Category Archives: Shadowrun

Session 12 – Bug City

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.

Session 11 – Bug City

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.

Session 10 – Home Sweet Home

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.

Session 9 – A Small Favor

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.

Session 8 – The Temple

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.

Session 7 – The Temple

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.

Session 6 – On To Aztlan

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.

Session 5 – Adult Swim

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.

Session 4 – California Coast

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.