the Doc to the provided safehouse until James can get him out of town, while the rest of the team retrieves Butter.

They bring him back to Lupus’ clinic, and scrap him for parts. A lot of his softer bits have gotten eaten by urban critters, so they sell off his ‘ware, except for his control rig, which they give to Tyrese (upon his request). They forget to do anything with his remains otherwise, just leaving them in a corner at Lupus’. They get drunk at a local bar before heading to the safehouse. They hang there for a few days while the Doc heals them up, before he’s picked up and spirited out of town.

James gives them another job- tracking down local victims of the clinic, getting their stories, and finding out specifically which Doctors were involved. He needs this to happen fast, in order to assassinate those doctors, before other members of his group (the Sons of Sauron) follow through on their plan to bomb the clinic. The team interviews a number of locals, meeting some real characters, as well as finding a vamp gang called Nocturna, who provide safe haven to people on their turf in exchange for non-lethal amounta of blood. They also meet and IOND mage named PepperJack who seems to be investigating the same issue, although in his case it is because the clinic appears to be doing the same sketchy business with awakened individuals as well as metas.

The team is also offered some side jobs of finding info on who is funding/behind the clinic, as well as finding more proof of their experiments on the awakened. They agree to do them if they can, and make a list of 11 clinic staff, doctors, etc to kill. They make a plan to get everyone in, and implement. Proto provides matrix support from outside while Jonny riles up the crowd of protesters assembled after James leaked the info the team had gathered thus far, and Yanko keeps an eye on the exits to make sure the team can get out.

3 Card and Aleiron, in disguise as the clinic’s outreach doctors (who they have killed) head in and split up, while PPJ enters from the CAS side (as he possesses a legal SIN). PPJ takes out 2 admins and gets a data tap on their system, where Prot0 is able to salvage some data that they were trying to delete, and finds a secret back passage to a financial holdings company that they’re in touch with, implying Brackhaven involvement.

3C takes out 5 more of the targets as the clinic enters lockdown, while Aleiron slays the remaining 2 in wolf form. The team broadcasts the kills, which Jonny uses to rile up the crowd further, and James uses to prevent the bombing. Aleiron manages to sneak out the Warrens side with Yanko’s help just before they fully lock down, while 3 Card has to sneak and fight through the facility to the far side, where she escapes with magical assistance from PPJ. The team reunites and collects a massive payday.

They use some of their money to fund Lupus’ clinic to provide free care to the Warrens for 2 weeks, since the clinic shuts down. They also get some more offers of work- one of the side job Johnsons wants them to assassinate some human supremacist figures revealed from the data they stole, and Jonny’s manager wants their help aggressively recruiting some talent away from Horizon. However, they are forced to hole up for a few days while a massive manastorm rolls through town. Aleiron gets into some romantic hangs with a free spirit named Frantic who runs a bar in Paradise Lost while the rest of the team tries to bond a bit. Tyrese is thrilled to be able to carry his gun all the time, and excited to find that people in the Warrens will pay him to shoot people. The team decides to keep a little distance from Tyrese.

After the manastorm, news comes in that Aztlan has managed to use that, and the distraction to the ZDF caused by citywide protests against the Paladin clinic chain, to retake some of their old turf in the CAS sector. No response from Ghostwalker as yet, but things are tense. There are also report of street brawls between the Diamond Eyes gang and citizens militias led by troll street preachers. The team decides to do the recruiting job first, heading to the Wonderland club in the Hub. The proprietor Alyss doesn’t take kindly to illusion use in her club, as Yanko and PPJ quickly discover.

Jonny and Aleiron, disguised as caterers, dose a round of shots with Tracker RFIDs, and 3Card and Yanko initiate a fake brawl to ID which members of the Horizon star’s entourage might be undercover security. Prot0, on lookout, ID’s 3 of them, and 3C spots another keeping an eye on things from a distance. They get everyone to drink the shots, and Prot0 sends the relevant tracker signals to the Johnson, who pays up. They exit the club, and come under fire from a concealed sniper, who wrecks Prot0’s “assistant” drone, and nearly kills most of the team, before they injure them enough that they flee, just ahead of the ZDF’s arrival.

The ZDF confiscates the drone’s gun and disables it’s hidden weapon mount, but otherwise clears the team, as they were attacked, and defended themselves pretty responsibly. Jonny and Aleiron sneak off unnoticed. Prot0 manages to give a false ID using a resonance trick, but the rest of the team is on the ZDF’s radar now, though the predominantly ork and troll squad take kindly to Yanko and 3C’s Sierra Corp ID’s. The team heads back to the CAS sector to their hotel “safehouse”, which also houses a Papal Delegation. They get a message requesting a meeting from the Catholics, and also hear the news that the impromptu “governor” of the new AZT sector has been assassinated by an archer.