The characters have been resting for a few days since our trip to California. Skelfeng has moved into the warehouse, and the others have purchased equipment and made calls to contacts for information.

Smoke Jaguar contacts us and says that they have fashioned a compass that points towards the next artifact. It is their estimation that it lies in a temple somewhere in Aztlan. Nutz and Eclipse try to triangulate the position of the artifact using the compass and a GPS unit. It seems to be somewhere in the central plains of Aztlan, formerly Mexico.

Nutz contacts his friend in Minnesota for further information.

Jack contacts a man about installing a machine gun on his Jackrabbit car. Nutz, Jack and Skelfeng go to the man’s shop to pick it up. At first the man balks at helping out strangers to get gear, but soon he is convinced and shows us the merchandise. Jack buys a Vigorous Assault Cannon, and gives the man 1000 nuyen more than the asking price. The guy is impressed and said that he would accommodate us if we need anything else in the future.

As we return to the warehouse, while walking back from the car Skelfeng’s leg explodes in pain. He has been shot — badly — and goes down. It is apparent that someone is trying to kill us. Before we can fire back he disappears on a motorcycle. At the place where he was hiding, Jack finds a shell from a high-powered military grade rifle. It has markings that suggest it came from Tir na Nog. Skelfeng heals his own wound but passes out from the spell drain.

When Nacre hears about the bullet and it’s supposed origin, he becomes agitated and calls a meeting. He tells us that he used to live on an island for many years, but people of an undetermined origin invaded his home, bearing the same marks as the bullet Jack found. He killed several of them and has been on the run from them ever since. He thought that he would be safe from them in Milwaukee, but obviously that is not the case.

Skelfeng tells him that he will help him out no matter the danger. Jack gets angry and eats a sandwich.

Nutz’ contact finally returns his call and says that in order for us to get into Aztlan, we should go to one of the official border crossings and bribe the guards with some nuyen, instead of trying to go across the Rio Grande.

We speak to Wiz Kid the decker about assisting us more directly in our missions from now on. He says that he needs better equipment to be of any real help, especially while hacking into systems. We decide to give him 50,000 nuyen of our group funds to start him off with new programs and equipment.

The group also talks about getting more security for the warehouse and rigging the sub to automatically submerge if Wiz Kid is in danger. We spend more nuyen on adding the security.

We also purchase registered SINs for each of us, and Nutz gets a special one that will allow him to haul weapons on the truck. We put Jack’s car and the surveillance drone in the container on the back of the truck and pile scrap metal on top of them, so it makes it look like we are hauling scrap metal to Aztlan. We also pack medicine to bribe the guerillas with.

We take the long trip down to the border, and bribe the border guards with 1000 nuyen for passage. We keep moving and soon we are on the outskirts of Aztlan City. We catch a glimpse of Quetalcoatl flying over the city.

We stay on the Island for the night to recuperate. They return our belongings in good working order as promised.

The next morning, we begin loading up our stuff into the sub. Nutz asks about the location at which we intend to land to search for the staff. The tribe leader says that there are many creatures on the island that may be dangerous, and also underwater threats, but it is impossible to tell what we may face. We ask to buy some spear guns from the tribe to defend ourselves underwater. They sell us 6 spear guns at 450 nuyen each.

We leave for Santa Rosa Island with an escort of 2 patrol boats. As we approach the island, one stays with us and the other leaves to continue patrolling the area.

We come to the place where the “middle toe” of the paw-shaped island must have been before it was swallowed by the ocean. We begin “active” sonar pinging to search the area. Nutz does not find any anomolies from the scan.

The magicians go astral and search the area underwater. Very close to the position of the sub, they find a cave opening about 8 feet wide. Moving to enter, they see a multi-headed beast lying in wait in the cave. Being dual-natured, it sees them as well and moves to attack. The magicians quickly leave and go back to the ship (and their bodies).

After a short discussion, it is realized that the creature we saw was a Hydra. Tebriel also mentions that he saw something else in the cave that seemed to be man-made, perhaps the staff that we are seeking.

We reposition the sub at a safer location and search the surrounding area in astral space — the creature did not follow us and is nowhere to be seen. We return and weigh our options. Finally we decide to beach the sub and bring the codex symbol with us to show the beast, and perhaps he will let us through. Skelfeng holds the codex in front of him and approachs the beast, but one of its heads engulfs him in flames. Obviously he is not impressed. Luckily Skelfeng and Tebriel are not badly harmed and make it back to the ship safely.

We move the sub closer to shore and call in the nearby patrol boat to protect our ship while we are underwater. He agrees and moves towards us. Everyone except the mages suits up and jumps in the water, swimming towards the cave. The mages lead in astral space, attempting to make themselves visible to the other party members so they can easily follow.

The mages come in from opposite sides of the cave and begin to attack the Hydra, Skelfeng with his manabolt spell and Tebriel with his axe weapon focus while the other team members come up into the cave and ready their weapons. The Hydra does several breath attacks, but soon keels over dead, slain by Tebriel’s axe.

Skelfeng, searching its aura, notices that it is not truly dead — it will regenerate in a short amount of time. He returns to his body on the sub and radios his friends, telling them to grab the staff and get out of there. They do as instructed and retrieve the staff, moving quickly to get back to the sub.

We journey back to the main island, greeting the Native American tribe victoriously. We rest briefly and Jack spends some time getting drunk. After a short while, we thank the tribal leaders and take the sub back to the LA docks. We pick up our vehicles and drive separately to Milwaukee.

Inspecting the staff, Skelfeng sees that it has many glyphs carved into it, and ascertains that it is indeed magical from its faint astral glow. We meet Smoke Jaguar and give him the staff, and he credits us all 20,000 nuyen for our success. Smoke Jaguar is thankful for the delivery and we leave for home for a few days.

Nutz finds that he has been credited 250,000 nuyen for the Sea Drake carcass that was harvested by the Native Americans.

Skelfeng spends a few days moving out of his apartment and into the team’s new warehouse, making room for all of his belongings and his new motorcycle.

After putting Nutz’ truck and our other vehicles in storage at the Los Angeles docks, and paying a heavy fee for the protection of our goods, we embark on the submarine towards Santa Rosa Island. Our goal is to retrieve the sacred staff. We are using our GPS to track our progress.

It is noted that Smoke Jaguar had given us 10,000 shares of Pueblo stock to help us pass through the Pueblo lands. These were issued by the Pueblo Corporate Council and are sale-able.

Sensors detect a large creature in the water coming towards us, and Nutz quickly takes evasive action. The shamen check it astrally and see that it is very large, but not magically active nor dual-natured.

Nutz sees on the sensors that another creature is approaching us from underneath, and brings us up to the surface. Skelfeng reacts quickly and casts the illusion of a large shark approaching the vessel. It does not seem to have an effect.

Nacre pops the hatch and pulls out his bow, attempting to target the creature. Nuts tries very hard to outmaneuver the beasts, but cannot seem to shake them. Skelfeng changes his illusion to an inky blackness to hide the ship. Everyone else braces for impact as the creatures come ever closer.

The creature from below grabs onto the sub and bites down, causing several of the crewmembers to fall and take damage. Nacre and Bloodhound come out of the hatches and draw weapons on the creature.

Skelfeng draws on his magical power and casts manabolt against the creature approaching from the side, killing it instantly. Nutz prepares to launch his air tank out of the torpedo tube (with C-4 attached to it) into the maw of the beast.

Nacre shoots an explosive arrow at the creature, nearly killing Bloodhound in the process. The creature’s head explodes from the impact, and Bloodhound is covered in goo. Frustrated, he flops down in a chair and lights a cigarette.

The corpses of the two creatures float up to the surface. We try to assess the damage and see that there are a few minor leaks, as well as a good amount of teeth sticking out of the hull.

The mages realize that this creature was a Sea Drake, which is very valuable if harvested and sold for the creation of magical items. Nutz is agreeable to dragging along one of the creatures (after it is explained how much they are worth), and we use a grapple line to bring the one Skelfeng killed to shore.

As we reach shore, two patrol boats arrive without warning and instruct us to exit our vehicle. They fire warning shots. We see a spotter with binoculars on the shore. Nacre shoots him with an arrow.

We cut the line to the Sea Drake and try to leave, but they quickly catch up with us and demand that we stand down. They are heavily armed. We soon find out that they represent the Anacapa Nation, the natives of these islands. We exit the sub and they arrest us.

They hook up a tow line to the sub and bring it along. Jack overhears on their radio that they are deploying more forces to our position. They soon pull up to an inlet that appears to be sparsely populated. They tell us to get out, and walk us up to the village at gunpoint.

We are taken to a “City Hall” building. Tribal leaders are gathered here. One man in particular seems to be in charge. He asks us why we have come, and we say that our ship was attacked and we needed to land to do repairs. He asks us why we attacked one of his own men, and we say that we are not aware of anyone being attacked (since no one saw Nacre shoot the man with binoculars). We apologize for the attack anyway. Skelfeng offers to heal the man using magic, and the chief declines.

He says that he will search our ship for any smuggled items, assess us a fine for injuring their man and then he will let us on our way. They do a search and find nothing on our sub and charge us 25,000 nuyen. Nacre pays him and Jack loans him 400 nuyen so he can make the balance. They let us leave.

We get back to the sub and find that it has been stripped clean — they have stolen all of our wetsuits and other gear, basically anything that was not nailed down. Jack returns to the island and tries to negotiate the return of our items with the chief. They deny any wrongdoing, and offer to sell us back our items at an exorbitant price. Jack attempts to intimidate them, but is unsuccesful. We depart from the island.

We head back to the LA docks where our vehicles are stored. We are greeted by a nightwatchman and get some sleep. Jack eats several ration bars to satisfy the craving of his suprathyroid.

We wake up and speak with the dockworkers; they inform us of how to order out for food. Nutz begins to repair the sub with his tools. Skelfeng asks around for information on the islands and the creatures of the water. He finds out some info on the creatures (mostly that the ones we encountered were small ones), but little else.

We contact Smoke Jaguar for help. He says that he will send someone to help us fix the sub and will try to get equipment as well. Two days later, a guy appears in a truck and delivers wetsuits, air tanks, rebreathers, fins, etc. The stuff is in very bad shape. We attempt to clean it, but it seems barely operable.

After four days the sub is finally repaired. We leave and attempt to return to the island, this time without incident from any sea creatures. As we approach the island we are again spotted by a patrol ship. We are escorted back to the main island.

The chief meets us on the main island and is angry that we have come again until we show him the cover of the codex. He then tells us to come ashore. He explains that their people had been waiting for generations for our coming, and that the previous misunderstandings would have been avoided had he known the truth.

He says that he will share the profits from the slaughtering of the Sea Drake, and will return all of our stolen items. We tell him of the passage that has lead us to the area, and he explains that Santa Rosa Island is not inhabited and considered dangerous. Also, the place that the passage speaks of is likely now underwater.

We continue to plan our mission. He promises that no others will approach the island to threaten our objective, and that we will have an armed escort to assist us.