We are at the base. Necros feels a psychic “tugging” to the north. We gear up and take the OctoPod north. We arrive at Reedsburg, an unincorporated town. There is a closed general store, a diner, and a municipal building. Up the hill there is a very old church.

Nitro sees someone vaguely familiar. Octo knows him — he is a mystery man from Carbon City. His name is The Occultist. He has spats, an Inverness cape, and a black top had with a blue band. He asks for some help with a presence in the church, and it may also help with Necros’ issues. He does not elaborate.

In the church there is a circle of candles and an altar. The Scarlet Scourge is inside the circle, unconscious. He is known as the “tool of God’s wrath on Earth” and is red as his name suggests. The candle flames have a strange smell to them, and The Occultist tells us that they are warding candles.

The Occultist says that there is a demon that has been alive for many years, recently referred to as the Black Coachman. He can be summoned and when he is, he takes thirteen souls. Cyrus Sharp, a convicted murderer, is trying to take out the jury that convicted him using the Coachman. The jurors are already dead, but the Scarlet Scourge’s alter ego is a man named James Rand, an investigative reporter who brought evidence against Cyrus. The murderer tried to kill James but The Occultist saved him. He is expending his life energy to keep James alive so he needs our help to stop Cyrus and the Coachman.

Necros fills us in on his backstory. His mask is stuck on. He is thousands of years old. He was in the service of an army long ago and was captured by natives, tortured and starved. But he did not die. This made the tribesmen fearful. They bolted a mask on his face, trapping him in darkness. He has dark powers but he doesn’t know where they came from. He needs to drink blood to survive. The Occultist says that a good deed may loosen one of the bolts on his mask.

The Occultist says that Nitro’s weapon will injure the Coachman but only he himself can banish him. We must use a binding stone to stop it, and then bring it to the Occultist for him to deal with.

The Coachman will come at 12:13 am, so we have about an hour. The Coachman must stay within 13 miles of the person who summoned him.

We are in the OctoCave; Necros and Dr. Aquatic are not here. Spectral Spear gets an urgent mental communique from Dr. Aquatic. He is at the bottom of the lake and is asking for our help. He wants us to bring a vial of water from his room.

We take the OctoPod south. We arrive at a shipwreck, the USS Alpena which is a steamer. He is leaning against a rock outcropping. We are almost 150 feet underwater here.

We go to him, and see that his right hand has been torn off. He is barely concious. He gestures toward the left and says to get him there. We take him into the OctoPod and travel the direction he was pointing.

Soon we see a kind of structure ahead, three rock-like claws sticking up from the lake floor, and a dome. There is a ship here as well.

We pull off Aquatic’s helmet. We’ve never seen his face before. He looks human with bluish skin. He has gills. His breathing is labored. We pour some of the water on his gills. He wakes up briefly and tells us not to waste the water.

We dock at the structure. Surprisingly it interfaces with the pod. There is no one here but we find a gun and some blood, but no bodies anywhere around. There are living quarters and eating areas. We find equipment to repair Aquatic’s armor. We take it with us.

Suddenly in the corridor we are attacked by a huge creature, seemingly the same race as Aquatic. He has claws, though! We defeat him and put him in the walk-in cooler.

We find a medical bay There is a bacta tank with an opening for the vial. We put Aquatic in there to heal and use the vial.

The last wing has a lab. Tons of blood and bodies are in this area. A smashed bacta tank is also here. There are written logs. Spear translates them, as she can read any type of language. They were making a genetically engineered combat machine, and it got loose and killed them.

Aquatic wakes up and he has a strange watery arm where it had been previously torn off. He says that he is Atlantean. He says they they were rogue scientists who created the creature. The creature probably absorbed them. We decide to kill the creature by cutting it and burning it up.

Aquatic says that he is actually half-Atlantean. His mother was a land-dweller. He says that all Atlanteans are slightly telepathic. He asks us to keep all of this a secret.

We go to Veterans Square, a memorial of World War I. A space ship has crashed in the park, and men with bad Russian accents Tommy guns. The cops warn us that they have threatened to detonate a bomb and kill everyone in the square. Nitro talks to them in Russian and they do not understand. We attack.

Necros phases through the space ship and finds finds that the bomb is completely fake. This is likely a distraction. Spectral floats above the buildings and sees a robbery going on to the east, and a car chase to the north. We decide to go to the robbery to try and stop it.

We take out the fake Russians but Octo is wounded. Dr. Aquatic heals him with water that envelops him and the bullets pop out. They are strange bullets with blue tips.

We go to the bank and the Radio Marauders are robbing the place. They do not have the same bullets and they do not hurt us. We take them out and see they were in the safe deposit boxes again. They only took jewels and coins. No papers, etc. The cops take them to jail. We rush to the north, to see if we can catch the getaway car. We see some smashed cars but the bad guys are gone. We head back to the OctoCave.

Harry works all night on the radio devices and figures out how to get a fix on their signals. Meanwhile, Nitro calls the cops about the strange bullets. They are calling them Hero Killers.

We trace the radio signal to the northeast side of town, about five minutes out — the old radio factory is there.

Harry spends more time on the device and figures how to shut down radio signals with it.

We do a records search and find blueprints of the factory. There are three loading docks. We go to the front door. It is an office. Further in, there is an assembly room and lab. There is a mad scientist here in a white jacket. He shoots us with a stun gun.

We take them all out, then call the cops as usual. He told us that he was trying to make a sleep gun. We see the plans on his journal “Professor Moltry Dobbs” and his studies in using radio waves to put people to sleep. He was trying to put the entire town to street, then rob them blind. The machine he was working on is here.

For our trophy room, we take his stun pistol, a mind-reading hat, and a jetpack. Also a camera with a spinning colored disc in it. There are guns here with cop killer bullets — 100 rounds.

We head quickly to the bank on 5th and 3rd. We take the Octo-Pod. We switch over to telepathic links as our other coms go out. At the site we see a black panel van and sedans with their engines still running.

Necros cuts the engines of the vehicles with his powers. He phases into the truck and sucks the blood of the driver.

Nitro smashes the bank door open with his hammer. We all go inside and attack — some are KOd and several are killed.

The police arrive and we search the place. The safe deposit boxes have been disturbed, and also the records room. The window is open, and someone must have escaped. Spectral goes after him and finds only a helmet and a backpack. We try to interrogate the Marauders that are still alive but they have had some sort of conditioning and don’t break.

Octo tries to check some of their equipment to see if he can hack it. He needs his lab to do anything. We have them taken to jail, and head back to base. After some tinkering, Octo sees that the helmets can communicate with one another. The backpacks cancel signals.

Two days later, an announcement comes over the regular radio. It says that a ship has crashed in Veterans Square downtown and there is a “Communist Revolution” going on. We quickly head there.

A couple of weeks pass. At our next meeting, Red Star and Mother Russia arrive and they are dressed differently. Red Star is now wearing black armor with a dragon on it, and is calling himself Nitro. Mother Russia is in a white costume and calls herself Spectral Spear. They think that these personas will work better with the public.

There have been several bank robberies by the so-called “Radio Marauders.” They wear helmets with speakers on the front, and backpacks with antennae. They are somehow able to cut off all radio signals and phones with this equipment. They use guns. They have stolen $300,000 in the past few weeks.

We get a call from Randolph. We go to the precienct and bring them donuts. He gives us a folder with some information. All of the robberies have the same MO — they show up in a black panel truck or limo. Usually 5-10 people. No pattern of target banks. They hold up the banks with pistols and Tommy guns. They knock out communications but can talk with each other somehow. They take cash and crowbar through safe deposit boxes. They have killed 2 cops so far.

At the telephone company we set up a signal that will go off when the banks lose communications and we can quickly go to catch them. Necros, Nitro and Spear stay there to monitor. Harry goes back to the base and tries to monitor from there. Nothing comes up, so he begins designing a device that will counteract the effects of their tech.

The second day, there is a signal at noon that the bank on 5th and 3rd is being robbed.

We fight and defeat the Black Bullet. They have guns and ammo, and a safe with cash and jewels. Necros melts the guns and ammo. We take his helmet, Rocket Pistol and ammo for a souvenir (they shoot rocket, high explosive and smoke). We call the police.

We find a list of banks and also pins on a board. All the banks have connections with the Sabatini Crime Family. It says “Only 4 more to go. -M” which may refer to the Maranati family. The Fillini family is currently in charge. We give this info to the police as well.

The CCPD comes to clean up the mess. We work with Commissioner Randolph.

There are two papers in town. The Carbon City Tribune is against supers — their editor is named Jonathan Aldridge. The Catholic City Herald is very religious. The City Independent Review and Carbon Times are more balanced. Janis Steel, a writer for the Carbon Times, is a contact of ours.

Randolph tells us to get what info we can from the man we imprisoned. We take him back to our lair tangled in the tentacles of the Octo-Pod.

Necros creepily phases through the cell bars and the man is scared. He tells us that the Bullet Brigade is led by the Black Bullet. They are currently at an old farmhouse. They have a getaway driver but no defenses. He uses a fancy pistol. His name is Joe. We take him back to the police.

We go to the farmhouse immediately from there. Necros phases through and opens the door for us. Harry uses a radio signal to open a hidden ramp. We descend to a garage and take out a few guns.

We are in pursuit of 3 bullet cars crewed by the Bullet Brigade. A chase ensues. We harpoon one of the cars.

Red Star smashes one with his hammer. Dr. Aquatic attacks one with his trident, then summons piranhas. Mother Russia uses her force attack.

Two of the bullet cars crash and the occupants die. One is stopped and they survive.

We collect six Colt 1911s, and three Tommy Guns. We take the goons back to our lair and place them in a holding cell.