We continue through the basement of the Ares building, but the card fails to open any more doors. Nutz hotwires the next door and Jack and Nacre bust their way through. WE go into the next room and find it to be a large, sterile office area.

We hear movement from some of the other rooms, it seems that there are more robot sentries here. Nacre takes a look down an adjascent hallway but does not see anything. We move forward and we hear the robot noises again. Jack discovers a turret blocking our path and we decide to take an alternate route through the nearby bathroom wall.

Nutz sets a charge and blows through the wall. We climb through and he uses his eye laser to get through a metal grate. We climb down to the sub-basement.

There is a laser turret in the main room. We decide to run past it instead of just standing still. Jack goes first, but he sees that there is a robotic sentry near the exit. He shoots it on his way past, and soon sees another one which he destroys as well.

WE finally come in to the main lab. They have several large vaults set into the floor here. Scale Fang goes astral and ascertains that more than 20 of the vaults have items in them. A robot approaches from down the hall and Nacre, Eclipse and Jack open fire. Nacre is hit and is healed by Scale Fang. Scale Fang runs out and levitates the robot upside down and Jack destroys it. Scale Fang then heals Nacre’s wounds.

Nutz uses a security disc that Wiz Kid gave him, and it successfully opens all of the vaults. There are chips, decks, laser units and prototype engine parts. Nutz, Jack and Eclipse all grab laser packs. The rest of the party grabs other things that aren’t too bulky. We get about half of the stuff that was in the vaults.

Jack goes to get a garbage cart to take the robot and the laser packs in. There is a maintenance robot and Jack kills it and throws it in, as well. Scale Fang levitates the cart up the stairs. We exit the building safely after a few more brief firefights.

We leave and go back to Gigi’s, and for her services to this point we leave one of the prototype decks for her decker. We decide to take 12 people with us back on the sub, and leave the next day.

While in the sub, we come to the underwater fence and it appears to have been fixed where we cut through. Nutz sends his drone out and it cuts through after a few minutes. As we come through the fence, something appears on sonar. Nutz quickly fires the dummy torpedo and we wait at the bottom of the lake for several hours. After we decide that it is safe, we continue our journey and arrive safely in Milwaukee.

Wiz Kid is ecstatic with all of the equipment we brought back. The rest of us relax and take it easy for a few nights.

After almost a week, we are ambushed in the warehouse by an Ares Special Ops unit. the break in to the warehouse and take us all prisoner. We are knocked unconscious and have strage dreams of voices and flashing images. They are examining us for some unknown reason.

We awake to see a red-haired man who looks like Wiz Kid. Scale Fang doesn’t recognize him immediately, because he appears much older. The man says that it’s good to see us again, and that 15 years have passed since the Ares Special Ops group kidnapped us. They apparently caught wind of our raid, and put us in cryso-sleep and did experiments on us. A few years later the facility we were in, some sort of research lab, was sold to another company. It took Wiz Kid 15 years to find us, and he bought the company so he could set us free.

Wiz Kid has been paying the rent on the warehouse since we left and our equipment and truck are in storage. He says that the world has changed, and that everything is wireless now; people can access the ‘Net without any equipment. A lot has changed, and perhaps so have we due to the experiments.

We reconvene at Gigi’s to heal and to rethink out our method of approach on the Ares building. Scale Fang and Jack rejoin the group and are brought up to speed. Jack has a few crazy ideas that involve crashing his Jackrabbit through the loading bay door.

We decide to do recon on the building. It is a 4-story neo-Gothic building with lots of columns and glass. After a while we see armed robotic sentries walking through. The rear atrium is most likely glassteel and therefore almost impenetrable. There are turrets that drop down from the ceiling along most of the perimeter as well.

Nutz rigs a bag of explosives and Eclipse sneaks to the front entrance. She sets the bag down and sneaks away. We sneak up to the rear door and Scale Fang swipes the card they were given to gain entrance. The loading bay door opens and we are able to get inside.

Jack listens around and cannot hear anything. We go to the rear door and see several cameras along the way. Scale Fang swipes the card again and opens the next door. Eclipse sneaks through and checks the stairwell. Jack jams a gun clip in the door so it can’t close. Eclipse motions to us and we move down the stairs. We open the door and go into the basement door. There is a sentry there, and we all freeze. We prepare for an attack but Scale Fang notices that it doesn’t appear to have any weapons.

We try the keycard on the next door and it does not work. We try it again and this time it opens. Jack peeks into the room and a large sentry gun comes from the ceiling. He ducks back in and the door closes. Nutz tries the keycard two more times and it doesn’t work.

Eclipse goes to open one of the ceiling vents in the room to try and gain access to the ventilation system when Jack and Scale Fang hear sentries coming from the double doors. They come through shooting and we retaliate, Jack blowing one of their heads clean off with his revolver and then quickly blasting the second one as well.

A third robot appears in the room and fires on Eclipse, wounding her badly. Scale Fang runs to get Eclipse out of the line of fire and quickly heals her.

Suddenly we hear a hissing sound and it seems that some sort of gas is being pumped into the room. Scale Fang casts the spell “oxygenate” on himself and the others put on breath masks. The remaining sentries are destroyed, but soon Scale Fang passes out from the gas. Nutz busts the door to a nearby closet open and goes in. Jack and Eclipse drag Scale Fang into the closet and the door is closed. Nutz slaps a stimpatch on Scale Fang and he awakens presently.

We are hanging out at GG’s place when there is a commotion — someone is arriving. We se our old friend and Owl Shaman, Tebriel. It seems that he was sent here by Smoke Jaguar to help us out. After a brief re-introduction we tell him of our current mission.

Our plan is to take the sub south to the area that Fenola is being held in, and find a way to get her out.

We load up all of our gear and take off in the sub, since we will not be returning. On the way out, Nutz manages to scrape the sub on the side of the wall, causing a small leak.

Nutz pilots the sub south and finds a small boathouse that looks safe to store the sub in. All exit and move into the city. It is mid-afternoon and there is a light rain falling.

We make our way through the city to her building. Nutz sends the flying drone around the perimiter of the building. The north entrance looks sealed off but the others seem to be open. There are lots of security cameras around. Some people are coming in and out of the building but they do not seem to be armed.

We move towards the door and they barricade themselves inside. Skelfeng casts Magic Fingers in case they need to be “coaxed”. Jack approaches and asks them if we can rent a room. They let him in and tell him that it is very expensive. He says that he can provide several things, including passage out of the city.

We decide that we could sell one of Nutz’ drones in order to buy the girl back. Jack goes back in and one of the guys, named T’krit, asks him about getting out of the city; he wants passage for himself and a few of his men.

Jack explains that we want the girl in exchange. The guy agrees and lets us into the building.

We go up to the penthouse and get settled in. They bring up the girl and we explain the situation to her. She begins crying, and seems very happy to be getting out of the city and to see her brother again.

T’krit announces to his men that some of them will be leaving the city, and some will be asked to stay and help out. We will leave some supplies here for them as well.

We start packing up to leave. Fenola explains that she needs to get some of her family heirlooms out of her apartment before she can go. Some of T’krit’s men will go with us to the apartment building, which is nearby.

All of us head into the building, but we leave some of T’krit’s men on the ground floor. We head up to the 26th floor, but smell a sweet odor and decide to head back down to the 19th floor since there are most certainly bugs upstairs.

We ask Fenola about the location of her items, and her apartment number. She gives us the information and we head upstairs, leaving her with the others.

We get back up to the 26th floor and there seems to be activity. Skelfeng sees several bug spirits around. We launch our grenades into the hallway and take them out. We find two more in the apartment and kill them as well. We take her belongings from the safe in her room and clear the area.

Returning to T’krit’s building, we pack up our belongings and take the passengers with us.

We leave in the sub and are able to escape the same way that we came in, through the hole in the fence that we previously made. Our trip back to Milwaukee is without incident.

We deliver the girl back to Dorchatus and she is very happy to be back. He makes good on his promise and says that he will tell his superiors that he has killed Nacre.

Some of the passengers stay with us in the warehouse base. After a day or so, most of them leave, thanking us profusely and promising to return and repay us for helping them.

A few days later we deliver the cage to Smoke Jaguar. He adds 1.25 million nuyen to our account, which amounts to 250,000 nuyen apiece. He tell us that we are going on a trip, and takes us in his plane to Seattle.

After landing we go through a DMZ area where an Urban Brawl had just occurred. We go inside a church nearby and into a room with an Aztec-style altar with petroglyphs. Each person present has a piece of the codex.

A ritual occurs — they assemble the pieces of the codex and a flash whites out the room. The codex is glowing intensely. We all feel very good. Skelfeng approaches the codex to look at it. Several other magicians do the same.

He casts Analyze Magic on it, to find out the codex’s purpose. Apparently it is a focus, gathering nearby mana into the crystal at the center. It could be called a “mana battery” of sorts (force 9).

In game terms, it increases everyone’s Essence by 1.

The “queen” cockroach approaches us.

Nutz, already wounded, beats a hasty retreat and calls for the others to follow. Nacre runs forward and fires an arrow at the bugs. The queen dies from the hit. We quickly dispatch the other bugs, but Nutz’ walking drone has been hit and cannot move.

The roto-drone scopes further in to the room and sees only dead bugs and bodies. Skelfeng heals Nutz some, and we begin to make our way to the electrical panel.

Skelfeng checks astrally and does not see any threat. Nutz attempts to fix the power and accidentally electrocutes himself. Skelfeng uses his war club to knock him away from the live wires.

Skelfeng is able to heal Nutz and he continues working. 4 hours later Nutz is able to fix the power.

Nutz then fixes his drone enough so it can walk. We return to the Sanctum.

The guards let us in and we go to meet Two Spirits. He gives us the birdcage and Skelfeng confirms that it is real (or at least magical).

Skelfeng heals some of the others group members.

Two Spirits is asked about the girl and say that she is outside of his realm, he does not know her.

We go back to GG’s and she helps fix up Nutz and Jack. After five days, Jack is down to a light wound.

Nutz goes back into the tunnel and fixes his walking drone.

Skelfeng speaks with the other mages at the Sanctum, and they trade spells. He learns 2 new ones.

The mages offer to help find Dorchatus’ sister. They participate in a ritual using the photo that Dorchatus gave us of the two of them during their childhood. She is in a tall apartment building that is silver with purple glass. There are several trolls and orks around, they look like some sort of gang. She is in servitude to them, bringing them food. She seems threatened and unhappy.

The mages fashion an amulet that will lead us to her approximate location. We search for old photos of the area that Dorchatus told us she lived in, and we see the silver and purple building nearby.

During the night at GG’s stronghold, we hear her men moving about, possibly doing reconnaisance outside. They are using a keypad to open a secret door.

Morning comes and we get up. We find that there are areas for us to get cleaned up. Nacre slept outside and is very cold due to something called “winter”.

A combat mage approaches us and gives us some information about the Field Museum (now called the “Sanctum”). It is run by a shaman called Two Spirits, an Owl shaman. He was reportedly in Chicago a year before the bugs came, and foresaw that something bad was going to happen. He stayed anyway, and when it all went down he opened his doors to many refugees, and has been there ever since.

We go to seek GG to ask her about the Sanctum. We eventually find her in her room. She says that her men will take us through the freight tunnels under the city to the Sanctum. GG loads the tunnel map to Jack’s datapad. We find the general area of the Field Museum on the map.

Skelfeng goes outside and finds Nacre. The doctor says that Nacre is on the verge of hypothermia from sleeping outside. She puts a blanket on him and has him lay down for a while.

The two coming with us are Maxim (combat mage) and Matchlock (street samurai). They will be our guides. We are scanned so we will have clearance to get through the tunnels. They scan our retinas and fingerprints.

We wait another hour for Nacre to thaw out, then we leave, bringing all of our guns. Nutz decides to leaves his drone at the complex.

We are taken to a large steel door that looks like the door of a sub. We are authenticated and the door opens. We are led into a tunnel that is damp and musty. Nacre tries to light a torch but is told to put it out. We go single file.

We come to a corridor that is sandy with coral around it. There are old railroad tracks as well. We come towards the Field Museum, and go to a large door. They let us in and take us to a guard station. They seem excited that outsiders are visiting.

A shaman comes to us and says that we must leave our weapons to go in. They lead us further into the Sanctum. We see a Native American man talking to a bunch of people. He invites us in and introduces himself as Two Spirits.

Maxim gives Two Spirits a message from GG, and the two of them leave.

Skelfeng introduces us and asks Two Spirits if he has seen anything like the birdcage we are looking for. He says that they indeed have it, and it is in storage. They would like us to do a favor for them in exchange for it.

They have a problem with their power systems; a nest of cockroaches in a nearby garage is disrupting the power to the entire building. We say that we will help in any way that we can.

Two Spirits tell us that we could have some of their mages put protective spells on us before we leave. We can take the tunnels most of the way to the place. They will also give us some equipment to help out. We hook into their frequency on our coms as well.

We go back to GGs through the tunnels. They ask us if we will be back for the Christmas celebration in 2 days. We tell them about our task and they seem to think we might not make it back.

We go to the sub to get some items and tools for our mission. Jack hears some sort of a party going on. We see a heat signature upriver — it looks like a boat is approaching.

A barge comes down the river with a Jolly Roger symbol on the front. They seem to be dredging the river, and are getting close to the location of the sub.

Nutz tries desperately to get the sub out of the way, and seems to succeed. The barge goes over the sub and passes by without incident. They don’t seem to see us, either. Nutz gets what he needs from the sub. Nutz moves the sub into a flooded basement so it is safe from further Jolly Roger ships.

We return to GG’s for the evening. Nutz uses his datajack to find info on basic electricity and to study up for our mission. He logs onto a local chat room. One of the other users gives him some schematics for the building. They say to be on the lookout for cyberware on our mission.

Nutz continues to study throughout the night. The rest of us turn in. The next morning we wake up to eggs frying — GG’s people make us a special meal because of our mission. We are delighted to eat real food. They also say that they will try and help us out if we need it.

We get ready to go on our mission and get equipped. We need to go down to sub-level 3 of the parking garage. We go through the freight tunnel with the two drones. We come out two blocks away from the building. Nutz sends to drones towards the building.

Jack smells something horrible and puts on his respirator. The rest of us follow suit. Obviously there are lots of bugs here. We load up our weapons and proceed into the building. The walking drone goes ahead of us.

We head down to the third sub-level. Skelfeng looks astrally and sees cockroaches all around. We decide to fire grenades in the area and clear all of the bugs. Skelfeng gets a direct hit on one of them. The gas from the grenades fills the area.

The cockroaches awaken and begin to surround us, not staying in the gas long enough to be affected. We fend them off in melee combat. Skelfeng kills several of them using magic.

Suddenly the queen shows up.

We sell all of our trappings from the last mission and receive 703,240 nuyen in return. Nutz spends 642,000 of the nuyen on the sub, purchasing decoy torpedoes, auto-navigation, and a few other upgrades.

Nutz also buys another drone, “crab”, and a deployment rack on the sub. The drone will be used underwater to secrete an acid and burn through the underwater fence surrounding Bug City. We will need to get within 3 kilometers to control it.

Dorchatus gives us info on his sister. Her name is Fenola Ciran, and she is Elven with fair skin, 1.7 meters tall, 50 kg. He also gives us her SIN, and says that she is originally from Galwey, Tir Na NOg. She worked in the Chicago Loop building 4, Suite 5705. Her apartment is at 8644 S. Daymon Avenue, Apartment 1920. He also gives us a picture of Fenola from when they were kids.

We leave for Chicago through Lake Michigan. We encounter something near Chicago, an enourmous sturgeon. It passes by us without incident.

We get 3 kilometers from the fence and deploy the crab. We use the sonar to try and detect anything. The crab spurts out acid and cuts through the fence.

Skelfeng checks outside the sub in astral very quickly and sees nothing significant in the area.

We begin to move forward and a hard ping goes through the ship. Nutz deploys the “chameleon mode” to try and hide us. We continue moving forward. We go through the fence at 2 knots. There are floating sensors somewhere near us.

The sub goes right through the fence perfectly, thanks to Nutz’ navigation. We have made it through the sensor net and there should not be any more to hinder us.

We move towards the breakwall and go south to our target area. Skelfeng goes astral again and checks out the area. No one seems to be around. Nuts deploys the sensor drone and scans the area as well.

Nuts uses the sub’s arm to bring us to shore. The sensor drone goes off — some older man is approaching at the side of the river. Skelfeng assenses him, and sees that he is not magically active nor does he have cyberware.

Nacre disembarks and sneaks behind the man, attemping to knock him out. He does not go out, but is hurt by the blow. He begins begging Nacre not to kill him.

Jack gives the man a food bar, and asks him if he knows where our contact, Doctor Griselda Gawarski (“GG”) is located. He says that his name is John and that he will lead us to GG. Skelfeng heals him.

Nutz goes to retrieve the drones and the cargo. John leads us towards her building, on the way a few people see us but scatter. He leads us to a building and goes inside.

Skelfeng sees three people inside the building in the darkness, heavily cybered. More people are on the stairs. Jack throws up his hands and says that we are only here for a pickup and a delivery. One of them speaks on a subdermal mic.

They tell us that the Doctor will see us. The old man leaves, after Jack gives him another food bar. The cybered men take our weapons. The doctor approaches us and leads us downstairs. We tell her that we have 2 crates of medicine for her. She is pleased.

They bring us into a sub-basement that holds a bunker and bomb shelter behind a hidden entrance. We drop the crates, and the Doctor’s men open them, revealing the medicine and other supplies that we brought.

GG asks us what we are doing here, and we tell her about our mission for Smoke Jaguar. She explains that the art museum was ransacked a while ago, and the Field Museum is now a bunker for a powerful mage. We ask if we can get in contact with the mage.

They offer to let us stay for the night. Nutz asks about the area to the south of us, where Dorchatus’ sister is supposedly located. GG explains that there are a lot of shamen and “liberals”. They trade with the other people and farm, but mostly keep to themselves. The Field Museum is now called the Sanctum. Bugs apparently cannot penetrate the Sanctum, but those who inhabit it seem a little “off”.

The girl lives in “Swamp Thing” territory. They may have an insect shaman with them. North of us is “Ghoul Territory”. The “Jolly Rogers” trade flesh with the ghouls in the area.

We are told to stay away from subways and underground areas, as well as high areas like skyscrapers. These can all be havens for bugs.

We are also told to stay away from the Freeway, because it is a common ambush area. There is one restaurant that manages to stay open and safe somewhere in the city.

Many other things may be floating around, including advanced cybwerware and other technology.

We decide sack out for the night.

We return to our warehouse base for a few days, rest up and (in some cases) heal. Skelfeng learns a couple of new spells, spending a long time in a magic-induced trance.

Suddenly we hear a loud noise coming from the water docking bay. A large ship smashes through the dock door and several individuals begin firing on us. A mage among them begins casting fire spells, setting the crude drywall rooms ablaze. Skelfeng goes into astral and checks the ship. He finds 3 individuals.

We begin fighting back, Jack firing his revolver and Nacre shooting arrows at the vessel. We hear popping sounds and no longer any movement from the ship. Skelfeng confirms that they are dead, but we weren’t the ones responsible. Markings on them show that they were the Trinity, the group funded by the Vatican to find the pieces of the codex before we did.

An Elf in commando garb approaches the warehouse. We are about to attack him, but we realize that he could have killed us all with his sniper rifle as he killed the Trinity. He introduces himself as Dorchatus and says that he was hired to kill Nacre, but has a proposition for us instead.

While he was surveilling us, Dorchatus found out that we were traveling to Bug City for our next mission. His sister, Fenola, has been trapped in Bug City since the borders were closed off. If we can get her out, he will repay the favor by not killing Nacre.

The group is continuing to hide out at the warehouse just outside Aztlan. The other Gator Shaman wants to exchange spell knowledge with Skelfeng before they leave. Jack is seriously wounded, but is healing.

El Chupacabra asks if we are willing to help the resistance with a small matter before we leave, in repayment for their help on our mission. He wants us to intercept a blood mage on his way to Tenochtitlan. He is coming through a “slum” area unnanounced and we need to kill him and his entourage.

It will occur in 4 days. We begin planning the hit and visit the area. Eclipse goes to one of the buildings and tries to sublet an apartment for 3 days. She is able to sublet from an older couple for 1200 nuyen.

We leave for the slums and take our positions. Eclipse and Skelfeng go on the roof of the building, Nuts is in his truck on a side street and Jack is on an opposite building.

The cars approach and Nutz slams into the second and third cars with the truck. Jack fires a grenade and misses badly.

Skelfeng goes astral and checks out the third car, it appears that they are heavily cybered and not magically active. While he is in the astral, Skelfeng notices that a spell was cast against him but it was unsuccesful.

Nuts fires the autocannon at the second car, which is still trying to get away.

Skelfeng moves to the fourth car in astral space, and sees a powerful mage in the car with a strange leaf-shaped knife. He suddenly sees the man’s astral form in front of him.

Nacra shoots a grenade-tipped arrow into the third car through the back window. Jack fires some explosive rounds into the first car’s tires.

Skelfeng is hit with a manabolt spell. He responds with “slay human”. Suddenly the blood mage’s form is no longer on the astral.

The mission seems successful, and we begin to pull out. Skelfeng verifies that the mage is dead and recovers several magical items from him.

El Chupacabra jacks the trunk of the car and finds a package. It is some genetic material that the blood mage was going to use to track one of Chupa’s friends.

We escape just before helicopters arrive. El Chupa thanks us, and we say brief good-byes. They make a distraction so we can safely leave.

We travel back to Milwaukee and meet with Smoke Jaguar. He is delighted that we have returned with the the crystal. We realize that the last item, a bird cage, is located in Bug City.

Smoke Jaguar says that he has set up a legit corporation as a front business for our dealings, and we will be paid as sub-contractors from here on out.

We get to the east entrance of the temple and call WizKid to ask him if he can open the door for us. After a few moments he is able to do so and we sneak in. He also manages to lock the outside gates so no one can easily get in behind us. He is having trouble accessing the internal security systems, however.

In the center of the building are escalators going up and down. Everything seems shut in the building and several areas are gated off.

Skelfeng goes astral and checks out the area. He descends into the basement, supposedly towards our objective, and sees several feral looking (dual natured) creatures running up the escalator and towards the group. He returns to the group and warns of their coming.

Everyone takes position around the escalator. One of the beasts, what appears to be a hell-hound, rushes up the escalator and dashes around the corner. Skelfeng wounds him with a manabolt and Eclipse shoots him with her pistol. He continues running and disappears from sight.

We move downstairs via the escalator. It goes for a very long way down into the basment. There is a large temple down here that is 60 feet down from our current position.

Suddenly four of the “hounds” converge on us, 2 from above and 2 from below. One of the ones above us breathes fire on all of us, Jack is hurt from the fire. One from below rushes and bites Jack’s arm, wounding him severely. After a brief firefight the hounds are killed. Jack looks very hurt.

We move down the remaining steps and stop a moment to rest. Skelfeng attemps to heal Jack with magic.

Before we can completely recover, two werewolf creatures appear and begin approaching us. We are all petrified as they howl horribly and begin to attack. Skelfeng kills one with a manabolt spell and the other one moves in close. We manage to dispatch him without taking further damage.

We approach the smaller temple and check around the sides. There are no entrances, though there are steps that go up on each side. We ascend to the second level, and Jack notices a symbol carved in the rock that resembles the marking on the compass.

Skelfeng places the compass on the outcropping and suddenly a gigantic earth elemental rises out of the side of the temple. He attacks Jack and nearly crushes him to death. The rest of the group attacks it, Skelfeng with magic and Eclipse and Nacre with physical weapons. After a few rounds it finally goes down.

Skelfeng heals Jack again. Jack picks through the rubble where the elemental came out from, and finds a wooden box. Inside is a crystal and a gold rod with a snake around it.

We take it and retreat back to the warehouse. We inform the rebels that we have completed our mission and that they should fall back. They sound harried, as if they are under heavy fire.

We finally meet up with El Chupacabra once again, and he tells us that we must pack up and move to another location. They meet us at a different warehouse outside of town.

Skelfeng shows the other Gator shaman the snake symbol. He says that he has never seen anything like it before. Just then, the other rebels return from the battle. Many of them are wounded. Skelfeng heals them, and realizes that his healing power has been increased dramatically. The snake talisman must be a powerful healing fetish of some sort.

We rest at the warehouse for a few days.

As we enter Aztlan, Skelfeng realizes that one of the guards has assensed all of us, as well as the truck. Hopefully we have not been already marked.

We continue into the city, wary of our surroundings. The people here seem more heavily armored than we expected. Eclipse recalls that in Aztlan, it is not illegal to cary guns, just illegal to use them. The air quality is noticeably worse here than in the UCAS.

Skelfeng checks the compass for magical activity, and finds that it is slightly so.

We search for our contact, El Chupacabra, using our GPS. We come to the place to meet El Chupacabra and leave the truck double-parked. We all walk into the building. As we are walking in Jack hears something. Skelfeng goes astral and checks out the adjascent room to see what is in there. He comes upon an astral being in the form of a gator.

Nutz rings the doorbell and it is answered by 4 Mexicans. Skelfeng, who had been staring down the other Gator in astral form, returns to his body.

The leader tells us that we must go somewhere else to meet. We follow them in the truck to another location and begin discussing the task at hand. Nutz asks them if they have any information, and they agree to help us in any way that they can. We agree to give them the scrap metal from the back of the truck, and they gladly accept. We dig out Jack’s car from the scrap and give it to them.

The rebels sell us 3 gas masks to assist us in breathing around the city. Skelfeng pays them 100 nuyen.

We turn in for the night. Nacre realizes that we are at a higher altitude here, which may explain why we have been having trouble breathing.

We ask them about the area and how things work in Aztlan. Skelfeng asks the other gator shaman about blood magic — he warns Skelfeng about blood spirits.

Jack and Skelfeng go to the 7-11 down the street to get munchies, cigarettes and alcohol. We return and rest for the night. Jack pigs out.

Nacre looks outside and is depressed at the lack of vegitation here.

In the morning, we start doing recon in the area with Jack’s car and Skelfeng’s bike. We discover while riding on the bike that it helps to put cloth over our maks to assist in breathing.

This place is exceptionally poor — the rich simply don’t live here. Everything has something to do with Aztechnology.

We find the target building, and see that it is a 4-story temple in a ziggurat form. It is the temple of Xiutecutli. There are several guards at each entrance.

We return and ask our hosts what the temple is about. He says that it is a temple of the fire god. People can go in and make their “sacrifice” by buying trinkets and sacrificing them.

Nutz and Jack decide to go to the temple to take a look around, but reconsider and decide to search for cyberware instead.

We contact WizKid and he says that there is an older temple inside it and that it goes very far underground. He finds satellite pictures of the temple to show us.

El Chupacabra tells us that most of the guards will be gone in a couple of days for the ritual games. This is perhaps our best window for entry.

WizKid finds an old sewer line that runs into the parking lot of the temple, where we can get into the compound.

We ask El Chupacabra if he will assist us in the break-in by causing a distraction. They agree, and say that they will set off an explosion in the area of the temple to draw security forces away. They also have lockpicking devices that will assist in defeating keypad systems.

WizKid finds that the only entrance to the compound open during the festivities will be the south entrance.

The time of the mission arrives, and we stop 1/2 mile to the west of the building, in an old abandoned tenant building. Skelfeng hides his bike at the location with his shotgun.

We sneak through the sewer lines to the temple grounds and open the manhole cover. Jack takes a listen and hears nothing.

We signal our contacts to create the distraction, and hear the explosion in the distance.

Nacre and Eclipse sneak out onto the grounds. Nacre goes towards the guard building and he and Eclipse are suddenly attacked by two large bear-creatures.

Nacre takes damage and Eclipse shoots one of them with her slivergun. Nacre and Jack kill the other one.

Skelfeng quickly heals Nacre and they move towards the building.