Runners
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest
OverEasy
Six Cylinder
Holly Dazzle
and introducing: Hotkey

The team embarks on a run of more successful missions after that last embarrassment, and surveils the meeting between Evelyn North and the CIA head, who both seem to indeed be undercover Black Lodge members. North reports in in a confusing conversational code, but the team gleans a lot of interesting info. They use a super low-tech battery powered, magnetically shielded recorder, hidden and retrieved in the restaurant where the meeting took place a day before/after. Old school gets the goods. The BL seems to also be seeking Bryson Church, and worried about what powers he may have with the dagger. They are also keeping an eye on Tan Robe activities, as well as tarot stuff. They also catch a hint about a BL spy in STV, confirming Schmidt’s suspicions.

The team then makes a recon pass by Church’s motel safehouse after doing some local shadow digging to find out where he might’ve gone. He seems to be turning and controlling shedim who come looking for him from Arlington, as well as providing a source of bodies between motel guests/staff and the large tent city in the parking lot adjacent. They call up Ben Maddox for additional support, and plan an assault. The plan goes pretty well, and they kill Church and retrieve the dagger with no deaths, though many serious injuries, in the team. Maddox proves to be skilled but a bit of a wildcard, though his use of the Crystal Bloodblade (unknown to him) free Jonny from it’s curse. Over in Ethiomalia, deep in a hidden delta lab, he begins his reconstruction.

Church seems to have acquired secret magical abilities to not only summon and control shedim, but also to summon and bind shadow spirits. His death frees the 2 shadow spirits he has bound, who begin causing chaos around DC (and who easily demanifest to escape Kinnie’s grav ray). The team decides to pass the dagger along to Fargus Sol’s contact, who turns out to be the great feathered serpent Arleesh, who has a rep for helping to protect metahumanity from dangerous magic. This improves their loyalty with Fargus, Madeline gets the benefit of controlling the situation without the boon of the dagger, which she doesn’t seem to consider too great of a loss (given her worries about infiltrators at the firm).

However, while they were assaulting Church’s hideout, the Shedim at Arlington staged an attack on the Black Wolf. It seems to have eventually reached some kind of detente, and was heavily covered up. Schmidt wants details. The team digs into it, and determines that the shedim and BL have some sort of peace deal (impossibly) and presumably know who and what they have in Malcolm West by now. They watch the bar and see that the BL has ramped up security significantly. They see some shedim roll up on the quarter moon, and be allowed in- seemingly some sort of power-sharing deal. Worried about what this entails, they decide to tip off Otto Stevens.

He responds quickly, setting off a small EMP locally, and sending in Firewatch sniper teams to clear out the BL exterior guards, as a few large vans dump a bunch of mixed-type bugs into the front of the bar. An FW team follows up with one of the portal disruption devices from Project: Bottleneck, which Maddox ID’s. After this seems to disrupt the ritual, a large box truck rolls up out front, and a Dr. Ellis (the team’s contact person, via Stevens), emerges to oversee the use of some sort of new ARES project: some kind of bug/tech merge that easily eliminates the other mixed bugs as they are chased out of the Black Wolf. ARES clears out, and the team follows, as the BL begins to re-establish a perimeter. Most of the shedim also survived, it seems, and the team knows they’ve only bought a little time- at least a quarter moon, at most a lunar cycle.

The good news is, Schmidt has 2 leads as to who the moles at STV may be, given the fact that two junior associates have been doing a lot of back and forth negotiating, seemingly on behalf of BL and Shedim interests. She wants them checked out to see if/how corrupted they are. The team also does some further experimentation on the Bloodblade, and Kinnie transfers the curse to himself as a test, with only a minimal use, to keep Maddox from taking massive damage every morning. They debate passing it off to Arleesh, but hold off for now. 6 Cyl receives a new 6WT card as a bonus from Sol, and the team examines it and discusses the prophecies again. Some on the team also get some exciting new gear through Sol’s connections to the Ex-Corporate Scientist lab.

Schmidt also wants them to look into an item called the Devil’s Seal, that can supposedly close off portals to metaplanes, and which all 3 factions badly want. The shedim may not be aware of it yet, but the insect mole at STV was looking into before his death. They decide to prioritize the moles, and start digging. One of the woman, Deirdre Green, seems to be a competitor of Schmidt’s within the firm, and likely is representing the shedim as clients, but doesn’t seem to have been compromised. Shane Berkwerth, on the other hand, seems to be fully controlled by the Black Lodge. He seems to have some resentment of his situation but is using encrypted burners to set meets in the woods near Langley, and the team knows the BL has heavily infiltrated the CIA, including it’s head.

They eventually manage to track Berkwerth to one of the meets, using a combo of physical, magic, and drone surveillance, and Holly takes him out afterwards, and grabs his comm, though unfortunately is spotted by a powerful spirit that accompanied whoever he met with. Ben Maddox splits off from the team since they didn’t find a shedim infiltrator for him to target, and returns to working with Loveland on her investigations- she warns the team that he’s getting pretty gung-ho about raiding one of the shedim bases to get some revenge.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, Prot0 has been running some prep missions for the big raid on the Wuxing Frequency factory in Canton, and has recruited and tried out some local talent. He liked a hobgoblin decker named Hotkey, but he was forced to flee HK due to his political agitating for a Mongolian goblinized state. Prot0 recommended that Hotkey head for DeeCee, as he knew the team needed a new decker. Hotkey links up with the crew and makes introductions, he’s also a Conservatory member to they regain access to that resource. In Ethiomalia, Jonny’s extensive rebuild continues.

Back in DeeCee HK helps hack Berkwerths comm, and finds some gnarly IC on there- he nearly gets fried, but gets some comms logs helping prove Berkwerth’s status as a double agent, linked up with the surveillance data the team got, which Schmidt says will be useful if she ever had to justify her actions. Schmidt also reports that Green spotted their surveillance attempts on her and has used it as leverage for an internal power play. In order to keep her position and make peace, Schmidt has had to arrange for Green to have use of the team for an unspecified future job.

They next turn their attention to the Devil’s Seal, and get some info from the Catholics, from 6C’s secret BL knowledge, from Tarantula/000 000 000, and from HK’s matrix digging. They find a list of a half dozen potential properties that it could have wound up at, if it is indeed in DC, and start checking them out. The eccentric billionaire who owned it had diverse interests and holdings so they spend the better part of a day cruising around town before finding the site, and also discover that one of the powerful shadow spirits that they freed by killing Bryson Church has set up a trap house in the blood dust barrens with a bunch of feral ghouls, to feed on misery. There is a still a bounty posted for the spirits, so they debate taking it out, but decide to hold off. They also see that there’s a bounty posted for Holly for her murder of Berkwerth- they don’t have a perfect image, but pixies are very rare in DC.

At the likely site of the Devil’s Seal, they find a strange astral phenomena, as promised: an aspected mana void. It seems to prevent summoning and unravel bindings of spirits. They make contact with a squatter community there, and meet it’s “representative”, a scarred pale man named Cairo, who refuses to confirm they have the Seal but also refuses to hand it over or let the team further into the bank vault they call home. The bank and other nearby businesses seem to be flourishing more so that the surrounding area, though not in a super conspicuous way, and the team does some digging. Apparently Cairo and some others in the community are known to be magic users with strange powers, and have good connections to some local runners. When Guy calls around, he gets ahold of that team, who seem to be hooders, and when HK analyzes their data trails, they seem to be watching the team at the moment. They have a funny exchange where the team agrees to leave, for now, being told by the the hooders that they’d prefer not to shed blood but feel compelled to defend their friends in the bank.

They puzzle it out a bit and do more research before contacting Cairo again, and confirm that he is indeed a free spirit, and it seems like he and some others of his kind who accidentally were set free by their binders bringing the unwittingly into the Devil’s Seal’s range have made a little community there, and seek to free other spirits in their same situation. They also look after the other drifters, runners, shopkeeps and whatnot who make up their community, with magical support and protection. The team makes a complex deal, after 6C and some others insist on not fucking this community over, to get the Seal to Arleesh, in exchange for protection of the community. They get Schmidt on board by having her act as the middleman for the deal- she is upset about not gaining the Seal for the firm, but having a connection to a great dragon and some powerful free spirits is also a win. Schmidt helps get the spirits legal ID’s in jurisdictions that recognize them as entities, and Arleesh makes them her emissaries locally. STV agrees to continue upkeep of the wards and whatnot that the spirits installed in the area as a “charitable venture” funded by a donation from Arleesh.

This increases Fargus Sol’s trust in the team enough that he finally connects them with Emily Llanfrechfa, the Welsh tarot seer who makes large oil paintings of the art on the cards based on her visions. He says that if the team has visual information they need to know from a card they haven’t encountered, he can share what she has seen, which may prove helpful. They also hear back from Loveland that the shedim are worried the BL is close to acquiring, or may have, another artifact called the Sable Blade, or the Sword of Serrin Sol, which supposedly can completely destroy spirits. They do some research and find some descriptive info. Schmidt tracks down an auction where a blade matching the description is being sold, and tells the team to get there asap and acquire it for the Firm- she fears this is why the BL was willing to cooperate with the shedim temporarily after the raid on the Black Wolf- they had an expectation of acquiring this weapon which could totally wreck shedim, seemingly. Schmidt also wants them to track down Camille Rivers, aka Agent X, who has gone missing.

Runners
Jonny Silver
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest
OverEasy
Six Cylinder
and introducing:
Holly Dazzle
and Glenn Blandly

6Cyl converses a bit more with Fargus Sol about his knowledge of strange magics, and learns some new techniques for modifying spells. The team makes a fish/algae tank with a hidden compartment to hide the Bloodblade in in the van, and make a cool quickdraw sheath for it. Kinnie and 6 Cyl finally make a few grav grenades too, and Kinnie makes arrangements with the Ex-Corp Scientists to get some more (putting them in touch with Fargus Sol to get use from his experimental magic and Tarot knowledge). Jonny gets a reminder that the Maria Mercurial show that he scored a surprise ticket to is happening that night, and takes OE with him as his +1.

Jonny goes early to hang at the parking lot tailgate, and gets roped into performing with some session musicians he knows from around town. The thrill of the crowd overcomes him, and he reveals himself as Jonny Silver, playing his biggest hit “Gun of Chrome, Heart of Gold”. The crowd loves it but the team gets really worried about the exposure. 6C warns Jonny that there’s an update to the contract against him on Hidden Blades, and OE races over with the van and some weapons to try to intervene.

Some Fear the Dark activists, upset about Frumious (the infected sasquatch who just rejoined Shield Wall, the opening act) and his tolerance and unity message, attack the crowd gathered around Jonny by unleashing feral ghouls. OE starts shooting them while the FTD members return fire, and Jonny steers the crowd away. Jonny crowd surfs to the van, grabs the bloodblade, and charges the ferals. He slays them with OE’s help, and the FTD members flee. Jonny finds that the Bloodblade heals his wounds as he does damage with it and is quite excited. He stashed it back in the van and OE takes off with the weapons before the cops show.

Jonny is ushered inside by event security (members of a local gang collective called the Triples), who thank him for saving the crowd and seem excited to meet the legendary rebel rocker in person. He gets a meeting with Maria and Shield Wall, and they chat a bit. He resists the urge to do a guest solo during Shield Wall’s set, but can’t resist during Maria Mercurial’s. He goes out for 1 ballad, and then again during the encore, despite the team’s warnings, and is shot with a white phospohrous arrow, presumably by Toast. He is then shot again with a monofil arrow while flaming. He manages to give the crowd a last thumbs up as he flatlines and is dragged offstage.

Fortunately, they had a mage onsite who revives him, but not before news goes wide of what happened. Prot0 cuts him off the TacNet and wipes his comm, just in case. The ganger security says they can smuggle him out of town if he wants to fake his own death. He looks really bad since so much of his synthskin melted, so they leak pics of his “corpse” and say they’ll deal with the cops. Jonny agrees, and calls Blitz to arrange some travel and surgery. He decides to decamp via ship for EthioMalia to get some surgical reconstruction in a relatively corp-free zone.

He decides not to tell the team or the lawfirm, fully faking his death this time, and the team mourns him, especially OE who enters a deep depression over not making Jonny leave with him. Guy reports it into the law firm, and Madeline says she’ll try to track them down a new face, and has another weird runner with some useful powers to test out in the meantime. Meanwhile, Jonny wakes up in a secret compartment on a ship with a medic he paid to ride with him, and finds that he is taking a lot of damage every day upon waking up- the medic can’t detect a poison so assumes it it magical in nature- a curse from the Bloodblade?

However, 6 Cyl wakes up and finds he is no longer taking damage every morning, so it seems the curse transfers to new bearers when they first heal from it. He warns the others and they debate what to do with the blade. For now, they decide to go train some of the newer teammates in their favorite small unit tactics down near Fredericksburg near the merc encampments. Aylin skips out (already knowing the SUT’s) to visit her dad and catch up. They meet in LA and give each other updates- her dad has embarked on dangerous quests both on the physical plane and in the astral planes, and warns Aylin about the Brotherhood of Flesh. Aylin tells him about her infection, and funds his medical care and next expedition. He gives her the box that caused her mom to become possessed by a blood shade, and she agrees to take care of it in case something happens to him.

The rest of the team meets up with Holly Dazzle, a pixie mage, who makes a very split impression on the group. Aylin makes fast friends, and a demo of Holly’s pickpocketing skills pulls OE out of his slump a bit. Kinnie’s a bit more on the fence, and 6Cyl and Guy are pretty put off by Holly’s insistence on total honesty, including their constant use of surface level mind reading. The team insists on only consensual mind-reading, which Holly agrees to, but considers strange given their upbringing in the Fey Realms. But they seem potentially useful, especially once they demo their combat spell abilities. So they train together and head back to town a few days later to continue their investigations.

There, they meet up with a strange elf, Glenn Blandly, who is apparently a corp drone by day and a thrillkill runner by night. He has 2 sapphire daggers and seems stoked to get into it with the team. He also seems really slick and charismatic, so they agree to test both him and Holly out on some future runs and report back to Schmidt. They look into Bryson Church a bit more and make plans to seek him out and try to get the dagger. For now, they decide to look into Arlington and the shedim population there for STV and Patricia Loveland.

They head over and scout it out astrally and with drones, and get some good info- it seems like the Army Thaumaturgical Corps is keeping a large astral barrier up, but that some shedim are allowed in and out, seemingly only to go into the Blood Dust Barrens. The cemetery is also under surveillance by FedPol (likely at the behest of the Black Lodge), and by some scrappy teens (likely bug cult recruits). They spot a bunch of potential entrances around the cemetery for the tunnel system they’ve heard rumored exists below. They positively ID 3 of them, but decide not to go further for the moment, fearing the background count and the unknown.

They also meet up with Ben Maddox who seems ready to rock and roll against his new enemies, the shedim. They report in to Loveland first, who trades info with them, and reports that Prot0 identified the Black Lodge mole in the ASPS here so she can operate a bit more safely now. They hook her and Maddox up and Maddox seems stoked to have a task, protecting her. They then report to the law firm and get the approval to continue digging or move on to other tasks. Schmidt suggests some ways forward if they want to proceed, and suggests that what they saw confirms that the Feds are using the shedim to clear the Barrens of bugs/toxins, and that this suggests they have some kind of protection deal with DoD or the administration.

6Cyl initiates with the Catholics, aiming to gain access to the Vigilia Evangelica’s secrets since he’s cut himself off from the BL. He learns some techniques of mystical control and also tries to convince them to be more accepting of vamps, but him and Aylin both have weird ideas of how to do that, so it doesn’t go well. Radha Ran agrees to an interview with the vampire though, which Aylin is stoked about. Holly makes a better impression on the team through this run, proving their worth (though still being a total weirdo). Jonny’s final single is released, and the team mourns in their own ways.

Aylin talks to the Catholics, and they agree to allow her on campus barring any disturbing discoveries about her, but still seem suspicious of vampires overall. They are also circumspect about the radical nature of the Boston Diocese during Lockdown, seeming a bit more aligned with Rome. Holly prepares an epic turkey feast, funded by Guy, and buys everyone personalized gifts for Black Friday, trying to ingratiate with the team. They do some research and pay for some hacking on Evelyn North and the missing Malcolm West, and figure out that the best time to spot North would be during a lunch meeting the next monday, so they focus on West for now.

Guy upgrades Berto again, and starts teaching him some new abilities. The team does a pretty bad job of checking out West’s known address, and gets spotted by the same cop who they had to bribe before outside of the Black Wolf. They agree to pay him off again, but decide to try to set up a more regular contact relationship, after 6 Cyl suggests either doing that or killing him. STV approves, so they get bribe the cop and get some useful info about West, who apparently had also previously bribed the cop not to report it. After doing some further digging, it looks like West was murdered by thrill kill gangers in the True Roman street gang, who “randomly targeted” him after being inspired to by Derrick Stokes or another of Otto Stevens’ henchmen. His body was then grabbed by a loose shedim, and it seems the shedim did not know what they had (at least initially), as they get surveillance footage of the newly possessed West lurching around with his portal key dangling from a necklace.

Schmidt wants the key, and also wants West, or at least to know where he is and what he knows now, so the team is back on the job. Luckily, they’ve finally paid down their Boston debts so they should be making better money from here on.

Runners
Jonny Silver
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest
OverEasy
Six Cylinder

Prot0 tells the team he’s gonna stick to a behind the scenes role for the time being, while he pulls data heists for STV and others to raise funds for the Wuxing Frequency raid. He continues doing research for the team’s mission and can send along sprites to hack when needed. He passes the drone controller and surveillance drones off to the them for now, and maintains security on the tacnet remotely. He reports that him and Patricia Loveland, along with Old Crow’s info, are looking into who the Black Lodge has inserted into the local ASPS branch, as well as determining a little bit about MCT’s recent acquisition of Apep Consortium: apparently a large impetus was Apep’s good relationship with shedim, which will allow MCT further metaplanar access and security. He also passes along an invitation to join the Exchange in thanks for sharing CFD cures, and the team agrees.

The team continues on the mission to hunt down Cameron Faulkner, the rival junior partner at STV, and find out who he’s been working with outside of the Firm. Using the contacts they made with some of his disgruntled former assistants, they ID his car and driver, and eventually spot him slipping out of STV. Guy tails him to a meet deeper downtown, at the Ares Logistics building, and Jonny spots him meeting Otto Stevens/Hendricks’ assistant before being ushered in. They set an ambush for his exit, and quickly take out both him and his driver. Jonny debuts the crystal bloodblade in action, and it is terrifyingly effective. It seems like it will heal injuries the bearer has by dealing damage.

They flee successfully, and report to Schmidt. She is worried about leaks, and assumes that since Ares (and thereby at least some of the bugs) had a spy, it’s likely that the Black Lodge and shedim have one or more each as well. She says she will begin an internal investigation (with Iain Decker and Jan St John assisting), while the team tries to spot any potential leaks from the outside, while they continue their investigations. 6 Cyl decides that it’s time to fake his death as well to escape Mr. Woods and the Black Lodge, and sets up a fake hit by Ancients, where Jonny and Aylin in disguise throw him off of a bridge, while Zuri Adamson waits underwater to smuggle him upriver, where Guy picks him up and takes him to the Probe’s surgical suite of the day, and Leanna Octave implants him with cyber-eyes and does some cosmetic alteration, making him into an elf poser, to throw off astral and visual tracking. He gets some tips in counter-surveillance form Schmidt, Jonny and others as well- changing his walk etc. He also ditches his signature duster, and mods his revolver.

While 6C is healing, Schmidt calls and says her suspicions about Faulkner seem correct- someone attacked and largely destroyed Bryson Church’s manor the previous night (after Faulkner’s meeting with Otto), which suggests it was either bugs, or Otto learned from the BL pulling one over on him and sicced the shedim on Church. Rumors suggest Church wasn’t killed, but Schmidt wants them to go look into it. They roll over and do some investigation. It looks like 2 heavy vans rolled up, and left quickly a little lighter, suggesting some casualties in the assault team. There are some destroyed rapid reponse sec drones scattered around the manor lawn, suggesting that the assaulters fled during the first response wave from external security. And astral space clearly shows use of magic and traces of shedim, answering that question, though strangely it seems that there were 3 shedim on 1 side of the brawl and a dozen on the other.

The team gets worried about internecine squabbles between Masters, but then remembers that Church was known to have a powerful item called the Dagger of Hivas Set in his possession, which he supposedly used to bind some spirits to his service. Perhaps these were the 3 shedim on the 1 side. 6C confirms that he has heard of this dagger within BL lore, and provides some description and ideas about it’s use and history. OE confirms that there’s a blood magic vibe near the center of the fighting, which seems to be the display room that Gabriel Ives described where the dagger was kept when Church was home. However, no sign of any combatants besides shedim remains, so they assume Church (and the dagger) escaped unharmed. OE also spots some kind of hermetic mage cleansing astral space of the traces of the fight, and ko’s or kills him before he can spot the rest of the team.

They report to Schmidt, confirming her suspicions and convincing her to double down on the mole hunt. She acknowledges that her and the team have become somewhat tied together and significantly decreases their debt to the Firm. They then get word that Bravo Company successfully extracted Fargus Sol from HeadHunter captivity in the MCZ in Boston, and are bringing him to DC before figuring out next steps. Guy upgrades the van interior, and they plan to use it as a mobile safehouse before finding a permanent spot elsewhere for Sol to lay low. The last contract Woods offered 6C was for capturing or killing Sol, so they warn Bravo about that as well.

They meet up in the fancy (and magically secured) parking lot for the 4 Seasons Skytouch tower, and make the swap from an unmarked Bravo Company sedan and plain-clothes HRT to the van with no trouble. Sol proves to be knowledgeable and voluble, happy to discuss Tarot and other mysteries. Aylin gives him an honest reading telling him not to trust them over himself, and he appreciates the honesty. They mindlink and swap a bunch of Tarot info, and he also gives them the last card in his possession- he says he is primarily interested in knowledge and the deck’s origins, rather than the profits to be made therein. He warns them about the dangers of items summoned with the deck, including the crystal bloodblade, but confirms that many other sets exist, and validates Aylin’s map theories. He says that he has a friend with a secure vault if they find any dangerous items they want kept safe. They agree to continue collaborating, though he seems invested in ensuring their relative morality before considering them “friends.”

He warns Aylin about the elf supremacists at the top of the Atlantean Foundation (though he says the org also does some good), but suggests she consider writing for a more freelance conspiracy rag, and puts her in touch with Ramona Cubbins at the All-Seeing Eye. He is also maybe the 2nd most powerful mage OE has ever seen, an offers to teach them invented spells from his personal grimoire if they stick together. OE calls up Imaginary Annie and arranges to trade some tarot info to her in exchange for her securing a safehouse and secure comms channel for Sol in Seattle. He also agrees to help her look into Prophecy 3, related to the Tower card. She tells them there’s always work in Seattle if they ever get out that way.

Runners
Prot0
Jonny Silver
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest
OverEasy
and introducing: Six Cylinder

The team continues investigations for the law firm, contacting Sahara Jones to find out why she fed false info about bug hives to ARES. They help her get blackmail dirt to sway votes her Rep’s way, and then learn that she was magically compelled to do so. It traces back to shedim, and also tips them off to a possible BL hangout: the Black Wolf bar. They get Jones some Grey Mana clothes to protect her from future spells and she gives them a Tarot card in thanks.

Prot0 uploads all his info on the Null Sect and the Tan Robes to the Endless Archive, in exchange for info on both groups and some other stuff. However, the Archive comes under attack from the Null (though they don’t seem able to enter, it is now quite dangerous to access), and the Conservatory is crashed, and one of it’s founders killed. In light of this and the situation in Denver, Perri tells Prot0 he needs to find a new host, so he reaches out to Garmonbozia, and they agree in exchange for some tasks. Prot0 also joins Ta Makrinia through Leanna Octave of the Probe, and tells GB that TM would be easy to manipulate as they seek hidden God AI’s.

Next up, they finally find Patricia Loveland, and trade a ton of shedim info for promising help determine who the BL has infiltrated into the local ASPS. Based on her info, it seems like master shedim are gathering in DC much the same as Bug hives: worrying. They learn about the different types of shedim, and also the 3 main shedim locales in town: the Stoked Hearth club, Downtown, and Arlington Cemetery. They are also paying to amass “body stashes” around town. Zenith is hiring for these jobs, so the team warns him about shedim but he seems non-plussed.

Prot0 spits off to deal with Null-destroyed Conservatory, and gives the last doses of the CFD cure to the local Exchange to fight off the CFD-infected faction. It seems like the Exchange may have sicc’ed the Turing Army of some of the hardcases, as new that the TA took out an Exchange safehouse outside Hamburg and killed ThankYou starts circulating. Prot0 begins rebuilding the Conservatory in Garmonbozia, and starts making some interesting contacts there. He continues doing data jobs for the law firm as well, saving up for the run against the Wuxing Frequency factory in Canton.

The team stakes out the Black Wolf, accompanied by a Rogue Lodge member named 6 Cylinder, who seems like kind of a noob but the lawfirm wants the team to test him out. He seems bummed about having killed someone who challenged him in a gunfight earlier in the day. They do some magical observation, but get chased of by a crooked FedPol officer, who insists on a bribe. They then grab Johnny, after he meets with Cass Wandering Horse, and updates him on the Crying Masks situation. He says he’ll reach out to some folks and try to find out more about the Tan Robes for Jonny.

They do a better job infiltrating socially into the Black Wolf with Jonny along, and make contact with the bartender, a neo-Anarchist named Old Crow who is running his own investigation. They agree to share info, and learn that the enclosed side alley has a convergence of leylines and quarter-moon gatherings of BL members. They share lists of known BL members, and Old Crow says he’ll keep an eye out for the ones they’re looking for. They also get a lot of security info about the bar itself.

The team decides to fake an assassination order from 6C’s BL handler, and give the guy to the law firm, hoping he’ll provide some good info on the BL and the Black Wolf if they save his life. They set up a quality fake hit, with fake DocWagon gear, Slab, and everything. They pull it off, but notice Toast lurking nearby- seemingly Mr. Woods is worried about 6C’s wavering loyalty, though he seems to believe that he’s in the fold for now, and rewards him with a book of the secret history of the connections between BL and the Catholic Church.

Since OE has been training to fight spirits with the Catholics at Georgetown, this puts them a bit at odds, as 6C is very curious about their secrets and lies after reading the book, and seems worryingly interested in staying in touch with the BL to gain further knowledge. The law firm tells them to come in for a debrief with Gabriel Ives, the man they saved, when they have a chance. However, they’ve acquired a bunch of Tarot cards – 1 gifted to Prot0 after a Fractal rave with Garmonbozia members (also the Conservatory is finally back online), 2 from Cass Wandering Horse, related to the FBI task force looking into Group X (the team also gets some info), and they hear that there’s one more in possession of a Bright Star member in Anacostia, which will complete their crystal blade set.

They head out, and use their good Neo-A rep and connections with Ratched to get the card from a suave french elf named Midnight, who charms Jonny. Guy finds out about the artifact watch that Ratched inherited from Adelbern also, and tells Prot0 and Jonny, against Ratched’s wishes. Jonny uses his old ID and rep to pull one more expended card projector from the IOND in Denver, commiserating with Darien Black about PPJ. Using his old ID in this way makes him want to do more Jonny Silver stuff again. They head back to the safehouse and assemble the crystal blade set, summoning the Crystal Bloodblade. They all buy swords and Guy pays from some classes to learn to use them. They also mod the boat to have a smuggling compartment, and help STV extract the 2 surviving members of FBI task force 154 after 2 are killed by Group X.

They also call into Neon Ascension again, as one of the hosts got really into Tarot stuff, and is in hiding. They ask for info and provide a contact dropbox. The 2 hosts they talk to are killed shortly thereafter, but they get a buncha Tarot info from the surviving host, and find out that the Headhunters have a Tarot expert in their custody (if he’s still alive) and get another Tarot card hinting at his survival, when 6C gets a contract to recover or kill him from Mr. Woods. They make contact with Rifleman/Bravo Company and give them the tip about the expert, and he says they’ll look for him with 6C’s info and report back.

Aylin realizes the monolith/stone in the corner of 1 card looks suspiciously similar to the chunk of the Cornerstone that they helped Adelbern steal in Boston, and wonders if the other pictures depict other chunks or something else. Based on Fargus Sol also being depicted on the card, Aylin tips off Rifleman that Sol was likely in Boston recently, is now, or will be soon, to give him a lead where to seek the Headhunters. The team trains and experiments with the Bloodblade a bit, but doesn’t manage to figure out how it works, though it seems like a quality sword.

They decide to investigate the Telestrian card in order to potentially leverage some info about the Compensation Army, and end up preventing Alyse Depore from getting assassinated, unfortunately Aster Telestrian gets a bolt through the head from the troll assassin, 6Cyl manages to take out his getaway driver but he escapes. They Debrief Alyse, who seems not too bummed to be free of the abusive Aster, and gives them a little info, as well as another tarot card. She also calls in a chopper ride from Cara Villiers, and tells them that Cara will do them a favor sometime in thanks. Guy tries to make a friend, but Alyse leaves shortly for Seattle (though she seems to like Berto, after riding him around a while in his moto form).

The team then returns to STV and debriefs Schmidt on some tarot updates (she says that STV has successfully scooped up the 2 Task Force 154 survivors and is expanding their tarot knowledge thereby). They get a useful Q&A in with Gabriel Ives, who tells them all he know about the local Black Lodge in thanks for extracting him. They get useful info on a few jobs they’re working, and make some followup plans. Schmidt also wants them to deal with (in whatever fashion) a rival junior partner, so they start looking into him. They pass along the relevant BL info to Old Crow as promised, and he says he’s skipping town cause he’s worried the BL may be close to making him. He gives them another tarot card and tells them to seek out the Arcane 3 if they ever find themselves in Chicago.

Runners
Prot0
Jonny Silver
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest
OverEasy

The team distributes the Null Doc (on paper) to 2 Minds, The Probe, Garmonbozia (in case they’re Boston operatives haven’t been able to get it out), and Master File (The Swamp mod), as well as reporting on the Turing Army connection. They find out that Leanna Octave (and perhaps other Probe-ers) appear to be Singularity Seekers, and view the Null and the rumored return of Deus in Boston as signs of the approaching event. They also get access to The Swamp (finally) and update Erika Knowles. Knowles tells them that she’s covered Guy’s tracks, but that he now has an Interpol Red Notice out for his arrest for shedim assistance (with his old, slightly different aura readings attached), so he should be especially cautious about international travel. She also reports that there is a new alliance between the Ordo Maximus and shedim forces in Prague- one drains bodies, and the other inhabits, so makes sense, but creepy.

The team decides to update their safehouse security and goes further into debt with STV to add some charged wards to protect against spirits. Guy buys a bird to throw through the ward to test if it will kill it, which doesn’t work, and gets everyone worried about his growing psycopathy. Aylin heads to West Virginia to train with some mercs and gain her first Horrorstalker ability, and Ratched heads out to help Equity and Bright Star in the Anacostia Barrens. Prot0 gets an update on the run he funded- the Hong Kong fixer Ratqueen reports that local runners traced the Wuxing production line around the Canton Confederation and found the unlisted offline factory in Guangzhou where the Frequency commlinks are made. Ratqueen also puts Prot0 in touch with a techno-tribe in HK called the Whampoa in case he wants to take more action against this dangerous device, and suggests that the device has put a dent in her (and other fixers’) income, since HK is a huge port and TM’s have traditionally been a big part of the runner scene. The rest of the team preps to raid the data vault, after going over the rest of their available jobs’ status.

OE scouts it out a bit more, and starts following the roving wagemage, hoping to find his home base to KO him before the mission, but gets spotted and then returns to find his body taken over by a shedim. He manages to expel the shedim, but not before it almost kills his body in revenge. Prot0 races his med-tank over and barely saves him in time (thanks TacNet!), and they delay the job another day, though they have good security recon done. They make a plan while Jonny plays another open mic- he’s attracting a local rep, but also some controversy now due to his embrace of 2 Minds, so there are some Purist protestors. He also makes contact anonymously with Ceol Productions to help get 2 Minds signed there, and hears that Blitz is looking for him, not believing his faked death any longer. The team also gets 2 Tarot cards, and does some digging, finding out some behind the scenes drama about the popular sitcom “Coffee Clutch” and getting another clue towards the crystal bloodblade.

They head back to the data vault the next night, timing their approach to the maximum downtime in the astral patrol (newly heightened since OE got spotted), and drop Kinnie on the roof with the Dustoff drone and some looper rounds. He takes out cameras as the team sneaks up under spirit concealment, and the KO the 2 guards and the barghest in the camera dead zone (which they know doesn’t have signal to the inside since the guards were using hand signals on camera to communicate) and then cover the KO’ed security with ghillie blankets equipped with jammers. Prot0 hacks the front door and they enter.

Another barghest smells Kinnie, who isn’t concealed, and lets loose a howl which paralyzes a few team members. They ’re able to pull it together enough to KO another guard patrol and kill the dog. They head through the rest of the facility as an alarm kicks in and the entrance locks down. Guy manages to manipulate concrete to drop out the vault door sealing the central core, and the team finds themselves heavily jammed. However, the final guards appear to be holed up in a security room so they leave them be and focus on the hack. Kinnie makes the terminal accessible, and Prot0 dives in with a sprite, figuring out how to interface with the decade-outdated system as he goes. Kinnie heads back up front to blow the door as gas begins to pour into the hallway the team is in. Guy lockpicks open the room into the coolant chamber with all the hard drives and summons an air spirit to keep the gas off Prot0 while he hacks.

Prot0 gets the data and tries to go back for more, but Guy sends his spirit in to wreck the equipment, so Prot0 flees the matrix and the gas, and the team makes a tight getaway just ahead of the FedPol cops showing up. They detour through the Barrens to loose astral and matrix pursuers, and pass the data off the STV. This gives them 3 more names to investigate: it seems some shedim operatives were using the data vault, and have ID’ed 2 local Black Lodge members, and are interested in another woman as well…

Runners
Prot0
Jonny Silver
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest
OverEasy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Runners
Prot0
Jonny Silver
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest
OverEasy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RUNNERS
PepperJack

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Runners
Prot0
Jonny Silver
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest
OverEasy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Runners
Prot0
Jonny Silver
Guy
Aylin Carewell
Kinnie Zest
OverEasy
Ratched

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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