Runners
Prot0
Jonny Silver
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest
OverEasy

Runners
Prot0
Jonny Silver
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest
OverEasy

The team decides to deal with the Crying Mask assassination attempt first, and looks into it further. They make contact with Master File, the admin of a local shadow VPN, and trade some info for info on the target, as well as making plans to gain longterm access in the near future. MF also wants them to look into the Turing Army, as does The Probe technofetishist gang, who Kinnie and Prot0 go to for some surgery. Guy and Prot0 take Long Haul, and with OE and Jonny as backup, cruise around in the van watching for the convoy.

They day before Halloween, they spot it, get ahead of it, and spot the ambush setup ahead. They manage to clear a bunch of civilians out of the way surreptitiously, and Prot0, Aylin and Jonny collab on a quality press release and con blaming Ghostwalker for the attack., Prot0 hacks a ZDF badge on one of the attackers just for a second, and they flee the scene as a massive gunfight breaks out. The military seems to get the best of the runners, but an arrow hits a target in one of the armored cars (Toast?). However, the con seems to hold, and GW publicly gets the blame.

This leads to a lot of issues as GW retaliates against people mocking and threatening him, FedPol and military police get into a very public squabble, and the Crying Masks try to take credit and fail, but lose a safehouse and many members to GW’s wrath. The team then begins looking into the Compensation Army in the Anacostia Barrens on Ratched’s behalf (Equity is trying to make headway amongst their number with a leftist perspective), and finds that there is suspiciously well-supplied inner circle, who seem to have connections to a tumor spirit- Black Lodge affiliation perhaps!

The team buys a boat to have a sneaky way to investigate the CA further, and sets up a recon base on an island in the Anacostia river, inside the Barrens. They find a way in through an abandoned drainage tunnel from the factory (now the Old Republic CA HQ). They infiltrate the pipe, and Guy and Prot0 levitate up and sneak through an astral ward. Ratched finds the missing Equity member’s corpse. Prot0 hacks into the system through a camera up top, and gets some info: the top floor of the factory is sectioned off, with no surveillance, and the armory has better gear than most of the guards, including equipment similar to the Bone Ninja’s loadout. He also finds a delivery record showing regular resupplies but no payments, but who’s sending them is unclear.

They decide to leave and not push it further, but alert astral security after triggering the ward. A massive tumor spirit traps the team in the tunnel, and almost kills OE and Aylin. Luckily OE and Guy deal massive damage with spells and astral combat, and the spirit retreats to the astral to surveil the team and avoid disruption. They flee, killing 1 and knocking out 5 CA guards on the way. The hire the IOND to help them ditch the tumor spirit and not bring it to the safehouse. Guy sends Berto the car spirit to get Lys to also help.

The dead Equity member was also missing some organs, surgically-removed, which Prot0 spotted in jars. These are likely being used as hosts for more tumor spirits. They confirm this suspicion with Madeline Schmidt, who they sell the info too, after Ratched also reports into Equity and gets the OK. She also makes contact with the local Bright Star chapter, and convinces Equity to allow them to do some basic security work for them at least. Ratched agrees with Bullseye, the local Bright Star, that although they want to live in Equity’s world, it isn’t the one they live in right now and some nastier things sometimes need to be done to get there. Ratched is thinking about leaving the team and these look like some good options.

Lys and Berto show up at the IOND and chat with Guy, Lys is doing much better after getting clear of Boston. He agrees to distract the tumor spirirt while the team gets back to the safehouse to rest up. Aylin takes a few days to recover, while the rest of the team catches up on personal biz. They witness various protests and continuations of the drama they started by blaming GW, and get warned not to look into the archer assassin Toast too publicly due to his handlers being dangerous people. They hear about a concert by the monad synth-country artist(s) Two Minds, and decide to attend, hoping they can scope out some potential Turing Army supports amidst the protestors outside.

OE also does some recon for one of their jobs for STV- scouting a data vault that they need to hit. Looks like low astral security, but well-done. They head to the venue, a dingy roadside blues bar (the previous venue and opener having cancelled due to Purists protests), and make a security plan. Guy and Aylin take the dock and riverside, OE and Ratched take the front entry and parking lot, Prot0 and Kinnie do overwatch from the roof, and Jonny works inside. He also talks his way into an opening slot, semi-on purpose. They eventually spot some TA goons amidst the Purists protestors using a laser designator on the venue, and Guy manages to blow a drone missile out of the sky with an impressive lightning bolt.

The detonation scares off most of the protestors, but Guy manages to capture the rigger missile launcher with an air spirit, and OE and Ratched grab one of the ones up top (though Ratched becomes heavily meme’d and has to change her look significantly). They call into their local Garmonbozia contact, who requests they get some info from the 2 captures and suggests working with The Probe to do so. The team also reports that Aylin read one of the minds of a goon who got away and knows where their safehouse is, and Prot0 reports this. He is is then sent a live feed from a drone missile as it annihilates an apartment just as 2 men walk in fresh from the protests- 1 goon they recognize and 1 they didn’t spot.

They take the 2 captured TA goons to the location provided by The Probe, which turns out to be a medical industry crematorium just south of Bethesda. Leanna Octave awaits them, and says she has prepped various options for them. They decide to use gamma scopolamine combined with Aylin’s mind probe, not wanting to become the monsters they are fighting in resorting to torture. They find out that the recent resurgence of the TA is largely due to them getting matrix support from the Null Sect (though the TA doesn’t seem to know who or what exactly they have made a deal with…). This is disturbing, and the team tries to warn those they can, printing off some more paper copies of the Null Doc to distribute.

Prot0 also pays Guy to start going to therapy, and finds a good, expensive, and VERY discrete therapist to hire. It seems to be helping. Some of the rest of the team wonder why Prot0 isn’t one of the ones seeking some assistance…

Runners
Prot0
Jonny Silver
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest
OverEasy

The team reports back to STV, gets paid, and gives the after action report. Madeline Schmidt gives them their review (kill less teens, be more subtle, good job otherwise basically) and tells them about some followup opportunities: digging into Sahara Jones, following a Shedim expert named Patricia Loveland, and looking further into Otto Stevens’ connections at a lobbyists gala. They decide to do the gala first, as it’s the only scheduled one.

First though, they decide to follow up on the link in Kinnie’s comm, and head to the Dark Side club (which seems to have either relocated or have a DeeCee branch as well), and catch a limo ride over by clicking the icon. They are attacked by some sort of tumor adept, who infects Aylin and Prot0 after Aylin slices him in half with their whip and he bursts all over them. They cut the regrowing tumor tissue out before it can take hold, but are creeped out- is this connected to the cancer spirit that followed OE before?

They head into the club through the magical door-guard, and are told they each get one wish. They also drink and dance. OE gets some on the-DL quality implants, Aylin gets a tarot card, Prot0 gets Kaze Adeki’s private commcode, Guy gets a strange scroll wrapped around an orichalcum rod to help with his astral quest, Jonny learns to play Seelie Court style microtonal music and adapts his guitar, & Kinnie gets tickets and a box for game 6 of the World Series. Kinnie leaves early and is surprised when his friends don’t return for 2 days, though they thought they were only there for an evening.

They race to get ready for the gala, and prep their disguises, fake ID’s, and plan. They roll over, using their arms dealer/lobbyist fake ID’s, and implement the plan- Prot0 and Aylin (in mist form in a briefcase) sneak off from the main group to find the ops center to hack the secure comms node for the event. The rest of the team starts making careful observation of who seems likely to be comm-ing at the same time so they can figure out who’s secretly talking to each other. Jonny also makes an introduction with Sahara Jones to follow up further.

Aylin mists into the ops center after they dodge some guards and plants a data tap. Prot0 hacks the comms log and gets the info but then gets chased off by some guards and has to hide in a bathroom to finish up while Aylin exfiltrates in mist form. The rest of the team eventually makes their exit and they escape. The law firm thanks them for the data, and notes that as an added bonus they’ve ID’ed a data vault they’d like the team to hit as well. The team also gets some sidework offers from Cass Wandering Horse (look into local Crying Masks activities, and looking into the Turing Army and the Exchange for Garmonbozia.

They look into CM activities a bit first, and find out that they’re hiring multiple amoral runner teams locally to assassinate a DoD official named Ronald Despain, known as “Dragonslayer” for doing exactly that. They bribe Zenith for some info, but he won’t give them specifics due to professional pride. Prot0 also passes off the Null Sect document in paper form to Ladybug from the Nexus, as well as receiving delivery of the Wuxing Frequency comm he hired runners to steal. He unwisely turns it out and sees that it’s being tracked, and advises the team to leave the bar. They all saw that PepperJack died in ep 2 of Temple of Terror on the trid but are unable to stay for a commemorative drink due to worrying about what might be coming down.

They return to the safehouse and Prot0 tries to hack the comm but gets ko’ed by the massive sprite he tries to compile and has to get some cyber-organ replacements to survive. He gives up for now. Zenith and OE both report spotting some corpsec looking goons looking around where the comm has been but they don’t seem to have an exact location, so they hope they’re safe for now. Erika Knowles reports back after the team investigates the potential bug hive that Stokes knew the location of, and reports that it is indeed bugs. Knowles reported it to Anne Ravenheart, who told Sticks about it. The team finds Reconstruction footage of someone in an armored chemsuit raiding the church in the Blood Dust Barrens with a FAB-III thrower while some local ghouls run security for him (presumably immune to the Blood Dust, though not the FAB).

This leaves a fovae behind, but the BD barrens are already pretty fucked, so everyone just decides to stay away. Knowles also warns the team about a FedPol investigation into Guy, and says that she made contact with the Ex-Corporate Scientists and has access to their experimental lab if the team needs anything. Kinnie is excited and starts ordering bits to fiddle with. Jonny plays some open mics and starts building a rep for his new weird music under his new SIN. Aylin and Guy try to go to the metaplanes for Guy’s astral quest, Aylin gets past the Dweller but Guy does not (he can’t confront his core trauma honestly).

Aylin gets to the astral crossroads city of Penn Yan on the plane of man, and finds that STV, The Continental, and Tru-13/MCT all have offices there. MCT seems to be buying harvested materials from other planes. Aylin goes into the STV branch and tries to figure out where Guy is , or his spirit lawyer. They can’t help much, but Aylin does hire a beast spirit tracker named Yellowbone to try to find what happened to her mom. Meanwhile, Jonny and Prot0 encourage Guy to just make contact with his spirit lawyer from the material plane.

He does- Bartholomew Barkins shows up, summoned by the burning of an incense containing his true name. Barkins and Guy chat, and Guy finds out that the scroll he got at Dark Side is a contract with a shedim warlord to provide his car spirit’s true name in exchange for getting to use Guy’s body for 1 8-hour period of sleep. Guy instantly agrees. Barkins facilitates the signing and tries to encourage Guy to talk about his experience with the Dweller, but he won’t.

Guy returns to the team, and fills them in. He flies to Paris, has a nice day, and the goes to sleep. He wakes up in Prague with a lot less money, and flies home. Aylin reads his memory, and sees what the shedim did- withdrew funds onto credsticks at a United Bank of Panama branch, purchases a bunch of arms and armor in some woods, trades the guns for some bodies in Prague, and summons shedim to inhabit them. They wear the armor and head out, as the possessor gets to a train station just before Guy gains control. Disturbing, but Guy seems fine overall, though a little shedim-tainted.

He bonds with his ally car spirit, and gains a new connection. Aylin hears back from Yellowbone, and finds out her mom was possessed by a blood shade. Aylin confronts her father about this, and finds out that he has been trying to find a way to bring her back and failing, and didn’t want to tell Aylin because blood shades love to feast on people genetically related to them, and he worried for her safety. Aylin and her dad make peace and agree to keep looking.

RUNNERS
PepperJack

Meanwhile, PPJ has awoken to find himself inside the crystal island, seemingly reshaping itself at will to host the 3rd annual Taco Temple: Temple of Terror competition. There are 36 contenders, down to 35 at the first meeting after a Knights of the Red Branch member tries to strangle and Ancient and is impaled by crystal. The group splits into 6 teams (1 5-person, the rest 6). Everyone is allowed one single item of their choosing. The first test begins: each team enters it’s own door off the meeting room, and finds a central chamber with 5 halls leading off, variously traversible.

It takes different teams different amounts of time, but they all eventually realize that only 5 people of the 6 are leaving, and leave 1 member behind (except for the team with a Centurion, who refuses to believe a sacrifice is necessary and stays behind to look for the 6th way out, and the 5 person team who seems confused by the other teams’ stress). There is a sign telling them to say a series of short phonetic phrases for a language they don’t recognize as they leave. One contestant tries to race through a door without saying the phrase and is speared by crystal. They return to the central chamber and have time to heal and socialize, as well as get a second single item for the second test.

This one puts the teams into pairs of doors, adjacent to another team. There are only four corridors, but some of the teams figure out that they can access the adjacent teams’ chamber and use their exits as well if they eliminate or incapacitate some of that team. So 8 exits total for 10 team members. Unfortunately, PPJ is gunned down and abandoned by his team during this test. Thus culled, the teams return to heal and socialize further, now with some bad blood. Beware of the example on the first day, noone tries anything in the central chamber though.

The next test splits the teams again- there are 3 passages, 2 descending, 1 ascending, each guarded by a cloaked gene-modded basilisk. Some teams work together, some go their own way, but most teams end up fighting the basilisks, remembering some hints from mythology, or bypassing them (though this requires the sacrifice of an appendage to exit). They return to the central chamber and find a few extra people missing. They heal, missing limbs are replaced with cyber, and they prepare for the 4th test, each getting a new item again.

This time it’s a free for all brawl, with only 12 exits for 18 contenders. Some race for the exits, some teams try to work together, some gun others down. The exits seem to activate as contestants are eliminated, but the center of the arena is a bloodbath, and only 10 contestants make it out. As the exit, they are required to recall and recite some strange phrases they’ve been prompted to speak as the passed each previous door. The teams split into pairs based on who survived (only 5 teams remain) for the fifth test.

The teams, 1 at a time, enter a small chamber with a single exit. Most of the teams decide this is it, and race to draw down on their erstwhile friend faster than the other can. However, one team refuses to fight, and both exit successfully. 6 contestants remain for the final test. They all get 1 more item, and a lifetime supply of Taco Temple (limited to 1 meal per day). They find themselves in the midst of a completely smooth crystal floor with 6 lit alcoves along the outside. One contestant races out of the center and chucks a grav-grenade back into the middle.

Most of the other scatter, but 2 remain. 1 of them, a Mystic Crusader, uses his launch skyward to scout the terrain and gun down enemies, taking out the grenade thrower, a Wicked parkourier, and a Roxxx ganger who had all made it this far. A sneaky CFD dwarf makes it to an alcove, and finds a huge platter of tacos, and eats them as quickly as possible, and starts sneaking back to the center, feeling a pull that direction in their belly. The powerful mage Cigam also reaches an alcove and wolfs the tacos, but is spotted by the Mystic Crusader on exit and gunned down.

The MC makes it to an alcove, but is trapped inside after the sneaky dwarf successfully returns to the center and is lowered through the floor. The MC tries to eat but the small chamber fills with tacos and it seems utterly hopeless. The dwarf JT is announced as the winner, earning the million nuyen prize and transport out of Boston! The rest of the contestants are thanked for their participation, and “sent home”, though no reports of them actually being seen are accessible (but hey, it’s Boston so who knows…)

Runners
Prot0
Jonny Silver
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest
OverEasy

The team spends some time tracking down Agent X, following hints to a local runner named Wandering Horse. Him and Jonny have a tense meeting, while OE notices in astral that WH is well-defended by air spirits in case anything goes awry. However, he seems happy to part with his info, once they prove they are “friends” of Maddox’s and not seeking Agent X to harm her. They get some ID info and background- she’s some kind of government hacker who’s gone rogue recently, Firewatch and others are looking for her and there is a bounty out.

Aylin also calls in to the Neon Ascension conspiracy podcast and crafts a subtle hint to try to get Agent X to a meeting, based on the personal info they discover. The shedim keep hassling Prot0 for more info, so he calls STV and asks them to negotiate on the team’s behalf, figuring they can make a better choice of what info to share (or not). Aylin goes solo to the meet, but has the team on standby nearby in case of emergency. Agent X sends a drone but agrees to cooperate, seemingly excited that the team is looking into some of the same things as her.

She warns of a congregation of powerful insect spirits in DC and some sort of unification of the different hives. She has ID’ed 2 prominent figures involved, the sleazy elf Stokes and someone else she merely calls “ARES man.” The team decides to track Stokes down by surveilling the shelter the two teens they killed were from, and also agree to keep an eye out for 2 more missing teens that Agent X/Camille Rivers seems attached to.

They scout the shelter a bit, but don’t see any signs, so they hack into an internal comms log and find records that some employees were concerned about a sleazy elf hanging around nearby and approaching kids as they leave. So the team follows some kids leaving on foot, and spots them entering a dilapidated building (& meeting Stokes?) a short distance away. Jonny tries to sneak around the side but gets spotted by Stokes, who invisibly KO’s him with manabolts, proving to be a reasonably powerful mage. Guy, hanging back, spots some FedPol detectives roll up to the school in an unmarked car, it seems the cops are on this too…

Ptor0 tracks the fleeing Stokes with his drone swarm whilehe & Aylin chase on foot, and OE keeps an eye in astral. Kinnie approaches Jonny to see what he can do and finds that Stokes trapped the body with Jonny’s own foam explosive. Him and Guy manage to verrrrry carefully shape concrete under Jonny while cutting him out of his clothes and lift him off the foam explosive without detonating it, and they bring the van around to where the others have caught up to Stokes. Aylin cuts off one of his legs with the monofil, but he shoots her with a sawed-off in response, so Prot0 KO’s him with Stick’n’Shock. Aylin quickly reads his mind and finds out what he’s been up to.

He was sent to DeeCee to lay some groundwork for a man named Otto Stevens, who is “Ares Man”. Stokes wants to become an insect shaman, and it seems Stevens has been leading him along with promises that he can make this happen (whether or not he actually can). Stokes has been kidnapping and recruiting from various at-risk communities around the sprawl to make friends of all the local insect hives, in preparation for what, he doesn’t know. The team, disgusted by this slimy elf, kills him and sells the remains to a ghoul-run meat shop in Potomac called “Special’s Meats” that they are referred to by STV.

Next, they rest and heal and then research Stevens, who also used to go by Hendricks, it seems. He seems to either be a double or triple agent, working with Ares against bugs, or with bugs against Ares from the inside. They set up a meet, and find that he has an impressive office with a commanding view of downtown. He and Jonny have an intense and somewhat intimidating convo where Stevens claims to be a deep cover Ares operative using his knowledge of and connection to bug hives to turn them against the Black Lodge and Shedim in DeeCee (as well as each other) before destroying them. He offers up his own explanations for the Ford’s Theater debacle, and hints that there is a powerful magical shadow war on the brink of kicking off in DC, so he encourages the team to tell their employers to dig further if they want to maintain the peace.

He gives them one name, a woman he says is responsible for the bad tip about the Ford’s Theater: Sahara Jones. The team prepares to report back to STV, get paid, and see if they want to hire them to keep digging.

Runners
Prot0
Jonny Silver
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest
OverEasy
Ratched

The team, while healing up at STV’s offices, sells all the varied data they’ve accumulated from the ECSE, as well as some stuff they’ve compiled from the larger Boston area over their stay. They sell Smedley deets on ECSE facility defense and layout, Erika Knowles gets Null Sect info (and an offer to smuggle her out which she accepts, returning the team a bit to her good graces), Prot0 also arranges to meet a Nexus courier in DeeCee in 2 weeks to pass along the info as well (as it wouldn’t be safe online), Jackpoint and Nexus TM’s and hackers pony up to buy the foundation creation/100 data and keep it out of corp hands (for now), they sell Mayor Meghan the MCT torture and experiments info for her to use as a bargaining chip, they pass along the result of the MCT torture to Nexus with the understanding that noone should profit off of that, but that if the info is erased someone will likely do it again, EVO gets the p-soft training CFD “cure” data, SK gets the Project Abyss and PAX info (and quickly Thor strikes an AZT black lab on the 128 corridor), and the team decides to hold onto their info about Lilith for now while they do more digging. Prot0 puts out some tentative feelers on that.

For all of this, they each take home over half a mil and leave a sizable chunk in their team fund and drone repair/replacement fund. They stock up on gear, ammo, etc, and both Kinnie and Jonny fake their own deaths, with a lot more people noticing Jonny doing so (tributes begin pouring in, though the corps consider it another terrorist down). STV gets them all a few new ID’s (plenty of opportunity in Boston), and they don’t tell many people where they’re going. They arrange to smuggle all their forbidden/restricted and obvious gear in a shipping container via the Yakuza to the massive Potomac Yards facility in DC, which is Yakuza controlled. They also pack Liam’s motorcycle and Erika Knowles in there, and arrange to bring Lys with them on the flight out. They introduce Genowefa Gale to Mama, Gale handles the surprise well and begins negotiating to represent the interests of Mama’s Boys during reconstruction, as well as linking up STV’s basement levels to the Catacombs.

With all that business attended to, they finish healing up, put on their “civilian” clothes/armor, and catch a corp chopper out of the QZ from the STV office. They transfer to a regional commuter jet at a merc airfield, and find a bunch of off-duty mercs, engineers, political aides etc aboard for the short hop to DC. They land at Baltimore-Washington Int’l (the least secure airport given KE/Ares making steps towards relocating to Atlanta and in a contract squabble with the Feds), and spend the better part of a day rejoicing in their return to civilization- they get sloppy drunk at the airport bar, spend way too much money on steaks, peruse some cheesy Boston mourning merch, and do a little local research. Kinnie finds out that his husband did make it out, but after 2 years of waiting for any word has moved on, and is now with another Boston survivor he met in a grief group. Kinnie decides this is for the best, as he’s not sure what he’s become or if he would want his husband to see/know him as he is now.

They eventually rally to take the train into town and get into their STV safehouse and pick up their STV van. Aylin gets her first exposure to sunlight since becoming infected and it is awful. They’re glad to have a UV protected full body suit but it still hurts and feels like heavy pressure bearing down on her. They get in to the safehouse and crash. The next day, OE and Guy make runs out to the port to get their gear back to the safehouse, while Kinnie guards the safehouse and gear once delivered. It takes 3 trips but goes smoothly, with OE covering for Guy’s social ineptitude- they’re really not in Boston anymore, noone knows Guy! The rest of the team goes to the meet, Aylin and Prot0 makes minor fools of themselves over a coffee machine but Jonny uses this as a feature- his team is so good at their specialties that they don’t need to all be good at the social side.

They get the rundown: some kind of explosion or other major event occurred 2 days ago at Ford’s Theater, and STV wants details. The team starts digging and finds out that the Theater has been under construction for a long time, seemingly as a front for some sort of odd magic or cult, that it came under attack from some milspec forces wearing Ares Bug Stomper armor, that the FedPol investigation into what happened appears to have stopped almost before it started, that FedPol is still guarding the site, that a massive mana void surrounds it (as if a tunnel in the astral had collapsed), that someone cut local camera feeds before the attack, that a vanm dumpster, 2 suits of armor (+ maybe occupants), and various weapons were burned with thermite out back, that over a dozen people died inside, and that their looks to have been a gate or portal of some kind in the basement, based on the hermetic/Masonic symbols that remain after whatever was detonated here went off. They also detect that a delivery drone flew through the no camera zone during the attack, and decide to track it down. And they notice they are being watched- Madeline Schmidt warned there would be other interested parties…

They send a drone recording of an unidentifiable odor to STV to run through their data vault, and get a report back that it is a compound found most often on the metaplane of ID- so that’s likely where they portal lead. Schmidt tells them to keep digging. They track down the drone courier, and Prot0 geeks out over his custom tech. They end up social manipulating him for the data, convincing him it’s too dangerous for him to even watch, let alone keep, and that they will try to warn others off him. Outside, OE sees that there is now another group following them; as opposed to the first pair who were decked out in camo cloaks, these 2 seem like ratty street teens, but have a slightly skittering astral vibe. Analyzing the drone data they see 2 figures in Bug Stompers leave the theater, one kills the other, and burns the body as well as his own gear in the van and dumpster. The drone gets bad image of him in the bright flare of light- muscled male ork. It also spots a Ford Americar parked nearby and gets the plate.

Prot0 hacks some traffic cams nearby to get into a license registry and finds the name and a photo of the car’s owner- a muscled ork with a military haircut. Time to track him down! They contact Erika Knowles to get info given the possible Ares/Firewatch connection, and then decide to deal with the folks tailing them. They set up an ambush at the edge of the Anacostia Barrens, but only the teens fall for it- the more pro pair tracks them with a blimp drone. They kill one of the teens and ko the other, Aylin reads her mind and tops up on essence before they kill her too. There is a lot of debate about that morality of these actions, but OE’s paranoia (and quick trigger finger) as well as Jonny’s burgeoning cyberpsychosis take the day, for now. They find out that the teens were recruited from a local shelter by a slimy/charismatic elf shaman, who they take to be a bug guy. He was using some sort of group perception spell to see what the teens saw, so he presumably knows some of what went on here.

Guy sends an air spirit up to distract the blimp while the team skedaddles, and they ditch pursuit in time to make some next plans. Prot0 gets a message from someone suggesting that they should share info, and they hear on the local news that there is footage of 2 local teens being killed in an ambush. However, it’s only infrared so not identifiable. The mysterious caller suggests that Jonny cooperate if he doesn’t want the teams ID’s and images getting leaked, and Prot0 tries to reverse hack on the call while Jonny stalls. They caller isn’t interested in his chat, so Jonny agrees to share the drone footage (since they figure they already have a little bit of a headstart there) in exchange for some other info on the bug kids and not releasing their info.

They send the file over, and head north to get the supposedly sole copy of the incriminating images from a courier drone. Prot0 has backtraced the call to a nearby mortuary, and they investigate a bit, finding that all the plants on site are fake, and that there is a faint shedim vibe in the astral but nothing current. They figure a shedim must have possessed one of the corpses inside to make the call and then bailed. Jonny reports into Madeline Schmidt with a progress update, and she says she’s looking forward to the full debriefing. They also hear from Erika Knowles that the FW Ork, Ben Maddox, made contact with an ex-colleague (one of her fellow rebel FW members) and wants to defect (which could be a trap). He’s also known to have a local friend with benefits. They get her name, and call her, suggesting that she should really have her friend call them if she doesn’t want bad things to happen to both of them.

Jonny convinces Maddox to meet up, telling him that they can get him to safety with the rogue FW faction, and they start setting it up with Knowles. She tells them to get him to a secure dropoff at the Draco Foundation HQ and she’ll take it from there. Maddox says he’ll give them the info he wants, but only after he’s safe. He seems paranoid but honest. They arrange to meet on Georgetown campus, feeling that Catholic mages will likely be able to keep the shedim and bugs at bay (hopefully). Guy magically alters the van appearance, while Prot0 conceals them in the matrix. They also use another air spirit with concealment to hide them. Meanwhile, Aylin and OE take the spirit bike and ride around to attract attention and act as both backup and a distraction. OE spots a shedim in astral near the campus, goes to fight it, and is quickly ko’ed. Fearing possession, Aylin races him onto campus and dumps him there, fleeing with the bike as sec drones briefly follow.

Jonny coaxes Maddox (with a bomb vest) into the van, and they carefully drive over to DF HQ without any issues, and pass Maddox off to the rogue FW team there, they exchange the proper passcodes which seems to reassure him. He tells them he stashed a comm with all the info near a market in Kansai Village. OE wakes up on campus to find 2 priests leaned over him, they declare him free from possession but make him pay a fine. After he explains about the shedim thing they try to convert/recruit him, which he rejects. He links up with Aylin, and they head to the market and into the cafe there to get the comm. Aylin spots a terrifying cancer spirit observing/tailing OE n astral, and attacks it, disrupting it before it can see him grab the comm from it’s hiding place.

They sneak back to the safehouse, splitting up again in case of spirits, and examine the data. Apparently Ares has developed some sort of explosive “device” that can disrupt magical portals/astral connections, and their FW teams have been using it to disrupt bug hives globally. Maddox’s team was the North American group, and had recently been ordered to DC. This was their first local gig, and seems to have been based on bad info, or an intentional setup- no bugs onsite, and Maddox was ordered to make sure he was the lone survivor, which he did, but felt awful about. However, when Ares hitmen plus the bug shaman Stokes who the team saw in the teens’ memories tried to kill him at the debrief, he went underground, his loyalty to the corp finally broken. They also get useful project/ops data on a few different Ares secret programs, as well as a hint at where to look next- a local shadowcast called Neon Ascension, and a recent caller named “Agent X.”

Runners
Prot0
Jonny Silver
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest
OverEasy
Ratched

The team spends a couple days prepping for the ECSE raid, while Pancake and Adelbern keep an eye on T1’s, who is setting up to go in as well, as the merc forces have reached their former safehouse at Boston Manatech. Guy and Kinnie prepare an escape tunnel, with Guy shaping concrete up to the underside of the secure ECSE facility from Mama’s turf, while Kinnie guides him with radar. They cut into the metal shell around the facility with a thermite bar, but not all the way through, to avoid setting off any sensor alerts, and then Guy seals up the tunnel end to prevent any random discoveries,

The team smuggles stuff into downtown and stages in an open conference room at Stark, Thiessen, and Van der Mar, with an agreement not to bring any heat on them. They sell the CFD gun specs to Aaron Creech at EVO in exchange for some Monad CFD doses, which Adelbern uses to poison 2 members of T1’s team, hopefully comromising them, Erika Knowles is pissed when she finds out and cuts contact with most of the team, though Aylin wants to make it up.

Aylin trains with Ghostwalker’s drake advisors to learn the early stages of becoming a Horrorstalker, though Mama seems to think that this is a riskier path than the Lightbearer/Bringer’s that the Horrorstalker’s look down on. Jonny makes some last calls and he and Prot0 both set up some dead man’s triggers for various sensitive info. They get the word that it’s go time, and head over. Pancake warns them about a sniper but says he’s distracting him in the matrix and the CFD infection seems to be taking over. The team heads into the facility a few minutes after the cybermercs, and Ratched and Adelbern stay up top to keep an exit open as long as possible and distract any reinforcements.

The team finds a dead cybermerc inside, but all the drone and trap security on the ground floor has been disabled. The mercs seem to be using a ton of breaching shields as well as overwhelming force to hit the Zero Zone fast and hard. The team follows, sealing shafts and entries behind them and laying traps for any who follow. They clear the security levels, only having to do minimal trap bypass and finding all defenders either dead or fled. They get into a fight with one cyber-merc on the first lab level and lose their scout drone, but get a bunch of paydata about MCT’s experiments on TM’s/cranial shields, cyberadepts, etc.

They get down to the next lab level and find the cybermercs brawling full on with MCT forces. The team takes this chance to attack the mercs from the rear. This allowed two MCT mages to escape and seal the shaft down behind them, but the team defeats the mercs, though they suffer heavy injuries and almost lose the big drone, Guy is barely able to save it magically. OverEasy also defeats a shedim that followed T1’s team in. They find more info about MCT research programs into the CyTech program and other cyber/Resonance experimentation, as well as security critters.

They break their way down into the next level and find the defenders making their last stand. After a brutal fight, 1/2 the team is dying and all the drones besides the medic drone are down, but the team emerges victorious. They find a bunch of data on the Null, their beliefs, and MCT’s attempted cooperation with them, as well as some thoughts to the Null’s role in spreading CFD (through scaring e-life offline). They gain access to the lowest level using the defenders’ leaders biometrics (he believed himself to be Kaze Adeki’s son but was actually a clone), and also find that MCT had locked down the facility and final level due to paranoia about Project Orion infiltration (Dawkins CFD ghostriders), as well as the return of PAX, who appears to have infiltrated this lab pre-Lockdown as well as Project Vulcan, putting her front and center for the outbreak once again.

In the final lab, they bypass a ton of traps using all the corpses from the fights above, as they hear explosions of some sort of reinforcements coming closer. They discover the 100- Danielle de la Mar’s dirty little secret, the technomancer gestalt dream/nightmare that formed the Foundation, as well as possibly creating or connecting to the Null. They also find out that De la Mar was inspired by the strange semi-matrix of the Seelie Court, and that there are hints to 4th World “technomancers” who worshipped a Passion called “The Seed”, and that more clues and hidden mysteries could perhaps be found in the Fey Realms, which De la Mar plans to visit. This and the Null data seem to fully vindicate Prot0’s belief that magic and Resonance are inherently connected, and he can’t wait to escape and write his paper. He also gets a strong feeling of approval from the archivist.

The team also finds a facility-wide EMP device that PAX seems to have disabled that otherwise could have wiped all the date. They use Kinnie’s near-dead body with Prot0’s comm access to radar scan and look for their prepped exit, and Guy shapes their way out, as everyone except Overeasy passes out from drugs and injuries. Most of the team only survives through some sort of miraculous luck.

Meanwhile, Ratched and Adelbern talk the spirit into transferring over to Adelbern’s fancy bike, and Ratched rigs up a car bomb, and blows a corpsec APC that shows up. They chuck grenades at another one as they race off, but Adelbern gets hit by some return fire, and knowing he’s done for, jumps off the bike to make sure Ratched escapes, after giving Ratched his watch. Pancake helps Ratched get clear and bids him well. Ratched reaches the rendesvouz in the Catacombs and sends OE to fetch some Mama’s Boys while he stabilizes everyone else.

They successfully keep anyone from bleeding out and get smuggled back to the law firm to process and sell the data while they get their new ID’s and flights out figured out. They spend a few days healing up and making ready to leave Boston.

Runners
Prot0
Jonny Silver
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest
OverEasy
Ratched

Ratched rejoins the team, finally out of the hospital from the safehouse getting burned. The team bribes their way into the MCZ past Trip-D border guards, with Prot0 debuting his new drone fleet- a steel lynx with a Valkyrie module, plus a replacement Prot0-drone medic and a well-armored bumblebee. Trip D suggests that unless they come back with some real good salvage they will be unlikely to get back out, however. They decide to establish a safehouse at Kinnie’s old MIT&T lab space, and head that way. They manage to secure it and get some power working to keep their crazy-repeller running while they go out questing.

They decide to tackle OE’s job first, and find out what happened to all the Fomorians who got “recruited” into that Manadyne study. They find the Manadyne office with no trouble, but notice they’re being stalked by a pack of Fenrir wolves. They spot to corpses on the roof, 1 Formorian and 1 possible human or elf. They seem to have double suicided after being trapped by wolves, based on a scrawled note. Jonny and Prot0 + drones stay in the first floor/lobby while the rest of the team rappels down a secret shaft into the lab.

They investigate and determine that the Fomorians were likely being kept here at least semi-involuntarily, and they staged a breakout attempt sometime about a year into the lockdown. However, they tried to escape through the steam tunnels, and some infected critters got in, leading to a massive gunfight between Fomorians, wolves, lab dogs, scientists, and security, ending in everyone dying and some kind of “cleasing” of the lab data. Luckily they recover some headware from one of the techs and some paper records to review.

Jonny and Prot0 come under attack by wolves up top, and the rest of the team decides to take the tunnels back to safehouse, but gets turned around and surrounded. Both groups manage to fight their ways back to the safehouse, but both Prot0 and Guy have to use their doses of Reversers after being bit. However, they make it back and analyze the data- apparently the lab was studying the mana resistance innate to Fomorians and trying to figure out how to implant that trait in others. They had some minor success with some security dogs they sold to Trans-Latvian/Ordo Maximus members, but most of the results seem to have been acquired by the Grey siblings for their Gray Mana-tech.

Kinnie and Ratched decide to hang at the safehouse to work on building up a prototype gatling laser that Kinnie found hidden specs for, in order to have good salvage to trade for their escape from the MCZ. The rest of the team rests and heads North towards the next heist target- the Harvard lab where a chunk of the Cornerstone resides. Luckily the mobile crazy-repeller seems to work well to keep ragers at bay and the huge shambler mobs are relatively easy to avoid.

Less easy to avoid is a series of explosive traps and a sniper left on guard by Blackheart Security, who seem to have gotten to the lab first. The team almost eats it in the ensuing firefight, and one of the fancy new drones is trashed (but alchemically repaired enough to get it to limp home). Luckily Aylin is able to focus enough to bring her monofil whip along with her in mistform and turns the tide. However, the team was only fighting 2 guards and almost died, and can hear boots racing down from above, so they decide to flee. However, Liam seems to have used this attack as a distraction to complete the heist, and tells Jonny to get his team out.

They flee back to the safehouse, trying to lure in infected behind them to delay pursuit, and rest up before heading for the exit. Liam leaves before them with the Cornerstone, but gives them something called the “Pendulum Room manuscript” that he found along with it- apparently something else to do with the Seelie Court. The team puzzles over it but can’t make any headway so they hold onto it.

They bribe Trip-D with the repeating laser prototype, bluffing that they didn’t find specs, and also money, and gets into quarantine. Luckily they end up just ahead of the Blackheart squad, who stare daggers at them the whole time, but the team gets out first, partially due to OE being an ex-merc himself and having some rapport with Trip-D. They hightail it South to ditch Blackheart, and all head to their safehouses to rest up and re-equip before the raid on the ECSE, after which they hope to leave Boston for good.

Runners
Prot0
Jonny Silver
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest

The team hear that Mayor Meghan is receiving external support, seemingly part of Ghostwalker’s anti-corp agenda, and has 2 drake agents assisting her. The team checks on their bounty (which has gone up for Prot0 and Jonny only) confirming some GW interest. They decide to really lay low, after checking in with Smedley, who seems a little cagey. They figure out how to activate the Dragon card, and are connected to Lofwyr through a mirror, surprisingly. Jonny asks him not to Thor strike the infected collection zones since the team has a cure, and Lofwyr tells him to bring cure samples to the SK office downtown. The team agrees.

Kinnie, having the only legit SIN in the group at the moment, heads in with the sample. Sensing their opportunity, SK, negotiates with him (not his strong suit), which ends up with SK in possession of the cure, the scientists, and the knowledge of Salem, and the team with some significant offers of payday and very little control. They feel outmaneuvered but it occurs to them that if they stay on SK’s good side it might be some useful protection.

They get prepped to do the next heist for now, while thinking more of the existential issues. Adelbern and Wynn have done some recon again, and discovered some conflict amongst DIMR higher-ups: Valeria (a Nadja fixer) has come down from NYC to bring the Boston office back into the fold, which Anne Lyne (the local head during the Lockdown) has taken umbrage with. She has put out feelers about acquiring the set of Tarot queens, and has a rep as a bit of a tyrant, locally. The team decides to approach the Nadja, feeling that having more powerful connections outside of Boston will help them more, since they don’t have a dog in this fight.

Valeria gets them a set of fake Queens (meaning she or an associate has seemingly seen the real ones?), and Jonny contact Lyne to tell her they’re on their way in with the requested cards. Wynn tells them that he did some hacking ahead of time and got the item they seek transferred to Lynne’s office for a “review”, so they just need to snag it in the office or en route. Aylin mists into a briefcase which Kinnie carries in (good SIN and all), while Prot0 with sprite assist spoofs the scanners and joins them. Everyone else waits nearby. Wynn tells them he’s averted cameras and sensors out front and in the foyer, but they’ll be on their own after that.

They head into the meeting and find that Lynne is an astral expert and has an astrolabe map of the metaplanes somewhat similar to Guy’s. She sends the item back when it turns up, seemingly annoyed that it showed up, and Aylin mists after it to make sure the team can snag it. Kinnie and Prot0 hand over the cards, and Lynne tries to activate them, but instead of doing what she expected, they open a small rift and suck her through, screaming. They hightail it out of there (having promised Valeria not to mess with anything else), and grab the item and Aylin in mist form. They escape, pass the statue off to Wynn, and begin planning their entrance into the MCZ.

Runners
Prot0
Jonny Silver
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest
OverEasy

The team analyzes T1’s data on the ECSE and starts making a plan. They also collate data on the Tan Robes in order to try gain admission to Salem, and sell a bunch of valuable info via JackPoint. They do further tarot analysis as well, and Kinnie activates the Shadow card (semi-accidentally). It seems to grant them admission to an exclusive club in London known for granting favors. They also visit Mama to ask about Tarot and other things, while some of the team goes to meet up with Erika Knowles, and they find out she’s in danger due to going hard against ARES. They check in with Tyreseus and confirm there’s a growing bounty. They also hear rumors that a blood spirit has been assassinating Trans-Latvian execs.

They research Druidic factions to get an idea on how to be in Salem. They get distracted in their planning by a distressed Kostas, who appears in their safehouse and tells them that the “ASPS” facility is under attack. He enlists their help in response to promises of future rewards, and they race to the facility. They manage to save a few employees, including the woman who leads the blood crystal implant surgeries, but can tell that the blood shade is loose in the facility. The woman, Nell, convinces them that she is non-magical, and they agree to take everyone to the IOND for safekeeping. OE projects ahead and converses with Olivier, who fills them in on ties between Trans-Lat/Ordo Maximus/Black Lodge and tells them he will prepare for the potential that some of the “ASPS” members are BL in disguise.

They reach the IOND tower, and Olivier ushers everyone in before springing a trap on Nell, who proves to be a powerful mage. Unfortunately, she mind controls some of the team to attack each other/Olivier, and Kinnie, trying to calm things down, launches a gas grenade, ko-ing both mages. Nell has a cortical bomb as it turns out, and Olivier is killed in the ensuing explosion. The Summoning Master, Bora Elihu, is elevated to chapter master as the school mourns their loss. The team gets some implants and bonds new foci using school resources, and prepares to head North.

The team secures Erika Knowles safety first, ushering her to Messerzahn protection, and Kinnie trades some designs and knowledge with ex-BM/Murai scientists, hiding amongst the Wicked in the Rox. The Wicked seem like one of the only gangs that hasn’t lost out in the syndicate war. They also finally contact the lawyer Genowefa Gale at Stark, Theissen and Van der Mar, and agree to do some work in DeeCee once the Lockdown lifts, in exchange for help with tranist and ID’s. They get some offers of assistance and info from her, and also find out that many metaracists from Boston (as well as Denver and elsehwere globally) are making their way to PWV, Azania, seemingly a new congregation point for those org’s, with some funding that looks to be coming from Brackhaven and others. The team also receives a Tarot card, and Guy gets some astral info and crude map of the metaplanes from a Jackpoint payout.

They head North, and safely reach Salem. They see that Swampscott is fully gone and absorbed by the woods, while Peabody seems to have been conquered by mercs, though signs of recent fighting and explosions suggest that the Neo-A’s and NAN separatists aren’t letting it slide by. They pass along their info on the Tan Robes, and get approved to enter, though everyone keeps hinting that they shouldn’t trust anyone and may or may not be able to leave freely, depending on their actions.

They find the town split between 4 factions, with a central lake. Pro-Damon wiccans have a large slice, and seem to have made a cautious but not complete alliance with the Church of the Dragon, which has the largest population and territory. Anti-Damon wiccans have entered an uneasy alliance with metaracist/anti-dragon militias, and are slightly smaller than the pro-Damon wiccans. The smallest by far is also the hardest-looking- ex-NeoNet employees including Zoh Rothberg (Celedyr’s voice) and some Knights of Rage. They’ve removed all NN insignia and seem only loyal to Celedyr, from what the team can tell. Both the anti-Damon-ists and the KOR offer the team work, but it seems potentially dirty.

Prot0 does some matrix scouting, and almost gets killed by a hugely powerful resonant/dissonant entity (too fast to tell), and realized why noone is running wireless on within the protection of the Mist (which the COTD seems to control). This entity seems to emerge from a school building central to COTD turf, which the team is not allowed in, though Guy makes some progress talking his way towards access. Damon and a number of COTD members also are engaged in a multi-day ritual to cleanse the lake, which the team gets a sample of, and Prot0 thinks seems similar to the powerful entity- perhaps a clue that the lake was the terminal point of “Eliohann’s” flightpath, though it appears “he” has been moved to the school since then.

Jonny starts making in-roads with Aseela, seemingly a Johnson/Fixer for the pro-Damon wiccans, who seems to know the biz but be more cautious in her approach to the team. She wants them to investigate what jobs the other factions want them to do, and report back. Kinnie and OverEasy push really hard to leave and get paid for the info that they’ve gotten, taking a smaller payday to not get further involved, but everyone else is heavily invested in seeking more info. Damon puts the members who stay in town up at his place but says he can’t get involved (in an effort to keep the peace locally), and Guy goes on a divination quest to try to foretell how to succeed on his metaplanar quest.

Overeasy and Kinnie are approached by some Omega Zero Zero Evo mercs, who seem to be the ones occupying Peabody, and offered work- if they can get info on: is the dragon alive, what state is the dragon in, and who will ally with Evo most easily (and how), Evo will pay the team well. OE heads back in while Kinnie waits with the car. He gives the team the info, and they debate which way to go, going back and forth a bunch.

The team allies hard with the COTD, gains all the secret knowledge about what happened with Eliohann/Cerberus/Cereus/Deus during the experiment and early days of the shutdown, as well as what the COTD has done to stabilize the nanite-infested dragon since. Cerberus seems to be in control today and approves the team’s plan to spread word of a potential cure in order to prevent the Thor Strike prophecy from coming true. He also instructs the COTD to help the team harvest some of his nanites to test if they can really undo some of the damage he did in his maddened state, which he seems deeply regretful of. The COTD also gives the team the Dragon tarot card, and the team quickly determines that it represents Lofwyr/SK (in it’s current incarnation).

They also broker an alliance with Evo, in exchange for allowing the COTD continued control of the dragon and his care, Evo will be an early corp presence in the area. Satisfied that they’ve done all they need to do for the time, the team leaves, and get paid by Evo. They also receive a parting gift; a Blackheart Security spy who was watching the team and Salem. The Evo mercs say his partner didn’t survive questioning, but that they knew a good bit about the team and their activities. This is worrying but not surprising. Aylin feasts, and they ditch the body in the woods with a note, warning the NAN separatists and Neo-A’s that Blackheart has some intel and interest.

They return to town, drop Kinnie off at the lab with the dragon nanites (which seem promising for a cure-all but are limited in quantity). They head back to the Nub and hear some bad news: Yaksha was blamed for the Neo-A missile attacks and killed by Omega Dawn. Also, their safehouse was burned, seemingly by a combo of Hater/Rager attack, Shifting Pyre, and Omega Dawn. Mama’s Boyz had to close off the tunnel to keep the danger from spreading. The team meets with Mama, who warns Aylin that she is now “horror-touched” as well as delivering some other info. She arranges for them to all have individual safehouses for the time being, and warns them not to bring in more trouble. They also see merc corps herding shamblers into cleared zones in Southie as well as the MCZ.

They decide to lay low between jobs, and arrange with Genowefa Gale to have their new ID’s ready for travel ASAP. They do one quick job for the Nexus, and track SEARCH/Jack down to the airbase east of the harbor. They manage to communicate with him and find out that he’s CFD infected (along with the rest of the officer corp it seems), but is working on a CFD-cure to sequester the infection in an otherwise functional mind. He passes them his data after they tell him that they are envoys from Perri, and passes along a short message which make them think he might be her dad. They also post an update about this to JackPoint and find out that they just met the legendary Fastjack. They debate trying to get him one of the dragon cures, but Kinnie and the scientists are still perfecting the Reverser level/mix, so they decide to hold off til they’re sure.

Heists for Adelbern next!