All posts by johnl

The Ethereal Hand

Session 6 – We get stiffed.

We get back to the HQ.  Foggy goes through the books, and we sell the rest to the Silver Nails for 4 coin.  We gained some rep from the job,   but decide to not push our tier up as it would cost us everything and really give us mixed results.

Foggy studies the books and is able to gain insight into his demon, completing the long term project.  He also is able to heal himself and reduce some stress.  Raven also reduced his stress and increased his skills.  Crowl reduced his stress.  Reynard overindulges and is kicked out of his cult.  He needs to find a new voice.

Foggy is able to contact his demon through the spirit focus.  Its name is Tanigoth and it is the demon with a thousand mouths.  It is all about sowing Chaos.  In the past it has latched on to specific individuals to create chaos and destroy cities.  It has been missing for 150 years, but is now Foggy’s buddy.

Reynard was kicked out of his cult because he was seen talking to someone from the Silver Nails.  He knows the Circle of Flame has many ancient artifacts and is dangerous.

We go to talk to our contact from the Silver Nails, Tuhan.  The bartender also lets us know that the Dimmer sisters have put out a bounty for information on the break in of their mansion.  If we know anything we should talk to their agent, Darrow.  Some bluecoats also shove their way into the bar.

After some time Tuhan comes in and goes to the back, away from the bluecoats.  We talk to him about stealing some books from the cult that is looking for Khotar.  These could also point us to valuable stuff for the Lost District.

We decide this is too dangerous and instead decide to frame the Cabbies for the book theft.  Reynard cases the place and sees that they have boosted some security and boarded some windows, but not impossible.  Raven and Kit sneak into the place with the books, prying off the boards and slipping into one of the offices.  As Raven slips in he hears voices from one of the other offices.  Raven tries to hide and wait.  One of the people comes out, but the other stays.  Raven listens at one door and hears snoring, then sneaks into the storage room across the hall.  He hides the books behind the drawers of some filing cabinets then sneaks out.   He drinks his silence potion then replaces the boards as he is leaving the window.

Meanwhile Foggy zones out and is told by his demon that there must be blood tonight.  Reynard notices something is wrong.  Foggy tells him about the command.  Reynard throws something across to the opposite side of the roof to distract from the replacement of boards.  Raven takes 2 tries, but is able to replace the boards and escape.

Meanwhile Foggy tries to call a ghost and fails.  We slip into the night.

Foggy finds a cabbie to possess, then has a ghost take him over and write “The sisters will have their revenge”  before the cabbie slits his owns throat.  He makes a devils bargain with a ghost that will help him but will haunt him after.  The ghost has the cabbie writes the message in blood on his tip money, then commit suicide.  The ghost then introduces himself as Nerix and starts following Foggy.

Foggy also starts looking for followers of Tanigoth.  He finds them in Nightmarket, in a small shack that serves as their headquarters.

Next morning we go to Amancio and make a deal to give him the info about the cabbies having the sister’s books, in return for him getting a share of the information.    After some bargaining he agrees, and later in the day we see that there is a story about the cabbies hitting the Dimmer Sisters in the paper.

The next morning Bert and Ernie say they need to go see Harold because the guy with the eye patch was asking about us.  We go to the bar.  He asks for protection, which we provide in return for one coin.

Over the next few days there are incidents between the cabbies and dimmer sisters.  after some back and forth, the dimmer Sisters knock of the Cabbies Headquarters and find the books, while reducing the status of the cabbies.  The Silver Nails also go against the Dimmer Sisters but fail.  We gain some turf and pick up a loyal fence.

Amancio calls us back and says they only paid out 14 instead of 20, and he still is going to take his 6, so we only get 8 coin.

The Ethereal Hand

Session 5 – The Dimmer Sisters

<out of game>  The party all resist the harm we took last time.  Remember to do this for harm in the future. </out of game>

There are ghosts flying all over the cabbies’ garage.  We decide we have caused enough trouble and leave without sabotaging any cabs.  However several guards are dead and there are ghosts all over their HQ.  We leave the way we came in and head for our lair.

We get 4 coin and gain some rep with the gondoliers.  Our wanted level goes up to one, as this was a noisy and chaotic score.  The gondoliers start bragging about the score, which costs us some of our rep.  We also acquire a cohort of skulks to help our gang scout and acquire information.  Bert and Ernie are loyal to us because we pulled them out of another gang.  They won’t do anything against kids.  They do party on the weekends.

The crew goes off to work on their own stuff.  Eklipsis disappears after over indulging.  A new member joins the crew, Crowl, a Skovlan fighter.

We decide for our next score that we want to help Foggy learn more about his demon.  We start collecting information about the Dimmer sisters.

Bert and Ernie go in to investigate.  The come back all torn up and tell us about the guard with a dog who caught them. Not much else is known.  Crowl and Reynard go back to the mansion and look for the guard.  We notice a pattern of when the guard and his dog take breaks.  We also spot a building on the west where they can grapple across.   It is an old abandoned hotel.    Reynard could snipe from the building.

Foggy talks to Harrold the bartender.  He tells Foggy top come back the next day and meet someone.  The whole crew goes back and spreads out around the bar.  Foggy is introduced to the Silver Nails gang member Tuhan who is Severosi.  We find out that the sisters have 20 members and many are at the mansion.  They tried to implant a ghost in a human host.  He also lets us know that the Silver Nails have rings that prevent possession and allow them to go outside of the lightning barrier.  He says he knows who we are and that we helped to take them down the lawyer possessing people.  Therefore he is open to helping us.   He will try to get us some knowledge about the layout of the building.

We eventually get some rough drawn maps of the compound.

We get up on the roof in the dark of night and start making our way in from the abandoned hotel.  Crowl drops some drugged meat through the fence and the dog eats it.  Raven and Foggy slip across a rope to the building.  They enter on the second floor where the notes say the labs are located.

The room is very dusty and smells of mildew and disuse.  They move to the door and peer out,.  They see a long hallway with many other doors.  One has light and noise behind it.  Foggy looks through the keyhole.  Someone is laying on a couch and talking to themselves.  They move down the hall to a set of double doors.  As they pass a stairway they see a ghost that appears to be human moving on the first floor.  The slip past and find a magically double door.  Foggy sees it has magical energy, but he is open to open it.  It makes a loud noise when he does and he hears a sniff from back on the first floor.  The slip into the room and shut the door behind them.  The room is a library with bars over the window.  Raven sets up a line to send bags of books down to Crowl.  Then he and Foggy start searching the books and getting quantity and quality of books.  Foggy finds a book that will help him study the demon.  They and many of the other books go in the bag and down the line, but some of the books slip out.

The ghost is trying to break through the door so Raven signals for the distraction.  Crowl causes an explosion that is bigger than expected and actually starts the house across the street on fire.  People from the mansion move that way.  Meanwhile Foggy attunes to the ghost, partially.  He tells it to do whatever it wants.  It starts to come apart and screams really loud.  They race past the ghost and back to the entry point where they make their escape.

(Foggy and Raven took a Desperate action to escape, mark 1xp each)

The Ethereal Hand

Session 2 – The Charles Residence

We keep working on the barred door.  Eklipsis tries to open the lock again using the acid and is able to pop the lock.  The door is unlocked.  Raven pops his head through the trap door.  It is a dusty warehouse.  He hears some guards, but none are in sight.  He starts looking around for the cases in question.  He finds the right boxes, but he makes a small noise and the guards hear something.  Foggy follows him up, but he makes even more noise and the guards are alerted.  Foggy and Raven find the right crate with the spirit focus and lift it, then they start moving towards the door.

With the guards charging in, Eklipsis throws a rock across the warehouse to draw their attention.   It distracts one of the guards, but the rest are still moving towards us.  We quickly slip through the door and hold it shut from the bottom.

The guards try pulling it up from the top, which causes Raven to lose his grip and fall.  He suffers a sprained ankle.  The box also falls and breaks open.   Foggy picks up the spirit focus and is instantly enthralled by it.  He gets in the barge.  Eklipsis is able to help Raven to the barge, then runs back to grab whatever is left.  She is successful, but one of the guards sees her face.   She jumps into the barge and they pull away with the loot.   The guards shout stop and say they can try to cut us off.  The barge master know another way out, but it goes close to the spirit well.

We start paddling in that direction.  While we are moving Foggy attunes to the spirit well and many of the spirits are released.  Most flow down the tunnel to where the guards were headed, but one heads straight to wards Foggy.  His mask protects him, but he does take some harm.  Pandemonium erupts on the street above us, and we are able to get away.

We are able to get paid for the score, but Darmot, our bluecoat contact, is called in because he was seen talking to strangers.  We lose him as a contact.  Eklipsis visits the Sister Thorn gang and indulges her vice.  She is also successful in framing someone else with the Bluecoats, so the heat on our gang is reduced.  Reynard trains in his insight skill, and also indulges his vice to reduce stress.    Raven visits Reynard’s physicker friend Melvir to try and heal his ankle.  He also indulges his vice to reduce stress.  Foggy also visits the physicker and reduces his stress.  We also rack up coin and experience.

Reynard and Eklipsis head over to the address that Stazia gave them for Veldren, to see if he is okay.  The head over to Crowsfoot, which is a sooty, dirty area.  Lots of factories, warehouses, and coal burning enterprises.  We go into a tenement house which was his last known location.  Kit and Reynard look around the building.  Kit smells something very strong from under the door, and also outside, but finds no bad guys.  Eklipsis picks the lock and open the door.  There is a strong chemical smell as we enter the room, and the place looks tossed.  There is no body present, but we look for clues and Reynard finds drag marks, but the disappear in the hallway. He also finds a broken clasp from a piece of clothing. Kit is able to follow the scent from the clasp, which heads north, but then fades away due to all the smells of the city.

Eklipsis reports back with this information. We show him the half broach  and he asks us to look around for possible matches.

Meanwhile we decide to walk past the house that Darmot was asked to guard.  Our goal is to find something that will help him get back into the good graces of the Bluecoats.  Kit slips into the house and starts looking around. Some areas of the house are covered in tarps because things are broken. He finds one room which appears to be a library, but most of the wall is taken up been paintings and those have been pulled down and shredded. The destroyed paintings are of certain subjects that seems to have been destroyed multiple times. The same portraits seems to have been destroyed over and over.  Kit hears foot steps and escapes, but is not able to identify who was in the portraits that were destroyed.

We set up a meeting with Lady Drake to see if the City Council can help us gain access to the house.  She is in an office surrounded by security.  She is a striking woman, but with a little too much make up.  Foggy talks to her and she says the building is owned by Frederick Charles, who is extravagant and noisy. He is and adjunct to the City Council and he is a lawyer. He is very full of himself. She admits that the the bluecoats have been unable to solve this, and she asks that the bluecoats not be involved or aware that we have done this. She asks that we help her take credit for solving the mystery.

We decide to stealth into the entry point.  Raven helps us slip across to a balcony and we all slip across silently.  Eklipsis picks the lock and slides the door open.  We go in and Kit slips ahead.  She sees a light and smells a human.  She sees the silhouette of a person and hears the scratching of a quill on paper.  On her way back she senses ghosts in the room with the books and portraits.  She has gotten to o close to the ghosts, and two ghost dogs appear and growl at her.

We hustle down to the room and enter to see the ghosts.  Foggy attunes to the dogs and lets them know that we are not a threat.  They step back and disappear.  We look around and all of the destroyed portraits are pictures of Frederick Charles.  The energy in this room is seething evil, and especially with these paintings.  All of these paintings and the wall they are on is evil.  We investigate the wall and find a crack.  However when we pull on the crack the whole wall falls in.  The noise attracts two more ghosts with mutilated faces and open wounds who come up through the floor.

Raven and Reynard are closest to the ghosts and take stress and  ghost fright.  We also hear noise from the other room.  However in front of us we see a set of stairs that go down.  Foggy tries to attune to the ghosts, but they fail and attack him instead.  He avoids harm, but is not able to compel them.

We also have an older gaunt man with whispy hair appear in the hallway.  He sees us, and pulls a long knife. <scene>

Chicago Runners

Session 5 – Thumper Home Remodeling, LLC

We resume our duties on our next shift, but we are all kind of tense about all of the things that have gone on.  Fortunately it is a quiet shift, until a call comes in around 9 pm.  It is on the other side of our patrol area so we have a ways to go.  Mari says hold on and starts speeding there.  The patient is  Ben Adkins, 31, human, and is basically healthy, but he has a hazardous occupation although it doesn’t say what.  Blood pressure is low and dropping.  It takes us 20 min to get there.  We arrive at Zee’s Club.

Thumper leads the way as we move to the door.  The bouncer confirms our ID and lets us in.  Inside it is loud, crowded, and hard to see.  Isaac cant find the guy so we talk to the bartender.  He says there is another business in the basement that is not part of the bar.  He goes around to the back of the bar and opens a hidden door.  We head down the secret steps into the basement.  We hear different music, much more grinding.  Two guards in security armor approach us and try to stop us.  The trolls keep going and we follow them in.  As we look into the club there are 2 trolls just beating on each other in the center of the floor.  There are a bunch of orc gangers and others around the floor, watching the fight.  They are Sewer Rats.  We also see a guy in a very expensive suit and a woman with blue eyes.  She is very powerful in magic and a little bored but intrigued.  We see the signal is coming from the back of the club.  The bouncer says that the ambulance crew already arrived.

We get to the patient and see the other crew from Crash Cart., 2 guards and 2 medics.  They try to stop us and say that they were here first.  They pull up their guns and point them at us.  Espadas rolls in and slices the barrels off of the guards guns.  Thumper thumps one of the medics in the face, and he lands on his back like a sack of ham.  Ryoshi and Isaac move past the stunned Crash Cart guys and move towards the patient.  The rest of the crew follows.  Ryoshi kicks in the door (everyone else is very impressed).

We see the patient on the ground in a pool of blood with a woman bending over him.  He has been beaten to a pulp and is close to bleeding out.  He is not even recognizable.  We slap on a Trauma patch and start moving him and his girlfriend out of here.  Two trolls start to block our way and say that Ben has to fight and they own him.  Ben comes around a little and says he wants to fight.  We keep talking to the troll bouncers, and to Ben to try and keep the fight from happening, but he really wants to fight and is willing to waive his Doc Wagon contract.  Isaac slaps a Tranq patch on him to try and keep him down.  He passes out.

We tell the troll manager that he can’t fight but he will be able to find him once he is healed.  We keep moving out.  On the way out we notice a person in the crowd with a Universal Brotherhood symbol.  Espadas assenses her and she is a magic user, very strong but the aura is strange.  She also has some cyberware.  We carry the guy out of the club and to the ambulance.  We start treating him in the ambulance and start driving to the hospital.  We get him there and get him secured.

On the way out we run into Dr. Hyun.  She tells us that her man we talked to after the explosion has since passed away.  We are not surprised.  Our shift concludes and tomorrow we are on duty in the station.

We head to the Triple Tap for a drink after a weird night.  We run into Bright there along with his new crew.  He is really happy to be back doing medical work.  We eat and decide to go and look at another of the Sewer Rat sites that was flagged on our map, the one by the old Gold Coast.  We know that this mostly run down and inhabited by homeless people.  We do see one cluster of people hanging around some of the remaining buildings.  These people seem to have better clothing and are more on watch.  We settle in and watch them.  After a while a van backs up to a side door.  Looking through his scope, Ryoshi sees crates similar to the ones we saw in the warehouse.  There are 4 orcs helping with the crates.

After the van pulls away we decide to hit the gangers and take the weapons off the street.  Espadas sneaks up to the gangers and hits two of them with his swords.  They both die instantly.  One of the remaining guys notice the sound but Ryoshi drops him.

Isaac uses his Maglock key on the warehouse door.  He opens it and we look inside.  There are 4 more gangers opening the crates.  Combat ensues.  Ryoshi hits one of the gangers, but doesn’t get through his armor.  Thumper kills one with his shotgun.  They shoot back and Icebox is hit, but he shakes it off.  Icebox hits the guy who hit him.  Espadas charges in and takes out two guys.  Ryoshi drops the last one.

We start looking at the crates but hear more voices from behind the other door in the room.  They say go around and several others try coming through the door.  Several of the crates had grenades and Espadas throws two of them at the door they are coming through.  A bunch of them drop, but one of the grenades bounces back and Espadas catches the edge of the blast, but he is OK.  Thumper also takes out several with another grenade.

Icebox shoots and he shoots Espadas in the back, in spite of the Joker.

https://odishoo.com/logs/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Screenshot-2021-05-18-203109.png

We dispatch the remaining gangers.

We hear other noises from in the building.  We grab what we can carry and Thumper shoots a rocket into what is left to blow the rest up.

Best Building Collapse GIFs | Gfycat

Thumper gets caught in the explosion but manages to not die.  Mari comes an picks us up and gets us all back to the Triple Tap.  We stash the weapons we took.  Isaac gets a message from an anonymous person.  An older man’s face appears on the screen.  Isaac recognizes him as the guy who was with the blue eyed girl in the basement bar.  His name is Vincent Dupree and he is an executive at Saeder Krupp.  He asks to meet when it is convenient.

<scene>

Chicago Runners

Session 4 – Things that make you go BOOM!

Work has gone back to normal at Doc Wagon, except that Thumper seems to be really quiet and keeps to himself.  We keep going to the restaurant and things are OK there, but Thumper seems to be troubled about the Troll gangers we ran into.

Bright was promoted into an EMT position, which he is really excited about.  He has been moved to a different team as their primary med tech.  However they have not yet backfilled his position, so we are running short handed.  We have a day off.

We know Franz was organizing the weapons shipments from Germany, but didn’t know who was behind the idea and why they helped Franz.  However we did not see a Universal Brotherhood symbol there, so we don’t know if it was related to the previous deal down by the docks.

We are at the Triple Tap with a day off.  Thumper is really busy working both the front and back of house, so he cant leave. We decide to go look around the city, to see if we can find Dr. Hyun’s nephew as well as find any more information about the weapons deals and the Universal Brotherhood.  He was last seen near Clybourn and Larabee in the NW part of the Shattergraves.  She also give us a description and a video from one of his presentations.  Ha-Joon Hyun.

We take the L down there.  On the way we also get a message from Charlie Zero say he found something, with a link to Noose Net.  We get off near his last know location.  There are still some businesses, but may are boarded up and things look really sketchy.  Matt finds a quiet stoop and accesses the message while Espadas and Ryoshi keep watch.  However he is not able to connect.  He head to his last known location.  We find a community of apartments that is being built around a park.  The project seems abandoned, and there is only some work going on in one building.  We go into one of the other buildings.  There are some squatters, and we ask them about Ha-Joon.  One of the squatters identifies himself as Jim.  He says the project was shut down after some sort of a problem.  All of the workers just left after some sort of security people told them to leave.  We ask about the Universal Brotherhood.  Another guy comes forward and says he was in there but he got out.  They lie about projects and preach a lot, but nothing ever comes of it.  At the higher levels they get really weird, and people often go missing.  That was why he got out.

We leave and check some other buildings.  Issac notices that another building has a basement and looks a little more finished.  It also seems empty, with no squatters.  We head downstairs and it doesn’t seem to be residential.  There is a large boiler and it is very damp, dirty, and smelly.  We find some boxes and cases from old supplies, but a lot of it is ruined.  There is one computer terminal that seems to control all of this machinery.  It saws it is a water treatment system.  Ryoshi notices a Universal Brotherhood symbol on the wall, scrawled by hand.  There is a trap door nearby, but with no visible mechanism.  Issac looks at the terminal and sees it has some hidden commands.  However when he tries to access them he fumbles and ends up shutting off the terminal.

We go old school and Espadas whacks the floor with his swords.  He slices through the latch and the trap door opens.  There is a lot of dust and darkness, along with a stairwell that goes down.  There is a different smell from below, like chemicals or cleaning solutions.  We head down and find a hallway with a very high tech looking door at then end.  The door says C-104.  The door also senses as magical.  Isaac has a maglock passkey and is able to get it open.  The lights are also on in the room ahead.

Inside is some sort of lab, with an isolation chamber.  There are some glass tubes to one side with some blobby, living things moving around in them.  There is a panel on one wall that says “Verify identity”.  When we don’t respond some small drones drop out of the ceiling.

Espadas moves to block the door so it can’t trap us in here.  He shoots at one and misses.  Issac is able to use his maglock key to hack the security and get the drones to go back into the ceiling.  We grab some files and Issac scans the room and records it with his cyber eyes.  We close the door and get out of there as quickly as possible.

We head to the roof, intending get from there to another building.  We see some security on the road below us.  We quickly climb to the roof and climb over the wall to the next building.  The cops think they saw something and follow us, but we are able to slip away and out the back.

We head to  the restaurant to check on the link and let Charlie Zero know what we found.  The link takes us to a video and a directory that is self deleting, we need to download the data then it will erase itself.  The data has a map of the city showing locations where the Sewer Rats activity have been concentrated.  There are at least 4 hotspots, including the location of the original weapons deal on the docks.  There are 6 or 7 other gangs listed that are competing with the Rats, including two larger gangs.  We can see where the gangs might come into conflict, including the apartments where we just were and around the Triple Tap.

After looking at that we scrub our video to remove faces and voices, and send him the results.  We also include Ha-Joon’s image and tell him what little we know about the Universal Brotherhood.    Since we still have some time we decide to head down to the docks to check out where the weapons deal went down.

As we were riding the L down there, we see that there was an explosion in the area where we just were.  There were casualties, and the explosion leveled multiple buildings, including the building where the lab was and where the homeless were.

We get to the docks, and this area is even seedier than the last area.  There doesn’t look like there has been much activity since the bust.  We find vehicle tracks, marks from large trunks, and many foot prints.  We also find some crumpled paper.  One is a business card for Scott Wilson, who works for the FBI.  The other is a crude map of the warehouse with an area marked to the south is circled.  It is about 1-2 blocks away.  We head that way.

Things smell even worse in this area.  We find another set of buildings that are abandoned.   This was another hot spot on the Sewer Rat activity map.  We stealthily case the neighborhood.  We see some activity on the south side of the building.  There is a cellar entrance there, and some people standing around outside.  They are on watch but we are not spotted.   They do have Sewer Rat patches, and they are all orcs.  Once again Issac records the location and all of the faces to share with Charlie Zero.  We don’t want to take on the whole gang so we retreat.

We head back to the Triple Tap.  We first get a message from Charlie Zero saying that after he started looking around based on our last message when he attracted a lot of unwanted attention.  He is going into hiding and said we should destroy anything we took from the lab.   So of course we look through the folder that we took from the lab.  There seems to be data on test subjects that are identified by a serial number.  The  data tracks them over time and records symptoms.  All of the patients seem to have died, except for the last one.  That one says stage 4 achieved, moving subject to another location.

We decide to replace the binder with a Doc Wagon cover and then hide it work.  We find out that the VTOL crew went to the explosion site. Jay walk says that they had two patients and one fatality.  The patients said he saw some people there right before the explosion and he saw a van.  That guy is in surgery right now.  We head home and will come back just before our shift tomorrow.

When we get in we ask Dr. Hyun.  She says one of the patients is in a coma, but the other one is awake.  She says we shouldn’t talk to him, but Issac goes anyway.  He does his best doctor routine.  Louis Chatwell is the patient.  He is an architect for a firm downtown and was looking at a potential job site.  As they were going past the apartments he saw a black van pull up and several people go into the building carrying big cases.  The ran out shortly after and drove away.  He was about a block away when the explosions started.  It looked like several people were caught in the buildings when they exploded.  He can also describe one of the men:  long nose, Van Dyke goatee, and quite pale skin.

We start our next shift.

Chicago Runners

Session 2 – Four $*#@$%^ Crit Fails !!!

Dr. Hyun has been promoted to the emergency room across the street.  Icebox is now in charge of the ambulance crew.  It has been two weeks since our last high danger run.  We spend some evenings at Thumper’s restaurant, and have some other calls.  Icebox is taking his new role very seriously.  He is making videos of our runs and editing them into suggestion videos for upper management.  They are very well received, along with his extended cleaning of the ambulance by the EMT crew.

The area around Thumper’s restaurant is deteriorating.  There is a lot of new weapons and hardware, and several gangs are picking up activity, including the Sewer Rats.  Thumper gets some more security for the place.

One day after a long shift we return to the office.  Mari is in a good mood.  She comes out of the locker room all made up, and says “I have a date.”  She seems happy and then heads out.  We are still hanging around the office with some of the other crews.  Jaywalk approaches us and starts making small talk.

We decide to head to Ulrich’s for dinner.  Jaywalk comes with us.  He and Bright really hit the booze hard.  The rest of us hang out, eat dinner, and talk.  During dinner Icebox gets a call from Mari, and she seems in trouble. We agree to go help her.  Icebox tries calling corp HQ to get her location.  Jaywalk says he can drive us, but he is pretty slammed from his margaritas.  Mari is located in the core of downtown Chicago, in the Saeder-Krup building.

We head back to HQ and Jaywalk runs to the VTOL pads.  We pile in and he takes off suddenly. Icebox was not belted in and flies into the back bulkhead.  We make it to the building in record time.  Icebox is trying to call Mari.  She says she is on the 31st floor of the Saeder-Krupp building, apt 3108.  She is bleeding from a cut on her face, and says she has three other women with her.

A security guard tries to waive us off, and says he has gotten no calls.  We land and say that we have a call.  More security comes out to question us.  Icebox tries to talk to them and let them know we are on a legitimate call.  He doesn’t buy it, but Icebox tries to go along.  Ryoshi tries to help talk, but fails miserably.  They come towards us threateningly.

Meanwhile, Espadas grabs rappelling gear and goes down as far as he can.  He slashes open a window  and tries swinging into it.  He succeeds and then cuts the rope.

We jump back into the ambulance.  Jaywalk drops us down to the 39th floor.  We see the hole where Espadas went in.   Some drones come up around us and we have to duck around behind another building in the VTOL.

Espadas calls us and tells us he is heading down to 31st floor.  He gets down there and sees two security guards.  They spot him and start approaching.  He rushes them.  They shoot at him and miss.  He knocks one of them to the floor.  A melee ensues as they try to get tasers on him.  Espadas turns and busts the open the door to 3108.  He hears Mari from one of the rooms and he goes into the room, where she is waiting with 3 other girls.  They lock the door and he calls us for a pickup.

They bust into an interior courtyard down from the apartment.  They cut through a few more walls and break a window to get access to the outside.

We swoop down in the ambulance to the opening, but several combat drones also close in.  We shoot and disable the drones, but more appear.  Ryoshi accidentally shoots the back wall of the ambulance.  Mari and Espadas grab the girls and jump on the ambulance.  We shoot some more drones, and they shoot back.  We sweep away from the building.

On the way back to the garage, Mari tells us what happened, after thanking us profusely.  She was dating a nice, rich guy (Charlie Dupree), but she admitted she ignored some warning signs.  They went out for dinner with him and some other guys and friends (Jenny, Bambi, and Laurie).  They all went back to his apartment to continue the party.  The guys started getting abusive, and trying to attack them.  They talked about doing a deal tonight with some serious weaponry laying around the apartment.  She was able to take a picture of the location of the deal.  It is in the Shattergraves area near the lake.

We come up with a cover story that Mari was calling for one of the other girls who has a bracelet but wasn’t able to activate it.   We make sure everyone knows it and then return to the base.  The station manager meets us at the pad and we tell our story.  He is clearly pissed but doesn’t want us to yell at us in from of the girls we rescued.  He tells us to meet in one hour.  Mari coaches Jenni to tell her dad that we saved her, so at least we will get a customer to help our case.

We are suspended for a week.  Espada was not involved as far as the corp knows, so he is still working.  Ryoshi works at the Triple Tap to help out Thumper and family.  Mari and Jaywalk stop by during the week.  Later in the week we here that the weapon sale was not stopped, but several people were arrested leaving the scene.  Charlie Dupree is in prison awaiting trial.

After a week we return to work.  Grunt seems to have gone to bat for us.  There are some dirty looks but otherwise things seem to return to normal.

Cataclysm

Session 27 – VA bound and down, loaded up and truckin’…..

GM: Paul
Players: Ian-Brad, Alex-John, Dusty-Matt, Jon-Simon, Bill-Chet, Paul-Meaghan(NPC)
Game Date: December 27, 2018 – January 3, 2019

The party returns to camp bearing the remains of 4 blink racoons.  Alex immediately sets to work analyzing them, specifically looking for differences in their DNA.  Meanwhile Ian starts getting organized for the visit to the VA center.  He collects some climbing supplies so we can scale the elevator shafts if necessary, to avoid fighting in stairwells.  We know the blues are attracted to noise, so we should try to have suppressors if possible.  He suggests bringing melee weapons and pry bars, both for close combat and to get into locked rooms.  Ian succeeds in building a door pry-opener.  He also is looking for anyone who is familiar with the layout of the facility.  Barry Marshall says he was just in Stallis,  He thinks there still are some people on the grounds, up on the hill but not in the hospital itself.  We also look for snowshoes, but no luck.  Something to look for in the future.

We also radio Lucy and arrange to meet her at the Milwaukee Museum/Library on Jan. 2 so we can travel to the VA together.  We start north on 94 with 2 snowmobiles with sleds behind each one.  We make it to the library without incident, and meet Lucy there with her friend Roxy.  We look around the library and museum to see if we can find snowshoes there.  There is a French Indian war exhibit where we find two pairs of snowshoes.  We spend the night.  Lucy and Alex review what information they are looking for, including reports from early cases, and reports from the analysis of samples from people who died of the initial exposures.

By January 2nd everything is in order and we start for the grounds with the snowmobiles and sleds.  We park them near the old soldiers area, and we pick up the faint smell of smoke.  We gather our gear and head of toward the VA.  Ian goes up and checks the door while we wait.  The doors have safety glass which is smashed but still in the frame.  The coast is clear, so we all sneak up and start clearing the snow from the doors.  Alex and Dusty are able to slide the doors open.  We start into the building.  The long hallway is in view, but it is only intermittently lit by the daylight coming in.  We move past the hallway to Elevator A and try prying the door open.  We succeed and see that the elevator car is there. Meaghan pops the hatch in the roof and starts climbing.  She gets to the 8th floor.  Dusty follows and together they set a belay.  Chet starts to follow but falls back after just a few floors.  He lands on a bolt.  Lucy is able to heal him.  He then climbs up, followed by Alex, Lucy, and Ian.

The hallway is dark.  We move to the double doors that open into the 8101 suite.  There are a number of offices in this suite, so we start looking for the research office.  We find it, and start looking for the files.  It takes some time, but we the right filing cabinet and collect all of the information.  We also collect some other basic lab supplies, including microscope, slides, etc.  We hit the wound clinic in the same suite and get first aid supplies, sutures, etc.  After loading up our backpacks, we head back to the elevator.  Everyone descends safely, and we are standing on the top of the elevator car.  We pry open the doors and go to the Ultrasound lab on floor 2.  We find two ultrasounds machines and add them to the backpack.

As we are gathering the supplies, Dusty sees movement in the hallway.  The whole party goes silent.  We see 5 blues heading down the hall.  We all crouch down and wait to see what they do.  They charge into the room.  Chet stabs one of the blues, while Meaghan takes out two other with her hand axes.  Dusty finishes the same blue that Chet attacked, then steps up and wounds another.  Ian guts another one with his knife.  Chet and Meaghan finish the last one.

Meanwhile Ian can’t even find a garbage bag to put the heads in.

We take the heads for further study, then head down to the pharmacy.  Meaghan picks the lock and breaks into the cage that is protecting the drugs. We collect a bunch of things, based on what we need.  Painkillers, antibiotics, etc.  Lucy directs us and we fill up what ever empty space we have in our packs with meds.

We hustle back to the sleds then head back to the library.  We divvy up the spoils between the library group, the Menomonee Falls group, and the hub group.  We spend the night at the library.  During that time we all go over the materials we have found.   People also look at the books to find out information about veterinary medicine, how to build snowshoes, etc.

The next morning Ian wants to makes a stop at the sheriff’s  office near the library before we head out.

 

Paradise Falls

Episode 27 – Bravely Brave Sir Fossar…

We rise early in the morning knowing this will be a fateful day.  Thaddeus presses a potion into the hand of each party member saying to drink it when we find the dragon.  It will help fortify you for the battle head.

At the blacksmith shop, Roland is finishing the assembly of an 8 foot tall iron man with a ghost rock boiler.  It emits a scream as the boiler comes to life, the robot stands and looks at Roland for a command.  At this point there is a rumbling in the town, and the skies start to darken.

Meanwhile back at the cabin we notice the weather is turning.  It is getting darker and cold.  Fossar notices a small girl right outside of the cabin.  She asks to see Maverick.  She introduces herself as Sally and says we helped her family when we first got into town.  She says she thinks we are heroes and she needs our help.  She says her mother is ill and the doctor is busy.  Thaddeus agrees to go with her.  Maverick goes as well.

As we leave it feels like an earthquake.  We see a huge tendril burst out of the ground by the horses.  It grabs a horse and decapitates it.  The other horses runn oft (O Brother Where Art Thou), and three zombies appear from the hole the tentacle made.

Jimmy flies out of the cabin and attacks a zombie.  He slays it with his tomahawks.  Maverick shoots the tentacle and it falls and shrinks back into the ground.  Thaddeus throws a potion that explodes and shakes the zombies.  Fossar engages them in lively conversation.  They respond that they are here to destroy, which the posse can’t understand but somehow Fossar can.  He attacks one of them and wounds it.  The zombie swings and misses.  The girl cowers in fear, and starts to ride away.

Another tentacle and two more zombies appear.  We also hear the outhouse break apart.  Lucille jumps on a horse and get ready to ride.  Fossar kills one zombie but then his shovel flies out of his hand.  Jimmy kills the last zombie near the cabin, but we have more to deal with.  Maverick shoots the tentacle to the south and kills it.  The zombies close with him but they miss him.  Thaddeus shoots another.

Maverick takes out the the remaining zombies.  We all jump on horses and ride for town, except for Lucille who rides north.  Before she leaves she gives a slip of paper to Maverick. We don’t see her anymore.

Once in town we goes to the girl’s house and find her mother.  Thaddeus treats her with his medical knowledge.  Maverick goes to talk to the blacksmith and sees the automaton.

At that moment, more tentacles and skeletons break out in the town.  Roland commands the automaton to attack with its buzzsaw and flamethrower. They attack and bind several party members.  Bat Masterson and the Russian engage but have no success.  Fossar dispatches a tentacle.  Jimmy tomahawks a zombie.  Thaddeus entangles a tentacle and zombie.  Maverick finishes off the tentacle and the zombie.  The party that is left regroups and talks.  Maverick and Thaddeus decide to head out of town and meet up with Lucille, who gave Maverick the location she was fleeing to, somewhere in Saskatchewan. Jimmy goes to assist the Dust Boys and they head out of town as well. Fossar heads to the mine alone.

We see a plume of black smoke rising from the area that was Paradise Falls. The townspeople are never seen or heard from again. Fossar’s fate is unknown.

Paradise Falls

Episode 26 – The Breaking of the Fellowship

Mav, Jimmy, Magnus, Alice and the lawmen get into town.  The law starts taking charge of the town and Mav and Jimmy are taken to the jail.  They are not put in a cell but they do take their weapons.  Some of the lawmen spread out and head out of town.  Magnus and Alice are also in the jail.  Everyone stares at each other.

Marshall Carr comes into the jail and starts questioning the group.  Mav tells him we are on the same side and we helped clean up the town.  He explains about the dragon and how it has controlled the town.

Carr shows a picture of Lucille (by another name) and asks if they know her.  The party says they do not know her.  After some back and forth a deputy comes in and whispers to him.  Carr is upset and says “Two hours. “  He is not happy about not getting answers from the group.

Jack from the Pinkerton Agency comes in with a large black man behind him.  He introduces the large man as Colby Spencer, his boss.  Colby Invites everyone to sit at the table and have some whiskey.  He tells the group that sending us here was an agency operation working with Magnus.  Many things did not go to plan, but we did succeed in unearthing some stuff.  He knows about Lucille and that she is with us, but Carr does not and will shoot her if he sees her.  He asks again for our story, including the weird stuff.  Mav spills the beans.  Much whiskey later, he asks what help we need to wrap this up.  Mav says there is no play here, grabs his guns, and heads to the back at theTriple Tap.  Magnus follows with Alice.  Jimmy too.

Back at the cabin we succeed in translating the book.  It is a book of evil powerful spells.  Including controlling people.  Anyone can read the symbols and gain control.   We decide to burn the book.  The hide  has the beginnings of a spell to bind spirits to this realm but it is not finished.  We need to find the other half or write it ourselves.

Jack runs after Magnus and tries to convince him to stay.  Magnus says there is nothing here for him and wants to head back east.  Jimmy goes to the Triple Tap.  Mav talks to Ben at the Yellow Canary to see if he wants to run the Triple Tap.  He agrees and they send Freddy over to run the Triple Tap for a cut of the action.  Jimmy is talking to the blacksmith.  The blacksmith is working on a way of protecting the town based on some plans from Jenkins.   Jimmy also warns the Dust Boys.  Bat Masterson also comes up and asks what is going on.  They explain, then head to the cabin.

When they get there (minus Magnus and Alice) Fossar tries to convince everyone that we should help the town.  Maverick is less interested.  Lucille succeeds in creating a spell that connects to the dragon and will bind him here.

Maverick heads into town in the morning to have the blacksmith make bullets out of the sacred metal we found.  There is a lot of activity around city hall and the jail house.  He also notices that the blacksmith has a furnace that can smelt ghost rock, and he is building a large man shaped device.  Mav heads to the Triple Tap.

The bar is dirty because they had a good night.  That made $98 which Mav goes to gamble right away.  The Russian at the gambling club draws 5 of a kind (2 jokers) and wins everything.  Poorer but wiser Mav heads back to the blacksmith.  He gets the bullets and returns to the cabin.

Paradise Falls

Episode 25 – Judas, We Forgive Ya

We get to the cabin and set up accommodations. There is a fight for who gets to sleep on the bearskin rug.  We all go back to trying to translate the book, including Jimmy, Fossar, and Maverick. We get more successes for a total of 15 against translating the book.  We are tired now and decide to cook, rest, and set watches.  Maverick heals Fossar.

While Magnus and Fossar are on watch, Poker Alice appears.  She climbs up and sits near Magnus.  She tells him that a bunch of miners came down and excavated the landslide found some ghost rock and silver that was missed before.  Everyone in town wants to go get it, so there will be a dance tonight and go into the mine tomorrow.    They talk quietly. <pause, more pause, Cary makes off color joke, more pause, Jeopardy theme, more pause>

Alice comes into the cabin and wakes us up.  She says that people are crazy ghost rock and silver fever. She also wants us to know that Fossar is evil,  and is maybe working with the dragon.  As she died, she saw a vision of him being captured by the dragon.  Lucille casts a mind reading spell and finds out that Fossar is indeed in league with the dragon. Poker Alice wants to kill him, but we want to talk. Thaddeus goes out and confronts him.  Fossar admits he was saved by the dragon.  The rest of the party comes out of the cabin.

Fossar explains that he was saved by the dragon, but he is not in league with him. Alice interrupts and says a bunch of people died because he knew Eva was working with the dragon and didn’t stop us. Fossar says that they were idiots because they are church-goers, so they deserved to die anyway. He also admits that he destroyed some wards to help the dragon, but he thought it would all balance out. Gray Owl asks if he means the wards in his sanctuary, and Fossar says yes. Gray Owl says that what he did put the whole town at risk because of his actions, as the evil is growing in the town due to his wards being gone.

Poker Alice says “I’ve heard enough” and raises her guns to shoot at Fossar. Fossar shovels her and she falls down. Magnus heals Poker Alice, and Thaddeus tells Fossar to stand down.

Fossar explains that he saw himself dying alone but then the dragon appeared to him and said he would bring him back if Fossar would do him a favor.   We decide to sneak into the north entrance of the mine, go to the south entrance, and then blow the south entrance so no townsfolk can get in. As they are speaking, they notice that Gray Owl has disappeared.

Maverick, Fossar, Thaddeus, and Jimmy head into the old section of the mine through the north entrance, which takes about 90 minutes to ride to. As we move into the mine we hear miners working. They notice us before we approach and ask who is there. Maverick talks to them, and we find out that they are actually finding more ghost rock in areas that we know were dry before, and there is a large vein of silver as well. Thaddeus inspects some of the ghost rock and sees that it is genuine. Maverick tries to convince the miners, of which there are about two dozen, to head back to town early and that drinks are on him. He flashes some cash and the miners are amazed. They take the money, $10 each, and some of them leave.  Others will not leave so he gives them only $5, and we head back to the cabin.

When we get back we see that Magnus and Poker Alice have left. Magnus has left a note that says “It’s been good, but this is where our paths will part.” Lucille didn’t realize that they had left for good. Fossar inspects the letter to see if Magnus has put a secret message on it, but he hasn’t. Maverick and Jimmy jump on horses and follow the trail of the horses while the rest go back to the book.  Lucille, Fossar and Thaddeus keep on the book for a total of 21 successes.

Jimmy and Maverick see a large cloud of dust as a wagon train is heading up the mountain.  They see a large posse of law enforcement, at least 50 men with three wagons. Several riders approach and see Jimmy, who has not hidden, and spot Maverick, who did try to hide but not very well. A man who introduces himself as Jack Calderon comes up to Jimmy and says that he needs to come with them back to town. Jimmy feigns ignorance but Jack says that he recognizes him as one of Magnus’ friends. Maverick agrees to head back to town with them. Jimmy also agrees but only if he can have Jack’s fashionable hat, a bowler. Making a pretty easy decision, he gives the big Indian the bowler and they all head back to town.