Runners
Creep
Chew Gum
Dig
The Detective
Tabasco aka Cholula

The team gets everyone into position and triggers the assault against the OOSG fortified warehouse. Rose is providing TM comms support to boost the range of the TacNET, giving everyone some critical bonuses, while ChewGum and the spirits watch the back for anyone trying to escape towards the river. Otters keeps the van out of sight for now, running the RCC from inside the smuggling compartment, while The Detective rides inside, keeps an eye out locally, and provides leadership and oversight via the TacNET. DIg and SINder set up to provide magical cover for the assault team, while Bard is covering from a sniper perch.

The assault team approaches, with Cholula and the Windsor crew members Signpost, Smaug, and Lunatech easily hopping over the fence that rings the building. Otters’ mule drone gets hung up for a moment at the fenceline while also providing covering fire for the bounding overwatch maneuver. Creep sneaks up without anyone seeming to notice him. As Cholula turns to help out the drone, some panels on the warehouse wall drops and two of the ballistas fire massive bolts into the drone, destroying it. Bard takes out one of their crew with a well-placed sniper shot, while Dig keeps missing over and over with lightning bolts.

Signpost cracks open some more defensive paneling and those 3 slip inside, with Creep sneakily following, and Cholula ascending to the roof. CG opens up with suppressive fire on the back wall, keeping everyone trapped inside with the spirits on overwatch. The ballistas next turn their fire on Bard’s position, and he is hit and drops off the TacNET, seemingly unconscious or dead. SINder seems to be distracted trying to help him, and Dig manages to distract one of the ballista crews with another unusually weak spell, but it provides enough cover for Cholula to manage to light them on fire with phosphorus arrows.

The Windsor crew takes out the other ballista crew, as Cholula comes under fire from a crossbow-wielding knight, and a half dozen other knights charge and dogpile the Windsor crew, wildly swinging their claymore’s in some kind of combat frenzy. One of them seems to be the obvious leader, who Creep and Cholula mark out on the TacNET. They appear to be making short work of the outnumbered Windsor crew, so Creep and Cholula open fire on them as well, revealing their positions.

Dig also launches some spells at those he can see, and CG starts descending from his perch to breech from the rear and help. Otters moves the van closer for support and extraction now that the ballistas are out of commission. Cholula gets hit by a couple of stun grenades and is forced to retreat, and Creep has to fall back outside after two of the knights charge up towards his position. CG’s spirit manages to cause one of them to fall on his own sword during the attack, injuriously, and Dig snags the other one with his magic fingers to keep him from catching Creep.

Creep leaves a grenade behind and detonates it, shredding the knight’s armor. He still charges out in pursuit, and Otters drops him with the van HMG. Dig approaches closer to get into the fight as well and almost gets tagged with some kind of nasty toxin thrown by the leader. It seems to briefly increase his drain, but he feels like he dodged something worse. CG blasts his way in from the back and opens up on the OOSG knights who have been hacking up the Windsor crew.

Singpost looks dead, Smaug is badly injured, and Lunatech also looks pretty hurt but is sneakily hauling herself free over towards the pile of toxic chemical barrels in one corner. She starts fiddling with some tubes and wires connected to them when she gets there while Otters takes out another OOSG knight who tries to come after Dig in the doorway, and CG frantically dodges attacks from the 2 who charge him. The leader manages to counter a powerful spell from Dig, and starts swinging his sword at him after annihilating Dig’s spirit with his mageblade.

Dig dodges impressively well with some assistance from Otters and TD, and manages to hold the leader just long enough with his magic fingers to allow himself to escape to a safer distance. Unfortunately, SINder was trying to use his own spell to haul the KO’ed Smaug out the door to safety, and Smaug is cut in half by the OOSG leader. Lunatech seeing this, and with 3 knights remaining and them team out of good ideas on how to fight them effectively, and with the van damaged from another sword blow, makes a decision, and shouting “to the MOOOOOOOOON” ignites some det cord she has wound around the chemical drum tubing she has spliced together.

CG goes down under the OOSG assault, though his spirit is able to keep one of the knights from stopping Lunatech. Cholula decides on a crazy rescue plan, and takes a running jump off the roof of the van and goes into a sliding dive to grab CG and get them both out the back of the warehouse before it blows. TD grabs Creep into the van as Otters spins it around to put the open door away from the warehouse and the van between Dig and the warehouse.

It blows big and Dig manages to leap into the open side door as the van is blown towards him. CG and Cholula roll free with some more help from the plant corpse spirit, and get picked up. Rose and SINder haul a bandaged and unconscious Bard down, still impaled with a massive ballista bolt, and get back to their vehicle to head home and try to regroup, much depleted. The team heads back to their safehouse and rests.

The next day, they package up their assorted intel, and Dig heads up to Smoach’s to get help interpreting it. He promises they will help Smoach deal with the Shadow spirit threat soon. Smoach ID’s the toxin used on him as “Void Blast”- it apparently messes with channeling, and would likely have done a lot of damage as well if it had hit full on. He also ID’s a key sigil that the team saw on the OOSG bladed as “St. Hubert’s Key” a symbol of a sort of purification- he’s heard some Catholic’s think there is an artifact affiliated that can stave off or prevent HMHVV infection. But this seems darker, like they wanted to “purify” the world of the Infected.

This would explain the noxious chemical cloud over the part of downtown where the fight took place, where some of whatever was in the barrels is still burning, or at least smoking. Smoach also ID’s the sigil on the necklace the leader wore, which is what he used to counterspell Dig, as a rumored symbol of a shadowy group called the “Cult of the Great Hunter”, and explains that he had thought they were just a paranoid internet rumor. Supposedly, they were some 4th World humans who didn’t hide during the transition to magical downtime, and instead spent the time hunting and killing dragons, fae, and others while they slumbered or sheltered in their Kaer’s. As well as, rumors say, continued their work into the 5th World, and beyond, up to the present- though once again, Smoach says this is all just fringe rumor stuff, or so he thought.

With data in hand, Dig flies down to Brunwyn’s yacht, and passes it over. She seems thrilled that them and the Windsor crew took the initiative and dealt with the OOSG, and after Dig fumbles around a bit, gives him some money. She says that she has to rescind a few previous job offers, as some of the people she’s been seeking have been found, either by herself or others, in which case they did not survive. Someone else appears to be hunting the scientists that she’s been collecting. However, she says she can always find work for a quality team, and seems happy with their performance here. After casually intimidating Dig a bit, he leaves and visits Grandmother Biyu, who tells him she has another lead on the mystery vans.

Returning to the safehouse, Dig reports back on all this, and they decide to split the pay between Otters getting her mule replaced and sending a bunch to the Windsor crew. They also get some new updates= apparently Canadian separatists have blown the 3 main bridges from Downtown to Windsor, cutting the SE district off significantly from the rest of town. Cholula is still super stressed about the threat of Bloodripper, so he and CG agree to try to track him down.

The rest of the team decide to finally help Smoach deal with Shadow spirits, and start readying themselves to deal with that threat once and for all.

Runners
Creep
Chew Gum
Dig
Otters aka Roadkill
The Detective
Tabasco aka Cholula

While the crew is running errands for Biyu, Cholula organizes the new gang coop to strike/eliminate the 696 Slayers, who everyone has some degree of beef with, and who seem to be a growing threat to Motor City with their nihilistic embrace of violence, cannibalism, and a growing cult-like adoration of Gorechuk Bloodripper, who also problematically is still magically in a twisted sort of love with Chew Gum. Luckily Cholula is better at strategizing than talking, and comes up with a plan good enough that all members of the coop throw is some means of support, and the mission is mostly successful. The 696’s are wiped out, their current captives freed, their turf reclaimed. BUT- Bloodrippers escapes, screaming out a vow of vengeance on all who oppose him, and Cholula specifically.

With that problem dealt with, for now, Cholula returns the safehouse for a well-earned rest and links up with the rest of the crew before they head back down to the Old Dominion bank Downtown to talk their way in on behalf of Peregrine. They spend some time planning, and decide their best move is to invite the Cutters to join the gang coop, and spend some time getting couriers from the Keepers to deliver a dossier The Detective compiles on the proposal to all the members.

They have a radio call, and find that the different factions all have some different ideas of how voting, decision making etc should work. Some of the more classic gangs have sent a higher up to make the decisions for them, while other newer cooperative orgs have sent elected delegates with pre-approved limits etc. The team gets everyone to agree to assign Ronnie’s Raiders the task of coming up with some proposals for internal governance, which the group (primarily college students and teachers) eagerly agrees to.

For now, they get everyone on board with inviting the Cutters, though it also raises the question of what will become of the coop once the Blackout ends (if the world outside survived), as the Cutters will be the dominant faction locally, and have better international connections than any other member group outside of the Ancients. This is tabled for the time, as a “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it” problem. The team compiles their proposal for the Cutters knowing what little they know about their local situation leadership, mostly based on an interaction Cholula had during Latvian Gambit.

Once Downtown, they talk their way into the well-fortified bank, finding that even though ARES cut the Cutters loose, they managed to hang onto a lot of heavy armament. After a comically bureaucratic process, they finally get through to Ripper, the local leader. She remembers Cholula, though seems surprised at his updated appearance and change of moniker. Using this friendly lead-in, The Detective makes the deal, though Ripper proves a canny negotiator and TD has to contact Peregrine to confirm a few changes to the proposal.

After all that’s done, they chat a bit and head out, and then get very stressed out when Dig suggests that Peregrine could be a Null Sect member, especially since he’s suspiciously new to town and they haven’t interacted in person. However, they quickly find a friendly dwarf walking in and introducing himself, still using the unidentifiable pan-Euro accent that made Dig initially suspicious. He pulls a power move of getting patted down and then passing over a wicked looking concealed blade that the security missed.

He converses briefly with the team, and then says he has to get to work taking a local census, addressing needs, and taking a look at the vault downstairs that he’s so eager to get to. Ripper had said they hadn’t had any luck gaining access yet. Almost as an afterthought, Peregrine manually lock picks his way into the 7 Sisters message drop, and Otters leaves a note for Astrid Case with their radio code. Taking a look at the astral situation around the bank once they leave, they notice that it seems likely some old leylines converge underneath it, though they can’t get a good feel for their initial aspect or for what might be at their crossing, as earth and/or other magical barriers prevent it.

Following up on a tip from Ripper, they go examine the nearby site of a blood magic sacrifice one of her scouts found. They ID the victim as likely being one of the Jaguar Guards in town with the AZT mage Cehaulli, and get some intel on the crime itself- a prolonged and painful ritual bleeding resulting in sacrifice to power the caster. CG also gets an image of his face using the Mortis Optigram- an Aztlaner man with a face repeatedly tattooed over and over such that none of the individual designs are decipherable. They call it in to Cehualli on the van radio.

He and The Detective chat a bit, and he reveals he had already found and investigated the site, and confirms that it is the work of the serial killer they are hunting, who he says is a Path of the Sun extremist heretic. TD still doesn’t like Cehualli overall, but he seems to appreciate them reaching out and views it as an expansion of their relationship, so he shares some further info, in case the team can track down the killer. They decide not to pursue it for now, but to keep their eyes open.

Back in the van, they get a call from Astrid Case, responding to Otters’ note. After she strongarms them a bit, she gives into their threat to reveal her involvement in the planning runup to the Blackouts, as she says whoever was paying her retainer before missed the most recent payment. In agreement to keep her name out of it, she tells them she was paid a lot of money for about 6 months of prep work, via a shell company she didn’t bother to try to track beyond the Carib League. She did pick ups and drop offs from an office Downtown, near the Senator hotel, but only ever directly interacted with drones or Camden Espinoze.

She gives them the address, but tells them the property was rented by the same shell company that paid her so they likely won’t get much from that. They head over to investigate, and find the office burned out in an intentional arson. Examining the setup, it was obviously rigged to burn professionally, and probably had been set up to go up at a moment’s notice while it was operational. It looks like the office was run exclusively by drones (which are totally slagged), and it seems like office sounds were broadcast over speakers while standees and cardboard furniture would give the impression of a bustling space behind the privacy frosted windows and doors.

Based on their investigation, they determine that this must have been the work of the Null Sect- who else could run this level of scheme, with this result, using only drones, with this kind of funding? It feels like solid inference, even though they lack direct proof. They head back to Biyu’s, and get paid for their investigation, as well as for the assassination. She also cooks them up a nice dinner as usual. She seems at least semi-aware of the Null Sect, and warns them against saying too much about them over comms, even in the Blackout, but compliments them on a job well-done.

They rest up again at the safehouse, and wake to some distressing news: Neverland Candy Shoppe has been torched, with no known survivors. They head down there to see if they can help, and find Lunatech and Smoach looking pissed, but unable to even search for survivors given the ongoing extreme heat of the shell of the collapsed building. Dig summons a water spirit, and Creep uses it to get inside, where they find a torched and melted body pile near the center of the blaze, bearing marks of archaic weaponry. They deduce that this was the work of the Order of St. George, and decide to put an end to them.

They say they will track them to their base, while Smoach and Lunatech round up their crew to support the assault. Dig, as a wolf, starts tracking, and then CG uses one of his spirit powers to make him considerably faster so that wolf Dig can easily pace the van. Cholula also tracks on foot but falls far behind. They find the OOSG fortress, a barricaded riverfront warehouse, with ease, but come under bombardment while parked outside discussing what to do.

Otters manages to dodge the flaming ballista bolts, and they retreat, finding a rendezvous point with the Windsor/Belle Isle crew. With roughly even numbers contributed by both groups, they plan an assault using bounding overwatch, with about an even split between the close quarters and ranged teams. Otters parks her body in the van, to use the HMG for covering fire while sneaking a cloaked Mule in alongside the CQC team.

Cholula gets shot at again while doing some recon, and thus confirms that the OOSG has at least some members who can see and target astrally, which also explains how they made the van so easily. This complicates things a bit, but just furthers the argument to hit them fast and hard. Everyone loads up, tightens the straps on their armor, and gets ready to charge…..

Runners
Creep
Chew Gum
Dig
Otters aka Roadkill
The Detective

The team decides to hold off on tracking down the escaped critters lab, and Cholula heads off to keep an eye on the 696 Slayers and start plotting the gang coop mission to take them out. The rest of the crew decides to knock out the assorted jobs they have for Grandmother Biyu. They head down to the Long Storage facility first and try to contact Static, the AI landlord, who appears to be absent or offline. They break in, and are nearly overwhelmed by the terrible odors coming out from many units. There are also a lot of obvious signs of looting and other break-in’s.

Luckily, Dig as a dog has an excellent nose and tracks down the unit they are looking for with ChewGum and necro spirit assistance, and they manage to talk their way in without any trouble, despite some home-built auto-turrets that Tator has rigged up. He turns out to be a somewhat chaotic-seeming dwarf with nano-tats, who seems to be a Technomancer who ended up in deep debt to the Triad. He says it was actually kinda lucky since he was in a Farady’ed holding cell when they Blackout hit, so wasn’t effected as many TM’s were, and now can work down his debt at an accelerated rate.

He has the pieces of the previous mystery vans the team blew up, which Biyu seems to have retrieved after they tipped her off. He also has a more intact third van, as well as a cracked-open SpriteLok. He explains that he managed to bust it open and free the captive Sprite onto the local hardwired grid, and when the team, worried for Static, asks if he say anyone else on there, he says it looked empty to him. He also agrees to free the Sprite from the Spritelok that the team recovered, since they don’t have a handy grid to let it stabilize on.

He passes on some intel he’s scraped from the van’s nav and comms systems, and Dig and Otters manage to retrieve a bit more, recovering another few days of Jackpoint logs from the first few days of the Blackout- it seems there is a lot of live information manipulation happening, and confusion as to where is or isn’t blacked out, what caused it, what’s happening etc. Also, there was at least one sighting of somewhere wearing a III Corps jacket who appeared mutated in a fight inside the ARCHology in St. Louis. Based on team file records, the team speculates that the Black Lodge portals used to construct that facility may have been involved….

They also review the info Tator found. It looks like Camden Espinoza, who they previously extracted for Brunwyn, made the offline GridGuide substitution as well as the hardened map devices that the vans use. So the team now has the route, as well as knowing a little more about Espinoza’s role. They also trace it back to Run and Sollars Private Library, where the map Espinoza used came from. They decide to head there later and check that out as well.

They stop by the port and pass along the small mystery package to a somewhat chastened-looking Triad LT, who is missing an ear. They then swing by the container graveyard adjacent, and with a clever idea from Creep track down the seafood container they are looking for via it’s massive heat output from it’s (luckily) still working AC. They manage to get it all loaded into the van as well as a trailer they buy from Rubberhead at the Triple R for this purpose.

Managing to speed by various hungry survivors on the way with no serious problems, the team drops off the seafood and reports in to Biyu, who pays them the first increment and also buys the trailer off their hands. They next head to Casa Aurelius and pull off a quick assassination, blasting the shit out of an elf businessman with CG’s shotgun from the open side door of the van before Otters speeds off while under covering fire from the machine gun mounted on the roof.

With that done, they rest up and then head to the library the next day. Luckily TD and Otters have good reps there since they didn’t call ahead, and TD manages to con The Cartographer into showing them the visitor log by claiming they are trying to help find out who kidnapped Camden Espinoza, as his family has been asking around. They get the name Astrid Case, ESQ, which Creep and TD recognize as being the honorific for a lawyer.

Knowing only one set of lawyers in town, they head to Belle Isle, and find Sahara Jones working for STV, having been left behind in the chaotic ARES withdrawal. Happy to see her previous saviors, she helps them out for free, and tells them Case is a local hardline corp rights attorney with a high fee who works for a boutique firm. She gives them the mailing address they have on file- an old bank downtown. They head there next.

The bank is under control of the Cutters, who took it over after ARES cut them loose back during the bug crisis. It looks like they have a civilian community there also, though the relationship is unclear. Dig notices an unknown number trying to call them, and puts it through. They make contact with the fixer Peregrine, who they’ve heard of but not interacted with yet. They agree to work with him to get an in with the Cutters, make sure the civvies are being taken care of well, and get him access to the basement, in exchange for him getting them the info they need on Case.

With some recon ahead, they start talking through some plans for how to get the Cutters on board, but since Peregrine is offering resources and material support, they think they can make it work without excessive bloodshed, though he seems open to a change in gang leadership as needed.

Runners
Creep
Chew Gum
Dig
Otters aka Roadkill
The Detective
Tabasco aka Cholula

After retreating from the guards’ raking fire during the extraction of Camden Espinoza, Cholula spends some time tracking the mystery vans he saw fleeing the scene on his surveillance cam. He manages to keep pace on the rooftops for a bit with the movement power, but starts to lose them, so he tags one with a detachable shaft tracking arrow, and hopes to pick up the signal again someday. He then tries to get back to the safehouse but gets pinned to the ground with a spear thrown by Bloodripper, who wants to say hi to ChewGum in his own special way.

Cholula manages to start wiggling himself free off the spear, but his dripping fluids seem to have attracted some hungry-looking humanoids wearing lab collars- possibly the same ones the team has been hearing about? Regardless, they seem somewhat intelligent and attack with a pack tactic that proves damaging and effective. Cholula chooses to flee and manages to make his escape, retreating to the nearby Plat Zone for now to heal and rest, before eventually making his way back to the safehouse.

When the rest of the team arrives back from the gang coop meeting, they find him there, and decide it’s time to deal with both the critters and Bloodripper. They have the brilliant idea to combine both into one plan, and head up to 696 Slayers turf, where CG multiplies some food to impress the gangers (and hopefully stop them from killing for a bit, as they seem to have begun eating their victims), and instructs Bloodripper to hunt down the Critters for him.

Bloodripper agrees, behaving in an almost parodically chivalric fashion. He packs up some (metahuman?) meat to go in a tray from the school cafeteria, and the team heads off. They decide to check in with someone about getting paid to end the critter threat, and call up Ringmaster who seems to want them to look into it but is initially surprised they aren’t doing it solely because the critters have eaten some of their contacts, most recently some Keepers. He also tips them off that there have been reported attacks amongst the survivor communities newly moving into the DDB.

Otter zips over to Moreau, not having checked in on him since the Blackout started, and worried he may be involved. She also wants to drop off a radio with him to keep in better touch. She finds Moreau having fortified and extensively trapped the approach to the Bloomfield Nature Reserve, though from an aerial view, she can see paths in marked by small piles of meat, presumably so animals can safely find their way through.

She manages to make contact through Moreau’s e-dog, Buddy, and safely lands. Moreau seems like he’s been spending too much time with the animals and has lost the habit of regular speech, but otherwise “ok”. He does also seem to be feeding the animals metahuman meat and also possibly eating it himself, from those who come to the nature reserve looking to eat the animals there. He put up warning signs so he feels it’s only fair. Otters passes over the radio, and Moreau gives a tip about the rogue ARES animal scientist who might be behind it all, as well as a lead on some hackers who may have some info, the Coquillards.

The team decides to investigate the underground while Bloodripper is on the hunt above. They head down and find some survivor communities, unfortunately Dig has taken the form of a large wolf and terrifies the mostly blind (in the pitch black) guards they first find and some gunfire is exchanged. Luckily noone is badly hurt and The Detective manages to talk everyone down as they explain that Dig is a human shapeshifter and not the beast that has been hunting down here.

After comparing accounts and reviewing the most recent crime scene they can find amongst the poor fortifications and tent and tarp dwellings, they decide that this almost surely isn’t the same critter as the pack aboveground, and start to get worried that Ringmaster might be hunting when he turns into a werewolf. Dig wants to stop investigating and go confront him/protect him, as these civilians are worthless in his eyes, but Otters manages to determine that the behavior doesn’t match up with a werewolf of Ringmaster’s intelligence.

They track some old blood traces deeper into the tunnels, and all take Guts. This pays off when they are able to shrug off some sort of mystical fear, though Otters is partially paralyzed by a chilling howl from below. The largest Barghest any of them have ever seen charges up from the dark and tries to chomp on CG, though Cholula bravely dives in the way, taking the damage. Dig blasts it with lightning as Otters opens up with the guns on the Mule drones, and Cholula manages to drop it with a flaming arrow just before it gets another attack in.

They wait for the white phosphorus to burn out, and then Dig and CG start harvesting reagents while Otters gets what she can from the crispy collar. It looks like a basic RFID tracker with a shock electrode, but most interestingly has a number stamped on it. The team hauls the remains back to the survivor camp to show them that the beast is dead, and encourage them to better defend themselves. Otters rigs up a simple telegraph between two station’s communities, and show them how to do it by stripping old tech, and Cholula promises to come down and train them sometime.

They at least seem to have enough food- crates of old emergency shelter rations from earlier in the century.The team heads back aboveground and checks in with Ringmaster, who also seems relieved it wasn’t him behind the attacks, but spurs them to keep looking. He also tips them off to some animal fights run by ex-Mafiosos down by the Docklands. They head home and rest, but are disturbed to hear in the morning Radio Free Detroit that the 696 Slayers have been on a rampaging hunt across town and residents are advised to avoid them at all costs.

This triggers another discussion about what to about Bloodripper and crew, which quickly gets sidelined when they decide to go to the animal fights instead. There they find another dog with a collar, seemingly a loyal companion to the ex-Mafioso running the fights, after talking their way in by offering to do some vet care. Otters spends a depressing day patching up survivors from the Pit, but they do get some good info- none of the other animals have the collars, or seem enhanced in the same ways as the collared animals.

They get the info from the ex-Mafioso about where he found the dog, with a promise to sell him any more promising animals they encounter, and head up to Vendor’s Row to look for more clues. They check in with G’ma Biyu while they’re up there, who gives them another job as well as a clue- she had her people take out another enhanced dog that was roaming the area and attacking people, and provides the cut collar to prove it. Cutting apparently bricked it, but they get another number.

They decide to use the day old possibly metahuman meat tray as bait in a variety of locations within their search grid, observed by drones, while Creep cuts himself a little and the rest of the team watches his back at a 7th location. Luckily, nothing attacks Creep, and when reviewing the camera footage, they spot mostly various survivors excited to find free meat and asking too many questions. The only one that stands out is some sort of enhanced cat which seems very stealthy.

They head to that location and Dig manages to track it back to it’s lair, taking the form of a great cat and intimidating it while also using magic to make it more docile. It uses some of it’s strange abilities but Dig doesn’t fall for them. Cholula offers to try to knock it out with arrows, but Otters quickly intervenes and manages to lure it out and calm it. Dig hacks the collar and they manage to get the RFID signal, which they can probably use to find link devices if they ever find themselves within range.

Otters delivers the cat to Moreau, to try to rehab it, and they make plans to try to find the location all these experimental animals have been coming from after they rest up again. When they awaken the next morning, they find the 4 critters from the aboveground pack all staked to the ground outside the safehouse with one of Bloodripper’s spears, with a note saying that he thinks they found them all, and that though they killed some of the gang, they weren’t particularly satisfying victims. He also summons CG to visit him.

Guess the team better deal with that soon too! Perhaps they will take Biyu’s advice and turn their new gang coop against the 696.

Runners
Creep
Chew Gum
Dig
Otters aka Roadkill
The Detective

The Detective manages to convince the other team (possibly one of the Brackhaus’ guards? Likely the one from the roof bar if so) to disengage, as Otters has successfully grabbed the target and spirited him away in the VTOL. Realizing that they are really blown though in terms of attention, Otters, Creep, and CG all sneak out under cover of CG’s spirit’s powerful silence and concealment effects, barely avoiding some very alert hotel security staff. The Detective decides they want their money’s worth, and rushes back to their room, purposefully dishevilling it before taking some Bliss in a filled tub.

The onsite security does room sweeps, and TD manages to bluff just well enough to not get in trouble, since they can’t find anything in the room, but seem suspicious about Creep having left without anyone taking note, as his arrival was noticed. Regardless, TD gets their desired soak and trip, so all is well, enough. When the other team gets back to the van, they find Otters’ surveillance drones waiting along with a note from Cholula that says he “went to check something out” and to leave without him.

They do. Heading for the preprogrammed rendezvous with the VTOL, they find Smaug and Lunatech from the Windsor crew waiting to accept the handoff and presumably deliver the guy to Brunwyn. Dig requests a little time to look into the wrecked deck they also snagged, and after confirming that they weren’t followed, Smaug sets up a perimeter. Dig manages to pull a tiny amount of data off the deck, with Otters helping to write a quick program to collate the fragmentary bits into something useful.

They find a few useful things: the target was a longterm MCT data and device architecture specialist, who had been targeted for extraction before (possibly why he was using an assumed name). He was looking into shared vulnerabilities amongst various devices, and trying to design a new in-house MCT device architecture that would not have the same flaws. He was in a virtual meeting with his bosses when the Blackout hit, his deck bricked, and he flatlined.

Dig also tries to read his mind, but there is nothing there- he seems brain dead or close to it, and only his wife’s careful ministrations likely kept him alive this long. They write up their findings and pass it along with the deck and the guy, which Brunwyn accepts as the pro move it is, offering them more work and sending along their pay, along with the promised “on-time” bonus.

They head back to the safehouse and rest up, and decide to look into Howell’s “unite the gangs and enclaves” mission next. Instead of calling him for more (/any) details, they just dive in, reviewing the intel Cholula has been gathering on his semi-nightly prowling of the city. They make a list of the promising factions to ally, and start making plans and dividing up work amongst themselves. They also decide to resolve smuggling out the Toronto Mayor and his ARES lover.

TD calls up the UCAS Marshal, Trapp, and hints that they have a line on a government official in danger. Trapp agrees to a meet, seemingly also not wanting to give up his safehouse location, they settle on a high end street market Downtown, which the Marshal reports has become somewhat of a trade bazaar during the Blackout. They pass along their intel and Trapp agrees to contact the lovers at the hotel and either keep them safe or get them out, he is light on details. But it seems like the team made a good impression.

Otters decides to do a little shopping while there, and they head down to the most red market-y shop in the area, where they see a classically costumed bandit dropping off some assorted loot. Wanting to know more, they try to approach, but blow it, and the figure rappels away, and they return to the safehouse. They take the next day off while CG summons a new corpse spirit into the body he was gifted by Bloodripper, and Dig has a meeting with his magical order.

Freddy Bales is there first, as usual, and is his usual obnoxious, helpful self. The others roll in, and Dig talks up the gang unity mission a bit more. They all initiate while Otters, who accompanied Dig over, alternates between watching and wandering the mostly abandoned zoo. It seems like the remaining zookeepers have had to prioritize saving the less edible animals.

After the meeting, Marjo-Lin gives Dig the Discipline Tarot card, and they banter about their somewhat at odds Mentors (Dog vs Lion), and ML says that Lion told her that she had smelt Dig in one of her realms- the Hermit’s cabin perhaps? Regardless, the card is a reward for his perseverance in getting Order going. ML also reports that the Keepers have lost some members to attacks from those mysterious collared critters.

After splitting up the job of convincing different factions to show to the big meeting, The Detective contacts Ringmaster, who agrees to host with Marv at the Plat Zone, specifically the Brickhouse, and to distribute a radio to any faction who attends as a reward. TD also gets Creep to make pizza, though he says all he can promise is a sauced flatbread, but CG learns a spell to multiply the matter significantly.

TD contacts the Keepers, who agree to attend. Creep heads out the Metal Maniacs first, and finds them seeming even more post-human, as well as seemingly “upgrading” some local street kids, who are serving as lookouts- it seems they are both expanding and fortifying. Creep decides not to become a Monad, though they make a good case that “our AI brethren need homes right now more than ever”. Leanna Octave agrees to send a delegation to the meeting, though.

Creep then sneaks up to the Blight and finds the Nightmare’s base of ops. This does indeed seem to be veterans of the Urban Brawl team protecting a civilian enclave, and he uses his sneaking skills to impress them into coming, though they say they will only do so if the Maulers aren’t invited. Creep points out that since the Maulers absolutely will be invited, it “could” be a good time to raid their turf, if someone wanted to.

CG gets Sikh Burn to agree to attend, easily, as a rep for the Children of Loxley, who have also been expanding, protecting the Hawala network and mesh net that the People of the Book have been building. Disturbingly, some malefactors have been targeting the mesh tech, as well as sometimes the people sent out to repair it. CG then hoofs it to the Bligh with spirit cover, and convinces the Maulers to attend, using his good rep with them for leverage. They seem depleted and a bit more desperate with Kong’s death and the various defections to other new gangs.

Dig flies around to round up his targets- the Ancients are an easy yes as he helped rescue some of them from ARES prison, though they are still a small faction. He then heads to north Oakland County and finds the student enclave, Ronnie’s Raider, where he once again encounters Freddy Bales, who happily introduces him to some assorted professors and Ronnie herself, who seems like a tech wiz- the enclave has a lot of clever sensors and traps rigged up of various tech levels.

Otters heads west to Dearborn to go another Red Market, and manages to make contact with a thief there who will neither confirm or deny if they are a member of the Ghunday, although the filmic bandit outift suggests they likely are. Otters passes along the invite, which includes the other guests, and gets a bad feeling this may just be a way of telling some thieves who to steal from at what time. Otters also barely spots a stealth blimp, and sends out a wideband appreciation text, but receives no response. Back at the Scar Wood Raven agrees to send some of the Swarm along, though he seems mostly interested in the promise Dig has made of a free power charging station- he has made another bike golem in his downtime, to leave running at the Plat Zone.

With everyone (possibly excluding the Ghunday) agreed to attend, the team links back up and heads to the Plat Zone to set up. Marjo-Lin comes by to perform a solo set as promised, the rest of Glock .50 having left for Denver after Latvian Gambit to start recording their debut for Silversound Records. She seems to have brought all of the Keepers with her, possibly lured by free food. The Swarm rolls up and quickly monopolizes the charging station, with many of them dropping off into BTL stupors as quickly as they can.

The Maulers and Nightmares both send small delegations and make nasty eyes at each other, but keep the peace at the meeting as promised. Marv sitting out front with his assault cannon probably helps. Lady Jain herself shows up on behalf of the Ghunday and seems to take a shine to/be working something up with the Keepers. Sikh Burn trades some tactics advice with the Nightmares, and talks about the experience in Hamtramck and what of the community successes there they can export elsewhere.

The Ancients, Metal Maniacs and non-BTL’ed Swarm exchange Blackout tech and implant tips and tricks with Ronnie’s Raiders, who seem pretty engineering focussed, and Ancients and Swarm talk about high speeds and hot races. Meanwhile, the team watches for trouble, makes sure everyone has food, drink, power etc, and TD circulates, pulling on their rep to try to get everyone to sign up.

With some impressive networking, TD manages to get everyone present to agree to a loose coop- basically they won’t attack (or steal) from other factions who have also joined. Both Lady Jain and one of the Nightmares make some quick calls after, possibly ensuring a backup plan for if the meeting went poorly isn’t executed. With that out of the way, the team parties with everyone present for a while, everyone rocks to Marjo-Lin’s sparse but intense set, and then one of the Metal Manias closes it down reading a posthuman manifesto of some sort, as Creep promised they could.

This kinda kills the mood, so everyone goes home. They call Howell to report success, and he seems surprised since he had a whole job planned, but figures this is still job done overall, so slides them some pay and offers some work as well. The team is getting a solid rep in town, and has good amount of jobs available to choose from, even amidst the confusion.

Runners
Creep
Chew Gum
Dig
Otters aka Roadkill
The Detective
Tabasco aka Cholula

The team does some initial recon on the hotel that the scientist they have been tasked with retrieving was last seen at. Otters flies by with the VTOL, and even with all the digital security obviously offline feels like she almost got spotted. However, she gets a good look at the layout and general vibe- fortified but seemingly still a functional hotel, though with much more overt security than usual. Dig does a flyby as a bird and also gets some intel- 3 mana barriers are up, and he is able to tell that someone inside one of them is also thinking about the team’s target: Camden Espinoza. Unfortunately, someone behind the next mana barrier spots him and he gets slapped with a hit of pure mana before fleeing- at least it seems they were aiming to wound rather than kill! The only thing he saw was a flash of golden eyes.

The team rests up and finishes doing repairs from the last run-in with the mystery vans, and heads to the area late the next morning. They park behind a semi-wrecked Taco Temple adjacent to a news building with a large billboard across the street from the hotel. Cholula scales the building and billboard, leaving a camera set up to watch the parking garage entrance while he watches the front. Otters strings up some drone relays to keep comms semi-functional, and The Detective walks up to the front door, unarmed, and successfully both doesn’t get shot (there are some bodies stuck in the razor wire perimeter) and negotiates for a reasonable price for a room with an obsequious concierge.

Told that guests are acceptable so long as they also check weapons and go through security, TD brings in Creep, who hides a glass cutter, a gun, and Dig (in mouse form) in his pockets well enough to dodge the search. They find an unoccupied room a few floors down from TD’s room and cut one of the windows open, and Otters flies ChewGum and herself in, and then sends the VTOL over to perch on the billboard next to Cholula and await extraction. They split up to explore the hotel, with CG holding down their entry point and keeping comms updates going to and from Cholula.

Dig and Creep do some magical investigation with support from Otters, and manage to figure out that the lowest level mana ward seems to be a large MCT contingent, possibly including a family but with a lot of supplies and security. The highest level mana ward is the rooftop bar, where The Detective heads. They see a troll crooner singing his heart out on stage while looking only a little bored, and meet the Madame who oversees the establishment. Deciding to make a little harmless trouble, TD orders a drink for one of the two people making eyes at each other across the room while pretending not to.

And perhaps most importantly, TD tries to do some casual surveillance on the golden-eyed middle-aged man in the corner, who is attended by two similar looking female bodyguards- 1 appears cyber and one an adept, but TD can’t get a read on the guy at all. TD also gets spotted and summoned over, and goes. They have a brief but largely friendly chat, where they realize they’re looking for the same person, but not necessarily on behalf of the same person. The man tries to hire TD and team out from under Brunwyn, but TD refuses, feeling honorbound.

The man takes it fairly well, but says they will then be competitors on this job, though he hopes TD will give him a chance to hire directly in the future. He then gives a sharp whistle and his 2 guards leap up in unison and race to the elevator and stairs. TD, aiming for cool, stays and finishes their drink before making their goodbyes. Meanwhile, Dig, Creep and Otters have looked into the remaining mana ward and see that it encompasses the penthouse level, which has it’s own elevator key and locked off fire stairs.

Doing some careful, and higher level, magical investigation, Dig is able to spot yet another golden-eyed middle-aged man with two guards- this time a large Black troll with a ton of tattoos and a Vietnamese teen who looks to be a mage. Aiming not to attract their attention just yet, they head back to the meeting room and all debrief together. TD gets a feeling they were followed on the way and finds a hidden camera that they destroy, when they double back to check.

Putting their heads together, the best they can come up with is that this seems to be two people both aiming to appear as the SK archetypal Johnson, Hans Brackhaus. Since both SK and others use this ID for true and false flag ops, the team feels a little over their head and is glad to be working for neither, though the strong hints of SK association that Brunwyn gives off don’t make them feel much better. When TD head back to their room to take a bath and get high, they find a note waiting.

The woman they bought the drink for at the bar is requesting assistance. TD grabs Otters and they head to her room. She explains that she (an ARES financial corpo who took some leave not expecting the Blakcout) and her secret lover (the mayor of Toronto) were having an illicit meetup post-Latvian Gambit but are now stuck in the hotel. Worried about how an ARES association will play right now, the Mayor hasn’t yet left his wife as promised and doesn’t want to be seen in public- hence the glances across the bar that TD spotted.

This woman wants them to smuggle her and her lover out of town, in the hopes of beginning their life together. She seems fairly drunk. TD and Otters asks some questions, and get some useful info from her in exchange for agreeing to help. She takes them, wobbily, to a room that she says always has room service being delivered and dishes carefully stacked out front but that noone goes in or out of. Taking a quick magical look, Dig spots two tween teens, a middle-aged woman tending to someone in a homemade bio-bed, and in the bed itself: Camden Espinoza. He looks fried, possibly brain-dead, and has a burnt-out high-end MCT deck next to him. Looks like someone physically pulled the plug.

The team quickly fills Cholula in and rallies back to grab the guy, getting the VTOL in position near his room’s window. Unfortunately, Cholula spots a figure in camo crawling down the outside of the building, just as the team inside spots 2 more cloaked figures at opposing hallway corners. Cholula manages to narcoject the figure outside, and then Otters rams their unconscious form with the VTOL, breaking their gecko grip and sending them plummeting to their death, which alerts the guards below. Cholula fires off a few distraction arrows around the guards to keep them occupied before being forced to flee, retrieving his camera and Otters’ drones on the way.

Inside, Dig has made a huge magic hand and flicks open the room’s barred door. Creep chucks a couple thermal smoke grenades but throws badly and both roll back towards the team so the scene is chaotic. CG sends his spirits after the two cloaked figures, and manages to delay one with various powers while his cat corpse spirit is destroyed by the other. He blasts out the window in the room with his shotgun while Creep covers the family and Dig uses his magic hand to get Camden and his deck into the VTOL while Otters pilots. TD keeps everyone working together while trying to figure out a plan…. maybe now that they have the guy the other team will give up?

Outside, Cholula quickly scans the cam footage he retrieved and spots something interesting: just after everything kicked off, two of the mystery vans stealthily snuck out of the parking garage, driving off in the opposite direction of the fight before quickly turning in opposite directions off the main street….

Runners
Creep
Chew Gum
Dig
Otters aka Roadkill
The Detective
Tabasco aka Cholula

Cholula has been haunting the streets of Motor City, checking out the developing gang scene. Some seem relatively pro-social, some less so. He begins hunting the most thrill-kill gang he can find, the 696 Slayers, further depleting their numbers from the massive hit they already took from the team (unbeknownst to one another). ChewGum stocks up on reagents (Penelope Bean is still getting a supply from…. somewhere?) and does some investigation into the mysterious critter attacks.

Using some intel from the Keepers and other contacts, he manages to find a site of a recent attack, and with a ritual and some tracking and assensing is able to piece together what happened. Some horrifying looking creatures attacked in a group of 3-4, ripping two civilians apart. The creatures seem very hungry but not malicious. And they are indeed wearing some kind of RFID collar. He pegs this as “needs further investigation” and rejoins the crew, meeting up with Cholula just outside Casa Aurelius’ guarded walls.

Inside, Otters and The Detective approach Corinna (the Nadja Fixer, seemingly in from Chicago) and Eugene Trapp, a UCAS marshal, who are discussing dangerous bounties in town. Otters talks about killing a Wendigo and Corinna extracts herself as Otters and TD chat edgily back and forth with Trapp for a bit- he is some kind of canine SURGE, and seems to make note of their scents.

As the party seems to be winding down, and they have other allies present they can ask for more info on other attendees as needed, they head out. Otters and TD wait in the van while Creep and Dig as a mouse sneak up onto the roof through the vents and then let themselves down in a guard blindspot that TD spotted. They get in the van and slip back into the smuggling compartment for now. After they watch a series of guests leave via various, mostly unpowered, conveyances, the staff and guards finally start filtering out.

They see the guard that DIg mind-scanned carrying a hard case big enough to contain the data cube, but he splits off from the rest of the guards and hops into a matte-black, fully tinted van that pulls up just as he’s exiting the building. Otters leaves the parking lot and posts up in a stealthy spot further down the road, and CG and Cholula set up in outside the main gate to the area, having communicated with the team via stealth VTOL.

They get lucky and guessed right as to the black van’s route, and Otters quickly scoops up the 2 outside the gate as Creep and Dig get back out of the smuggling compartment once they’ve cleared security. Otters tries to subtly follow, with the VTOL aloft to triangulate. As they continue, they head into the ruined area of Downtown, which seems like a good spot to lose pursuers. Seeing the van ahead slow, Otters pulls into a side street and sends the VTOL in for a closer look.

They see one of the white vans with the dishes pull up alongside, both side doors slide open, and somethings get passed back and forth. Unfortunately, the white van as usual gives off a brief burst of signal and seems to spot the VTOL in the matrix, and the white and black vans peel off in opposite directions. After a quick debate, Otters guns it and follows the black van.

Not waiting this time, Otters opens fire, damaging the vehicle. She is also gaining on them, and the other driver, while capable, doesn’t seem to match her level of skill. The back door flings open, and a short human inside fires a rocket at the team van, with Otters managing to avoid a direct hit but catching some shrapnel. Otters fires back and blasts the human back into the opposing van.

Dig magically sends his sight over into the other van, and sees a team of 3, plus the guard, with the human on the floor either dying or dead. They look like shadowrunners but not total pros. As he watches, the guard lifts the launcher and fires another shot at the van- direct hit! Massive damage, but Otters keeps them on he road. Creep and Cholula return fire, lighting both the man and van on fire, as CG orders his spirit to cause the man to have an accident.

Dig also spots one of the mystery boxes hooked up to a power cable, seemingly powering the van, and the team decides they better grab it. Creep crawls onto the van roof as Otters maneuvers into position to see the box clearly. Dig uses magic fingers to yank it free of it’s bolts but it’s still hanging by the power cable, which Creep manages to shoot through with impressive aim just as the guard fumbles his launcher reload and detonates the black van.

The wreck crashes and burns hard, and the team van is almost wrecked as well in the shrapnel cloud. The mystery box, though damaged, appears mostly intact, and Dig attempts to analyze it magically but can’t make much sense of it. There doesn’t seem to be anything living inside when CG assenses, so they head back to the safehouse to rest, heal and examine further. While Otters and the repair drones patch up the van and the golem pedals away, recharging it, the team sleeps and recovers.

In the morning, they call up Smoach and he agrees to come take a look. Dig says he’s got some tasks for the day, and heads off to Stanli the Candyman’s house/fort. The rest of the team reports into Howell and gets paid for dragon investigating and gala info, sending the data device over his way along with a written report on what they learned. He says he’ll examine it all and get back to them about it, but in the meantime he has a client looking to get some of the gangs in town working together.

Cholula is stoked about this since he wanted to do it anyway. TD bites the bullet and radios up Cehualli, and the AZT agent hints that he works for Armando Salazar, the AZT operative depicted on the Hermit card, He provides two tasks for the team, and offers to pay in info, artifacts, or nuyen as desired. One, they are to track down an ork serial killer named Pygmy who has fled here. Two, if they encounter anything interesting ARES left behind or lost in the move, they are to sell it on to Cehualli. TD agrees, for now.

Down at Stanli’s, Dig in bird form gets a tense introduction to a member of the Reality Hackers, who seems to have fled Seattle after killing a demiGOD. Dig, going against the team’s plan, sells this individual the Damien Knight snuff BTL he’s been working, and mixes up some alchemical drugs to go along with it to really heighten the experience for the topline customers. The RH-er trades him a very fancy attack-focussed deck and gives Dig access to an RH gear mefeed, if he ever gets regular matrix. Stanli also reups DIg on some drugs, stoked about this wild new product the he can now peddle to a local populace with a lot of hate for ARES.

Back at the safehouse, the team readies for Otters’ scheduled meeting with Brunwyn Harridan, though Cholula decides to stay behind to keep an eye on Smoach as he examines the device. Smoach manages to figure out what it is: a horrifying prison for a sprite, who in it’s frantic attempts to escape, generates the electricity the device is pumping out even as it’s code degrades into madness. He’s injured in the attempt to communicate, and suggests they need to free it onto a larger grid in the hope that it can stabilize somewhat there.

They share some beers and sad conversation, sitting together and pondering the darkness of the world. Smoach also reports that FTD seems defeated locally, but that the Shadow spirits are likely still a threat, and he has a next lead on where to look, when the team is ready. On the river south of downtown, the team finds the Austrian ork Baritone waiting for them in a dinghy. They hop aboard and he rows them out to a very sleek modernist houseboat, which CG spots as having impressive aesthetic flourishes, and Otters ID’s as also being very fast and potentially deadly.

They are ushered aboard by a German hobgoblin named Geraldo who seems to have weapons hidden all over his person- Creep is impressed. Brunwyn herself gestures them back into a tastefully appointed state room, and is once again dressed to the 9’s, though more subtly than at the gala. She waves away her guards when they subtly inquire if they should join. Based on the whole vibe and a quick chat via mesh network, they assume this is all an SK opp, so good to be careful, though it may be too late as they are already in the room.

After some banter, they get down to business- Brunwyn wants them to grab up some scientists, data and matrix specialists specifically, off a list of names that she has. She will pay well, she states, in a form of the team’s choosing, and a barely detectable tempestuousness crosses her features when TD dares to negotiate. She quickly recovers her charm however, and agrees to a short timeline for the job for bonus pay. TD, feeling like there isn’t another better option, agrees. They get some intel, and Brunwyn tells them where to meet and by what deadline.

They head back out, likely having just made a deal with a dragon, and link back up with the other teammates at the safehouse, where they see Dig’s impressive new deck, which he flew back clutching in his bird claws while using an illusion to make it look like a fish. They get another call from Howell, who seems to have been investigating along some of the same lines as the team, and reports that he got a lot of good data from the gala, but that specifically he wants to know more about a group calling themselves the “Grid Pirates” who seem to be the ones kidnapping TM’s.

They are also likely behind the mystery power boxes, which Howell names a “SpriteLok” based on recovered data., It seems likely they are selling/renting them around town, including to the gala for the event, though the renters likely don’t know what they are and are smart or desperate enough not to ask. The team reports that there is at least one surviving white van, and Howell says he’ll do more digging but likely have more work for them soon. Some of the worst news: the GP’s must have at least one Dissonant or otherwise corrupted/coerced TM and/or powerful sprite under their control, as they would be required to trap the sprites in the devices as the Faraday cage exterior of the SpriteLok is assembled around them….

Runners
Creep
Dig
Otters aka Roadkill
The Detective

ChewGum heads out to restock on reagents and look into the rumors of strange animal attacks that The Detective picked up. Cholula continues prowling the permanent twilight feeling strangely at home. The rest of the team starts looking into “new dragon in town” rumors for Howell. Based on his initial intel, they head Downtown, with Dig arriving first in bird form. He does some astral investigation and finds some talismongers harvesting reagents, who take a shot at him when they spot a “magical bird.”

He then becomes a man to try to explain, and they take another shot at him, thinking he’s a shapeshifter- these don’t seem like ethical talismongers. He eventually convinces them he’s just a mage, and tries to get some info out of them but fails to catch them in an obvious lie and retreats. Meanwhile, Creep and TD encounter an Order of St. George foot patrol- 2 archers and 2 broadsword wielders in medieval appearing but seemingly modern armor. They approach peacefully and TD makes a judgement call to not try to ape their archaic speech patterns in case they take it as an insult.

The OoSG knights explain that they too have heard rumors of a dragon, and are hunting it as all foul wyrms are a threat to metahumanity. They seem excited to be hunting “worthy prey” instead of merely nests of ghouls and other flesh-eaters. They also obliquely praise strong leaders of a fascist variety to these don’t seem like good people either. Unfortunately, they do seem very well-equipped and capable, the team was hoping they were just LARPers.

They manage to exchange some info though, and get shown a high quality sketch of the dragon on a scroll that the knights say is a composite from multiple “enhanced interviews” with witnesses. After the knights also reveal that they are hunting a nest of ghouls in Windsor that the team figures out is some friends of theirs, they quickly make their exit and plan to warn their allies. Creep and TD finally arrive to Dig’s location on foot, and they track the pair of talismongers down again, with Creep hanging back in case of trouble. TD has better luck socially, and manages to bribe them with a certified credstick for some info.

They’ve heard rumors of dragon sightings from some sketchy street contacts and are looking for any kind of windfall- scales, spit, shit, whatever- anything from a dragon in valuable. They explain that their contacts are mostly addicts and street people of various sorts, and that many members of both groups are ending up Downtown as it’s a bit of an open/chaotic zone right now, with large swaths under noone’s control. They pass along a description, which matches the OoSG sketch, and also say their contacts refer to the dragon as “she” for some reason.

TD thanks them, and after refusing to purchase any of their sketchy wares from inside their voluminous coats, they head out to seek out a street reporter named Miles Two-Go that might have more info. They find him along with a bunch of riggers and gangers hanging out in the Scar zone- Dig is still feeling a bit bad there from the strange mana ebb but not as strongly as before. The crowd here seems to be racing modded vehicles that they’ve attached space rocket boosters too, having hauled a bunch over on horses and carts from the ARESpace/EvoSpace facility out by Knight International.

They meet the man in charge, a troll named Wood Raven, who seems like a philosophical speed demon, but explains he’s trying to give all the riggers and go-gangers in town something positive to do so they don’t totally lose their shit. The team chats a bit with a few Ancients that Creep recognizes from the prison break, and they also warn Lunatech (from the Windsor crew) about the OoSG threat, and she says she has to go make some radio calls. They also manage to get a few other Ancients freed from an obviously annoying conversation with the reporter they seek.

They find that Miles Two-Go is a scoop-chasing conflict zone photojournalist, and another mediocre-to-bad person. He seem full of himself, sleazy, and annoying, though not unskilled. He shows them some partial images of the dragon he’s managed to capture with some bashed together old-tech trail cams he’s rigged up around Downtown. He explains that if he got some kind of crude mesh network up and running he could get the cams to talk to each other and likely get better images as they could retarget on the fly based on each previous cams data.

The team agrees to help him out, reluctantly, but recognizes that they can use and then abandon him at least. Feeling like they’ve got enough for now, they head back to the safehouse to link up with Otters, who has been charging and prepping her drones for the night ahead. They stop on the way to steal some formal wear (black suit and tux) from a prom store Downtown that hasn’t been looted yet. Otters drives them to Casa Aurelius, and they find the exclusive gated neighborhood still has a few lights on, it looks like some industrial generators are powering guard station lights at the checkpoint entrances as well as some street lights and other public features.

if any of the visible mansions that rise over the security wall have lights on, they’re keeping it to themselves- candles, chemlights and the like are all that is otherwise visible. The team heads in- SIN scanners are still down so they breeze through with their gala tickets, with Dig as a mouse hidden in Creep’s pocket, and Creep hidden in the smuggling compartment. They stop at another fancy clothes store, this one seems to be open, and get some accoutrements and additional items to spruce up their looks, though the proprietor seems annoyed at being unable to custom tailor the garments at the moment.

TD successfully navigates the uptight rich lady social dynamic though, and they head to the gala, with Creep and Dig sneaking out a few blocks away. TD and Otters wait in the van til Dig and Creep make their entrance to make sure there aren’t any issues that require assistance or extraction. Dig creates an illusion of some teens setting off fireworks and cursing at the guards before running away, with Creep using a carefully buried flashbang to help sell it. The guards give chase, and Creep manages to melt a small hole in the door just before another pair of guards comes around the building to replace them.

Dig shifts into cockroach form, and squeezes through the welded hole, turning back to a man inside and pushing the door open for Creep. Creep is appalled at Dig’s lack of stealth in doing so, especially since the only reason the fire alarm didn’t go off appears to be the lack of wireless. They sneak up to the 3rd floor and find a weird shielded data cube with no ports and a number of cables running out of it. It looks newly, but securely, installed. Creep tries to get a data tap into one of the cables, but they seem to be outputting electricity only- nothing goes in, and no data goes either way. A mystery!

Meanwhile, TD and Otters successfully enter, passing through a mana barrier after showing their tickets to the bored teens and young adults staffing the gala. The security staff seems much more alert and competent, but still a bit complacent inside. They find a candlelit event room, 3 stories high, topped with a cupola letting in some of the strange starlight. An 8-person orchestra is playing some atonal modern classical that seem to be creating an audio dithering effect, allowing for the feel of a full room of people talking while also creating some privacy for the individual conversations.

They take a quick survey of the room, and notice some interesting individuals around, as well as few friendly faces (Ringmaster, Pretty, and Ellis are all in attendance). Upstairs, Creep and Dig have managed to sneak into the ductwork and navigate to a duct overlooking the gala, and successfully manage to hand off the device they snuck in to TD via sleight of hand, without security noticing anything. However, a few people in the crowd seem perhaps to have spotted it- interesting.

Creep and Dig surveil astrally and aurally while TD and Otters begin circulating. The pair on foot initially spend some not very productive time talking to a city councilor (the lone survivor of the Shadow attack on the council), who is speaking to an empty chair. After TD determines that no entity occupies the chair, and that the man seems to be badly in the grip of PTSD, they make a polite exit. Creep overhears the museum curator and host, Stella Hoargrave, doing her bubbly socialite thing, but seemingly with a bit of a frantic edge. She performs her one tiny magical ability of making small lights over and over with a canned bit about it finally being useful.

Dig spots a few different magical beings in the crowd, but focuses his efforts on seeking anyone with knowledge of technomancer kidnapping. His first spotting: Rose and SINder! A technomancer and her brother, who seem to be thinking a lot about missing TM’s. Also, this is likely the other runner team that Howell told them would be doing the other half of the job while the team carries around the device he gave them. Dig decides not to make contact, but tells the rest of the team that the pair is there.

Otters and TD next approaches two very fashionable elf woman, both of whom might have witnessed the device handoff. The first seems to be a Nadja clone (or Nadja Daviar herself?) and they steer clear for now, but the second woman has eyes perfectly matching the description and image of the dragon! She introduces herself as Brunwyn Harridan, and her bodyguard as Baritone, and seems delighted to make their acquaintance. Otters advertises herself as a local expert, and they set up a meeting for the following day to discuss things further, before Brunwyn gets back to socializing.

Otters then heads over to chat with some professorial looking types, happy to hear that they are discussing hard sciences instead of liberal arts, but fails to insert himself into their convo until TD makes it work. They discuss the rift and the footage Otters got inside the Scar right after it was created, as well as both prof’s theories- Simone Palomer is an astral travel expert and Vinh Trong is a “rules of magic” specialist, carrying a large bound tome mounted to his chest in a modified baby bjorn.

After they say their goodbyes with a promise to continue sharing info, Otters heads off to chat up Red, the vampire, and TD heads over to a mysterious troll woman who seems noticeably unobtrusive to TD’s studied eye. Red seems amiable and he and Otters chat for a bit about threats in town and the worsening situation for the Infected in Chicago. TD finally manages to corner the troll woman, and discovers that it is Patricia Loveland, who agrees to talk after confirming that “the abomination” (aka Cholula) is not present.

Loveland warns TD again about the threat of even “friendly” bugs, and TD tries to counter with more experiential data, which Loveland brushes off, saying she’s read the Jackpoint posts, and disagrees with the Monad comparison. Unable to reach a common ground on BETAS, they agree to leave it there for now and discuss other issues. Loveland shares some info about other party guests as a sign of good faith- her fellow expat DeeCee operatives Cass Wandering Horse and Sahara Jones (now working for STV it seems) are both there, as is an AZT mage named Cehualli and a few other interesting individuals.

Otters helps ID one of them, a buff troll woman, as an ARES heavy hitter named Ruby- kind of a one-woman clean-up crew. Both she and Loveland wonder why ARES left Ruby behind, and who she might be hunting. The whole crowd also turns to watch the final, stylishly late, attendees arrive- a Tir royal throuple, entering ethereally bedecked in high Elven fashion. Otters makes a quick stylistic analysis and guesses they are Tir Tairngire rather than Tir na nOg, but isn’t sure. Regardless, intriguing….

Dig, hiding still and magically scanning, spots the newest member of his magical order, Freddy Bales, introducing an older also visibly wealthy man who could be his father to the 2 professors. Loveland hints to TD of Black Lodge presence in town. The team spots Julia Pesina wandering the crowd with her ever-more battered camera drone Grover in tow, filming guests and getting short interviews, though some guests seems to intentionally avoid her. TD heads over to the AZT mage after Otters confirms with Red that the farm and their neighbors have been suffering some crop failures, and warns them of the corrupted AttakPak snacks.

TD tries to shock the mage into admitting some knowledge of corruption or other things but he manages to get them on their backfoot instead by referencing the team’s extensive recent use of Tarot cards. He suggests he’s just as happy to be an enemy as a friend, and TD chooses friend (for now at least). They have some loaded banter for a while before Cehualli suggests they ought to discuss things further soon, in more privacy. As this convo wraps up, Dig finally gets another hit on his spell: one of the guards is thinking of kidnapping TM’s! Dig ID’s the guard to the rest of the crew and they start pivoting the job over into a kidnap mission.

Runners
Creep
Chew Gum
Dig
Otters aka Roadkill
The Detective

The Detective, while wandering around and checking in on the city and their contacts, has collected some intriguing new rumors to follow up on. The Keepers warn of strange animal attacks, with the animals all seen wearing some sort of collar. There is a new, well-resourced, fixer named Peregrine setting up operations Downtown. Food hoarding is becoming obvious and may lead to shortages. Blight gangs are running newly amok without Kong or ARES to restrain them. And there’s a hot new snack on the street- AttakPak! TD tracks some of these snacks down and eats half a bag, as well as doing their best to analyze them- they seem filling but not nutritious, perhaps useful but a little dangerous in these hungry times. They do some astral analysis and notice some dark magic on the half-full bag but fail to get further info.

They head back to the safehouse and link up with everyone else, who is recuperating from the FTD ambush, and they collectively debrief. CG offers to take a deeper astral look at TD post- summoning a new plant spirit, after Dig fails to get any useful info. Everyone patches themselves up as best they can and rests a bit while some calls with more job offers come in on the radio. Howell wants them to investigate some dragon rumors and also do some intel gathering at a gala, Grandmother Biyu wants them to acquire an abandoned bread truck and keep looking into mystery vans/TM kidnapping.

Biyu also asks for contact info for the Skins gang, having heard they took a beating during the FTD ambush. She seems excited about the prospect of them teaming up with the Triad to gain some further status/supply/protection in exchange for help moving product, food, etc through the DDB tunnels, avoiding some of the dangers present on the surface, with an increasingly stressed out populace becoming more and more agitated each day the Blackout drags on. Dig and the team agree and pass along the info, though they start to wonder if they may someday be too deep in the Triad’s pocket.

They finally search the Mage on the Hill’s duffel, and find a collapsed masked ward, which likely fell apart when he died. Inside, amidst various dingy changes of clothes and an empty book, they find another one of the Tarot Queens, and spend some time analyzing it and guessing what it might do. They also realize that they once again have all 4 fours in their possession, and after identifying the common “heart” imagery amongst them, manage to activate the set and change the cards into 4 vials. Otters drinks hers immediately and finds herself feeling very loyal to CG. CG then drinks his and feels very beneficent to himself.

Dig suggests that maybe this is some sort of “love potion” so both Dig and TD hold onto their doses for now, awaiting a better use. They rest, and the Golem bikes away, recharging their tech. The next day, after CG summons a new spirit to replace the ones he lost in the ambush, the spirit analyzes the AttakPak snacks and TD as well, and finds traces of Corruption magic on both. This rings a bell for CG, who remembers discussing a famine spirit with Cass Wandering Horse. The team also gets worried about possible connections to Taco Temple, since they still haven’t quite figured that one out.

With food feeling a bit urgent and the gala not for a few days yet, they decide to tackle the bread truck first. They do some recon passes (Otters in a VTOL and Dig as a bird), and find the truck parked directly behind a private school for mid-level corpo kids. It looks like it had pulled up the loading dock the night of the Blackout and then got abandoned. An incipient go-gang seems to have taken over the school lot for their own use, and the team ID’s them as the newly formed 696 Slayers, who seem to be made up of some riggers and some ex-Maulers.

They also seem to have some prisoners, and based on their human skin flag and their Reaver-style vehicle decorations and home-made weaponry, these guys look pretty dark and fucked up. But the truck seems intact so game on! They make a plan and head over once night falls, hoping some of the gang will be out raiding or whatever. Creep sneaks up while the van parks a ways back, but he spots one of the mystery vans cruising by on a side street, and weirder yet, gets a burst of wireless signal from it. He races back to the van and they give chase, with Dig and Morticia getting airborne to assist.

Through some skillful driving and excellent triangulation, Otters manages to track the van down, catching another wireless burst- however, as the team’s devices all ping back, the other van also notices them. They start blasting at each other while Otters gives chase. The other driver seems quite skilled and almost surely a rigger, but not quite as good as Otters. They manage to critically damage the other van and Creep attempts a boarding action but just misses and crashes to the road, which turns out to be good as the other van slows to a halt and then explodes.

The team van is badly damaged, but still functional, so they gather what intel they can from the scene (not much) and head back to the bread heist. Otters deploys the mules and creeps the van up into LOS, while Creep sneaks in again. He cuts into the bottom of the truck and confirms that there is A LOT of bread in there, and then guides Otters in to access the manual controls and get it in neutral, while he sets a grenade trap closer to the gangers. Dig summons a massive beast spirit to help push the truck and then flies over the gangers in the schools quad/field to try to distract them.

He finds them doing some gnarly torture under hot lights that they seems to be running off a poorly-maintained school generator, and uses mob mood to amp up their blood frenzy. After quartering two captives with their combo of electric and diesel vehicles (presumably also charged or filled off the gennie), half of them head out, leaving the other half of the gang on foot. It seems like in a Blackout even go-gangs have to make sacrifices.

Creep doubles back to help Otters after she gets halfway through figuring out manual controls and then gives up in frustration, and finishes the job. Otters sneaks back to the van under concealment from CG’s spirit as CG and TD sneak up to the van, CG steering while TD gets on the roof to act as lookout and support. Creep lubes up the initial push zone to help get it rolling and then manages to yank open the fence gate on the back of the lot, but this causes a lot of noise, and the remaining gangers respond.

The first batch of them to arrive set off the grenade trap and are all killed or badly injured, and the rest take cover while taking the occasional pot shot. Between the 2 mules pulling and the spirit pushing, they get it slowly moving, but CG is initially unable to get his spirit to use the movement power effectively, so Otters repositions the van and cuts down the remaining gangers with the turret, while Creep climbs atop the truck and also picks a few off. Unfortunately one of them seemed to be talking to someone on a big whip antennae radio, so they get worried there may be more coming.

They keep pushing as best they can and are struggling a bit until Otters brings the van in behind to help push, and CG finally gets his spirit to add some magical movement. Now they’re cruising- still very slow, but steady. Unfortunately, TD spots and smells a diesel smoke cloud and they hear some loud engine noises approaching. The leader of the gang, who Dig had ID’ed as one “Bloodripper” from his earlier surveillance, appears to have some cruel looking home-made spears he is preparing to throw. Otters fires on them, as does Creep, and they manage to take a few gangers out, crashing their bikes, but Bloodrippers nails Creep with a spear, near killing him.

TD frantically tries to save Creep’s life, managing to help stabilize him, while providing leadership for the team. CG is keeping the truck on the road, and Dig uses an illusion to distract the gangers, though Bloodripper doesn’t fall for it. Otters tags him with some fire from one of the mules, and Bloodripper takes out the van with another spear. Dig tries to catch the other gangers in a big spell, but it flops, and they are feeling pretty desperate. Otters manages to get the van safely stopped but is stuck inside, since CG can’t stop the truck if they want to get it to Biyu. They inevitably leave Otters behind, with her trying to get the mules in to defend herself as the gangers start cutting into the van with large diesel saws.

Dig, needing a hail mary, tells CG to prepare to shout as loud as he can to leave, and flies down as a bird and chucks his “love potion” at Bloodripper, scoring a direct hit. The gangers keep cutting into the van as CG tells them to go home. Amazingly, Bloodripper responds, calling off the goons and they all peel out back towards the school. Dig flies surveillance for a few hours while Otters patches the van up enough to be able to limp home, with the near invisible mules firing off occasional shoots over the heads of anyone who comes close.

CG and TD arrive out front of Biyu’s and CG slams the brakes for the first time, with TD having to grab the spear impaling Creep to keep from flying off the top. They also share the info they gathered about the mystery van. Biyu seems thrilled and says that she can deal with the bread and truck from here, and offers 3 payment options- they choose the highest nuyen value, though that won’t be immediately useful most places, in honor of Creep’s wishes, and then haul Creep back to the safehouse to try to patch him back up. It looks like he’ll have some permanent internal damage from this one. Otters slowly rolls in with the busted van shortly after, and everyone crashes after a long day.

They take the next day off to heal and patch up, and get gala details from Howell. They start planning outfits and who will attend vs who will be in support roles. They also get the latest news updates from Radio Free Detroit- it seems like they’re stuck here for now, with the UCAS declaring martial law and MET2000 locking down all city exits, but the Blackout Blitzes have continued to provide occasional supply drops, and Otters is thrilled to find that the Trading Post is still semi-operational, and gets yet another repair drone. With everything recharged and repaired, they get ready to party.

Runners
Creep
Chew Gum
Dig
Otters aka Roadkill
Tabasco aka Cholula

The team convinces the Mage on the Hill to assist them, though he seems somewhat disgusted by their unique style of banter. However, he swore a pact and must aid when asked, so he will. They also discuss whether to use any other Tarot, and CG pulls out the Queen he was given to summon aid later, if the situation seems desperate enough to pay the currently unknown cost. They take the freshly golem-charged van with 2 Mule drones and the crew all loaded up down to Belle Isle for the ritual/ambush. Unable to reach The Detective, who’s off checking up on contacts, they leave without them.

Upon arriving, they coordinate with the ritualists, who are actively working, and pick spots to set themselves and their allies up for the ambush. They put Myrryr on surveillance on the far eastern point, to watch for what they consider an unlikely approach over the water. The post the Mage on the Hill atop the SE building, CG on the central north building, Creep on the edge of the ritual to the west in hiding, Otters in the smuggling compartment in the van, harwired in, with the Mules within short distance antenna range, and Dig and Cholula atop the central ritual building, the highest point.

They assign the Windsor crew to the north edge of the bridge from mainland Detroit, but tell them to come up behind anyone who comes over it for a pincer. They have Rains and the Skins wait inside the ritual effect area as a reserve to mask their auras, but tell them to keep an eye towards the southern bridge towards Windsor. Then, they wait, with some bird control and flashlight signals planned with comms all fucky as they are.

Shortly thereafter, the Windsor crew reports two buses seemingly running on magic stuffed with Shadow zombies coming from the north bridge, while the Mage on the Hill reports a mass of ghouls with a strange astral signature coming from the south bridge. Creep jumps on the lead Shadow bus and shoots the driver through the windshield, while CG instructs his spirits to use their accident powers on those inside. The Windsor crew engages the second bus in a firefight, pulling it off the attack.

Rains and crew rush out to fight the ghoul swarm, pulling about half of them off, while Otters begins firing between van and Mules into their midst, dropping many but not slowing them at all- they seem to be moving unnaturally, both in terms of their speed and the way they move- it almost looks like the murmurations of a flock of birds. Otters, as an animal enthusiast, makes note to pay attention to this as the fight continues, and incorporates into her targeting solutions as best she can.

Cholula blasts off a fire arrow at the first zombie bus as Creep finishes off the driver and dives off. The bus careens into one of the buildings and a bunch of zombies tumble out, some lighting themselves on fire on the way, though not seeming to particularly care. Otters manages to cut a chunk of them down with auto-fire before the ghoul mob swarms the van, doing a surprising amount of damage. CG activates the Queen card, and flaming sword manifest, with a voice saying that it will protect him.

Creep gets up behind the zombies and flamethrows a few more, before the remaining 5 surround and nearly kill him. Thinking him dead, they carve some strange marks into his skin before rejoining the fight. Meanwhile, the Mage on the Hill has reported that he cannot sense their scout to the east (Myrryr) and fears an attack, and CG heads out to check on her, coming under nearly fatal attack from the FTD vampire leader amidst his customary bat swarm. Dig blasts the bats with a huge spell as a spirit appears and takes control of the flaming swords and starts clearing out the wounded bats.

With the vampire now exposed, Dig and CG’s spirits start targeting it as CG reloads to wood rounds in his shotgun. Unfortunately the Shadow Succubus has used all this chaos to sneak up to the ritual building and gets Cholula to shoot at Dig, narrowly missing due to Dig’s defensive spells. The Mage on the Hill starts levitating over to help and then goes astral to fight the spirit, doing some massive damage before getting one-hit killed and falling to the ground, where his corpse bursts apart. The Succubus then races over and seems to destroy the Tarot spirit, which has badly wounded the vampire.

Dig’s spirit goes astral to defend him and is also quickly torn apart by the returning Succubus. The vampire makes a diving attack directly at CG but misses, clumsily, just as Cholula nails him with an arrow, causing him to crash to the ground, where CG finishes him off with wood rounds, halting his regeneration. As he desicates before him, 3 Tarot cards fall from his pocket- some of the ones the team was missing from the recovery at the Shadow farm! CG pockets them for now and rushes back to defend Otters and the van from the swarming ghouls and zombies, who have almost destroyed while Otters continues chewing through their numbers.

Clinically, Otters is interested to see that the ghouls seem to act more and more feral the less of them that there are, and wonders how this all interacts with the hive mind rumors. But also she is a little concerned about getting peeled out of the smuggling compartment and eaten. With CG distracted, both of his spirits are killed by the Shadow Succubus, who then turns to the ritual building. Luckily their allies seem to be holding to the west, as no further ghouls or zombies have joined the main fight.

The Succubus sinks one it’s shadowy hands into the center of the ritual circle and sends forth a terrible pulse of entropic energy, killing nearly half the ritualists and wounding the rest. Cholula races downstairs and tries to bite it in the astral, just missing, as Dig pummels it with an overcast spell. The Succubus does another negative energy pulse, and seems to be trying to corrupt the ritual itself. This also kills the remaining ritualists besides Jaga and Walker in the Ways, who along with Dig barely survive.

Cholula pulls out all the stops, and calling on his newly enhanced spirit connection manages to land a powerful blow on the spirit, disapparating it back from whence it came. Outside, CG and Otters mop up the last of the ghouls and zombies shortly afterwards, with the van barely surviving. The cloaked Mules proved invaluable though, and Otters is excited about making good use of 3 intersecting fields of fire. They head out to check on allies, and find nearly dead Creep, luckily stabilized by his trauma patch. Cholula manages to save Dig’s life with another trauma patch, though as Jaga and WitW check the other ritualists none of the rest are as lucky- all appear drained of life and unrecoverable.

The Windsor crew, though badly battered, seem to have all survived from good use of tactics and massive expenditure of ammo and spell-power. Luckily none of the ghouls or zombies brought ranged weapons. Rains and the Skins did not fair as well, losing 3/4 of their number, especially since Rains explains that the hive mind has some sort of hypnotic or seductive quality by which they managed to entrance a portion of his crew, who turned on the others. It was a real bloodbath and he had to resort to indiscriminate explosives, but managed to hold back the additional ghoul tide.

They find Myrryr drowned to death in a few inches of water, presumably the work of the Succubus planning to leave a useful host body for another zombie. Those who are survived are grateful to the team for ending this threat and preventing the corruption of the ritual, but the price was high. Patricia Loveland gets back in touch afterwards, recognizing the team’s skill, utility, and sincerity, though still not trusting or communicating with Cholula.

Hearing the night’s report on Radio Free Detroit after they limp back to the safehouse in the damaged van and patch Creep up back to consciousness, they find out that TM’s are waking back up and complaining of headaches, mood swings, and forced Subermersion into the Resonance Realms. This reminds them of the terrifying thing Rains mentioned- those of his crew who were turned by the feral ghoul hivemind started muttering about something “deep… underneath… rising”.

They report Myrryr’s death into Smoach, who seems to retreat into his Bug City survivor PTSD-protective space, and vows never to let anyone get close to him again, while he plans to dedicate himself to hunting FTD and other nefarious forces in her memory. The next morning, the Tarot sword, whose ephemeral flame had gone out when the Succubus slew the spirit wiedling it, starts flaming again, and CG hears the voice say that he is once again under it’s protection, still unsure of what the cost will be….

Creep tries again to convince everyone to stop doing jobs to help people and try to get paid, so they start looking over their jobs list for good opportunities of what to do next.