Runners:
Atlas Park
Lodestone
Rooster
Thankyou
Zuberi
Rooster takes a cab into Nyamkopon, the Asamandan capitol, to do some shopping. The city is impressively well layed out, clean, and aesthetically pleasing. After Rooster purchases appropriate clothing for everyone except Zuberi (who refuses all offers), he meets up with the team at the airport, they change, and they head into town, where Atlas gets an expensive hotel room with a secure safe for all their gear.
They wait for a few hours, and head to the 99 Bar, a ritzy local club frequented by non-ghoul locals and visitors in society’s upper echelons. Some research has indicated that the club prides itself on its privaxcy and security (as well as its dress code), all of which is proven true upon their arrival. Formidable looking ghoul security checks their weapons and ammo (including TY’s cybergun ammo), and a hostess insists on LS adding a loaned tie to his blazer. Zuberi is forced to wait outside, as he is far too uncouth to gain entry.
They follow the hostess through the smoky club to a private room in back, and order food and drinks after finding out it is all comped. There they meet a woman named Jane, who introduces herself as their Ms. Johnson. She hires them to accompany her to Lagos, a feral freecity enclosed by the Yoruba kingdom in former Nigeria. There, they will protect and assist her in the search for an item stolen from her employer, and track down the elf responsible for stealing it, a man named Samriel Lockwood. The team tells her they can leave that evening, after stopping by the hospital to get vaccinated and stock up on medical supplies, at Jane’s advice.
Atlas contacts Jason Park and tells him and Exocet that there is a room waiting for them at the hotel, and leaves info at the desk for them to be allowed in upon arrival. Then, the team hits up the hospital & heads to the airport. TY gets a new lighter suit of armor, as his milspec suit isn’t going to travel well. They also leave behind all their various explosives & whatnot.
They hop on a rickety looking manually-piloted plane, flown by a skilled bush pilot named Innocent Dobiri, and are flown into Muhammad Intl Airport in Lagos, barely avoiding some AA fire on the way in with Baelor’s assistance. Jane hires them cabs after the local Area Boys shake them down (Zuberi gives them a hard time, but the team pays up), and they head to the port district of Apapa to their (relatively) secure hotel. After doing a sweep, the team decides to split up and visit both the Dudu Dudu Oja Arms Market and the Amulet Market to look for info & gather supplies.
TY, Zuberi, and Jane head to the Arms Market. On the way, they encounter some local thugs kidnapping a group of youths off a bus in stalled traffic in broad daylight. One of the youths escapes and runs towards them, and Jane is about to intervene when Zuberi fatally combusts the youth, effectively defusing the situation in the most horrifying way possible. He tells Jane that he has done the best he could for the girl by sending her properly to the Dark Realm, and TY chimes in that both the girl and the team would surely have been killed had there been a firefight. Jane is outraged and disturbed, but they continue with their mission, as she can also see that they aren’t totally wrong. Even if Zuberi’s methods are disturbing.
Upon reaching the Arms Market, TY is in heaven. There are weapons of every sort, up to and including used jets and tanks. He also makes the disturbing discovery that Onotari Arms is a Saeder-Krupp subsidiary, meaning that they just framed S-K in the dracoform killing. They stock up on ammo, ask around, and are told to check the Amulet Market or the Leventis Store for more info.
The other team heads to the amulet market. Using his new contacts in The Order of St George, LS finds a buyer for the dragon bits that they obtained. They negotiate, get a good price, and also get some info: there is a man named Kayin who is a local fixer and fence that they should talk to. He deals in high level antiquities, amongst other things, and has his ear to the ground regarding local action. He is also a Hawala, and so is considered fairly trustworthy. He works out of the Leventis Market in Apapa.
The team’s meet back at the hotel, and LS helps talk Jane through some of her distress around Zuberi’s actions earlier. Rooster gets drunk with some of the local guards, and Atlas works out. They wake the next morning, and head to Leventis while Jane makes some calls. They find Kaying easily enough, and he agrees to give them some info in exchange for a favor. They are to retrieve a small metal mask from the abandoned Surelere district, and in turn he will get them invited to a viewing of the items that are up for sale in an upcoming antiquities auction. Maybe they will find what they seek there. The team agrees, and heads out.
To enter Surelere, they cross an enourmous trash mountain that seems to mark the district border. As they move further in, the team’s awakened members notice that the local manafield has a distrubing and evil feel. They cannot focus their full energies on their craft, and even Baelor (who is concealing their movement astrally) seems to be weakening. TY also keeps thinking that he sees something at the edge of his vision, but everyone else writes it off as his usual paranoia.
They begin rushing as they progress further and the background count worsens: apparently the massive death toll in this district during the VITAS I plague has a major effect. Atlas kicks in the door on the burned shell of a house, finds what looks to be some sort of animist shrine, and grabs the mask. When he does, a large number of rotting, diseased spirits of man manifest all around them. TY is temporarily paralyzed by a vision of his village when it was destroyed, and regains some memories of his youth, as well as some flashes of visions of his major cyber-reconstructions following his villages destruction. The rest of the team wisely flees.
Atlas picks Rooster up, and Baelor does the same to LS, as they are lagging. The team hoofs it while firing back at the spirits with guns and spells. As they flee, the tide of spirits behind them grows, seeming to flow in from side streets and buildings. Zuberi is sure that none of those who died here ever received appropriate rites, and decides that he must return someday and cleanse this district of the vengeful dead. They are almost back to the trash wall when they see a toxic shaman in bone armor borne atop a palanquin by 4 spirits. LS tries to scan his mind, but he counters it with a wave of his spinal column staff, and launches a massive acid wave at the team. It fries a number of the spirits, and Zuberi plows up a huge chunk of road to try to further slow their advance, but the team (aside from Rooster and Atlas) take severe damage. They manage to escape over the wall with Atlas and Baelor manhauling everyone over the top.
Most of the team head for Kayin, seeking revenge for what they feel was a setup. However, they find him calm and reasonable, and he gets them discount medical care, and tells them that now he knows that they are capable. Kayin and Zuberi also bond over Zuberi’s plans to clean up Surelere. Good to his word, he also gets them all an invite to King Adegoke’s palace to view the items that will be on the docket at the upcoming auction. The team heads for the Apapa medical center to recuperate, and LS astrally initiates with the OSG while they heal. Jane is thrilled to hear of their progress, although once again somewhat horrified by the goings-on in this city. They prepare to fly to Adegoke’s palace.
Comments