The Ethereal Hand

Session 2 – The Charles Residence

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Ethereal Hand

Session 1 – Spirit Focus

The Ethereal Hand is an up-and coming gang in the Charhollow neighborhood of Duskvol. The current membership consists of Reynard, a hound; Eklipsis, a leech; Raven, a lurk; and Foggy, a whisper.

They reside in a tower in the Old Village section of Charhollow, which is an abandoned abbey. This area is teeming with working class people and they are high above.

So far they have been able to add quarters to their lair, so everyone can sleep there. However, the materials they used were stolen from the Cabbies, so that group is antagonistic to the Hand at the moment.

The Hand are looking to operate in the Charterhall area which is home to the government offices and university of Duskvol. They pay off the City Council (1 coin) so they can operate here.

The Council also provided to them some documents about local figures (double XP for training Insight skills) and the Hand pay 1 coin to increase their relationship with the Council.

Trying to decide what they could do for their first job as a gang, the Hand consults Fitz, a collector with a large antique store in the market district of Charhollow who also happens to be a member of the sect “The Path of Echoes” which believe that the traditional wisdom of the Church of Ecstasy is wrong. They often commune with the dead.

Fitz’ store is about to close for the evening, but the members of the Hand are waved in and led to the back room where Fitz is enjoying some kind of a drug out of a hookah. He blows a cloud of purple smoke and asks the gang what they are interested in. They explain that they are looking for work, and he says that he has just recently gotten in some artifacts from Tycheros, which is where Raven hails from. Raven seems interested.

Fitz explains that three of the boxes from his Tycheros shipment are being held by the bluecoats across the river in Charterhall at a warehouse. They often hold things that they consider contraband without any warning and keep them there as long  as they wish. Some of the items are war artifacts like old swords and shields, and some are vases that are quite old and fragile. One of the items is a strange relic called a Spirit Focus. Fitz says that if his items may be procured, he would pay the group for their trouble.

Fitz also has several other Tycheros artifacts like clockwork toys that depict monstrous people, and also some vases. Reynard asks for items from Severos, the nomadic tribes, and Fitz shows him a statuette of a horse rearing up.

Foggy asks for more information about the Spirit Focus artifact, and Fitz dusts off an old tome that is from the Path of Echoes’ own knowledge of arcana. It depicts the Spirit Focus as a square object with a hole sort of like a frame, that is made out of glass or some bright material. It is a beacon for spirits, and when activated they will approach the device.

Foggy reads more and discovers that with a skilled practitioner, the Spirit Focus can be made to not only call spirits, but direct them and cause them to harry or attack someone. He does not reveal this to Fitz.

The Hand accepts the job and goes off to find more info. First, Raven goes to his friend Darmot, a bluecoat, probably the only honest one in town. The man seems upset and he explains that his boss has been all over his ass about one of the local diplomat’s vacation homes (normally empty) who keeps getting broken into. It’s happened five times over the past several weeks and the bluecoats are stumped. Nothing is stolen, but windows and furniture are regularly broken. Raven asks Darmot about the warehouse and he specifies the location and says that it is heavily guarded.

The Hand case the warehouse and find that there are three entrances, one to the south, one to the east, and a large garage door to the west. There are normally three guards at the garage door and two at each other door during the night, and one less at each during the day. Reynard’s dog is able to see that the storage area is to the west and there are offices on the east side and pallet jacks in the middle area.

Searching through the canals, Reynard scopes things first and then draws a map for Raven. He notes that there is a spirit well and a group of spirit wardens nearby that Raven shouldn’t go near. Raven follows the map and sees a ladder that leads up to a barred doorway with a thick metal lock made out of a dark gray steel.

Eklipsis wonders how she can open the lock and visits Stazia, an apothecary friend of hers. Stazia is a short balding man with dark skin and a thick accent. He mixes Eklipsis a strong acid that will help her break through the lock. He says to only use a few drops and gives her a glass eyedropper.

Before Eklipsis leaves, Stazia asks her to check on their mutual friend Veldren, who was in a few weeks ago to buy a bunch of materials but hasn’t been seen since. Stazia is worried that he has overdosed.

The Hand go back to Fitz and ask for a gondola to take them back to the access door in the canals. Fitz agrees but he says that the money will have to come off of their pay. Reynard has an idea to cause a distraction with a beer cart outside the warehouse. He plans to have the beer spill everywhere and cause a scene so the others can get to the score undetected. Again, Fitz agrees but says it will come off of their cut of the score.

At the appointed time, during the day, Reynard indeed drives by the east entrance and makes a big scene with spilled beer, drawing the attention of many bluecoats and also getting some of them to take the beer. He is totally convincing.

In the tunnels, the Gondolier named Billy brings the rest of the crew to the underground entrance though he is nervous to be here, knowing that the Spirit Wardens are nearby. Eklipsis tells him to stay put.

Eklipsis, Raven and Foggy go to the ladder and Eklipsis ascends, starting to work on the lock with his picking tools rather than using the acid first. She is able to loosen one of the bars that is holding the door shut but it falls and clangs loudly to the floor. The guards are more aware but not alerted yet.

Border Princes

Session 27 – The Changer of the Ways

After about a day’s travel, we skirt around to Castenea which is Giovanni’s territory. We don’t run into anything except normal traffic. Jean and the elves head up to take Hauptner to Giovanni. The dwarves hit up the first bar and start drinking.

Jean and the elves meet Giovanni who is in a smoking jacket and a fez drinking brandy and reading. The meeting between the two border princes is tense. Hauptner looks a bit guilty, and the catatonic state seems to be diminished.

Giovanni tries to sum up everything that’s happened and Jean asks why chaos warriors may be on his lands. Giovanni won’t answer with Hauptner here. We hear the story about how Hauptner was responsible for the death of Giovanni’s men and they still have bad blood. The old man lunges at Giovanni and Jean holds him back. Finally things calm down and they are talking.

Hauptner says that he thinks Sasha was behind the ork attack.  He says that he doesn’t recall things that happened with Sasha in the last couple of years. Before that she was getting the bandits under control and then she said that Gio was trying to assassinate him. She had the double brought in, and after that Hauptner doesn’t remember much.

Gio says that ships have come into port just two days ago from Duke Edelhard. The men were ordered to go under Jean’s command.

The dwarves see a bunch of men in flowery uniforms that appear to be Britonians in the bar. They have daggers at their belts.

We suddenly see larger and larger waves coming in from the Black Gulf and ships start capsizing in the harbor. A huge tsunami starts coming toward us and the dwarves make for higher ground. The elves, up in the keep, see a water spout and someone is at the top of it.

Brokk slips and falls but Tobruk manages to hold onto him and a stone column with the other hand. We see some strange creatures materialize from the water and start attacking people, turning into liquid and enveloping people. The woman on top of the water spout is wearing strange blue and purple clothes. After a few more waves she moves off and the waters become lower, and the water creatures stop attacking as well.

Giovanni mourns his city. The group starts to help pull people out of the water. Vedasi tells Giovanni to fortify the front gate because we’ve been hit at the back gate pretty strongly.

As we are working we see on the ground near the docks a strange symbol like a wave with a circle over it. Jean and Vedasi see it and believe it is the symbol of Tzeentch. He is the “changer of the ways” and many chaos worshipers follow him.

We continue pulling people out of the water and we see that only a handful of the Britonian soldiers survived. A few lucky sailors pull themselves out of the water, but most of them are gone. The richer area up on the high ridge hasn’t been touched by the water.

Giovanni eventually comes down to the docks by us and asks to talk. We head back to the keep with him and he takes us to a large council room. Two people are waiting for us there. We see a man in white robes and full armor and a huge warhammer. His armor has the sign of a twin-tailed comet (Sigmar) and he has a silver circlet that looks like it is riveted into his head. The woman has golden armor and the symbol of a shield and a spear on it (Myrmidia). They are two of the temple leaders in town. Hauptner is also here, but under guard. Giovanni mentions that they need to bring Celarin, a high elf. He is one of the newest loremasters of Hoeth. The high elves and the wood elves don’t generally get along. We may need to send word to him so he will help.

We start telling the group about what we’ve come up against and we mention the skaven. Gio says that this is how Slanesh will attack. The skaven are probably moving here right now. He needs Brokk as the stoneworker to help check the cellars on every home in the town. Tobruk as the armorer, he asks him to get weapons ready so people in town to wield them. He asks Hauptner for info about Sasha, asks Jean to update all of their maps, and the elves to teach his archers on the wall to shoot straight.

The elves head to the high part of town and visit Phandyth who is helping her neighbors. They ask her to get in touch with the wood elves near our keep and others that she knows. We need to gather all the forces to help defend the town.

Border Princes

Session 26 – Kettle Khorne

The horses thunder toward us and the men who aren’t mounted start going toward the house. We see the civilians on a second story balcony of the house and Vedasi yells at them to get into the house.

They run past us and Jean is struck but is still standing. The others try hitting but none of the riders fall. As they are departing, Maruviel shoots one in the head twice but it doesn’t fall. Tobruk hits one and knocks him off of his horse, dead.

They turn back and come toward us again. Eogard charges one in red armor and it hits him four times. He is dead after the second strike but he continues hitting two more times, bashing his brains out.

After seeing that, Brokk decides that we should do a tactical retreat, and tries to reason with Tobruk, telling him that this isn’t a fight we can win. Tobruk refuses to leave but Brokk restrains him and pulls him behind cover. The riders lose interest and go back to destroying the farmhouse and killing everyone there.

We ride away two hours from here, even though Jean is wounded. We camp but we notice that there are not many animal sounds in the area. Putting our heads together, we think that these chaos warriors are followers of Khorne, who just focus on killing as much as they can.

The next morning, we wake up and there is one bird making noise. It is kind of strange. Brokk heals Jean by 50%. Vedasi heads back to the farmhouse, trying to stay concealed. He sees that the farmhouse has been burnt to the ground and the slayer’s body along with most of the others are gone. The only thing there is the fallen chaos warrior’s body. Vedasi drags it back to us and Brokk checks it out.

Brokk sees that the armor is not fused to its body as has been rumored and it has thick skin like leather, which has been branded with symbols of Khorne. It has one eye gouged out and sharpened teeth. Tobruk chops the body up with his axe.

Vedasi and Brokk look around the farmhouse and don’t see much. There is some blood and the remains of the house. Brokk convinces Tobruk to look as well, but nothing is there.

Border Princes

Session 25 – Be Franc With Us / Cranium Gladiators

It has been two weeks since the battle. We have many refugees at the keep, so many in fact that we are concerned about food.

We get a delivery from Edelhart saying that he will send troops down to Castenea on the river rather than sending them through the mountains. This will just be some assistance and not an occupying force.

We are consistently seeing many haggard people coming from that area. We hear from the wood-elves that the city was breached in three places, but after a while the orks have gotten bored and have moved north through the pass. There was only one more engagement with about a dozen of them, but most of them just moved into the mountains.

Hauptner abandoned the city and started to go south about a week ago. We decide since the city is abandoned, we will go check things out and see what is there. After this we may head south to let Giovanni know that Hauptner and Gilemet are together so this may be a good time to take them both out.

At Groghaven, we hear the sounds of dogs. Some buildings are still intact, but much of it is destroyed. The grain silos have been fired and are destroyed.

Suddenly we see a shape running through the streets. Brokk calls out but he keeps running. Vedasi catches up with him and knocks him down. He has a sack of moldy bread and cheese and a small dagger of orcish manufacture. We check him out and he has smooth hands and tattered, but fair, clothes. We ask him his name and he hesitates a moment before saying “Franc.” He says that he’s from this town and that he’s a scribe. We don’t quite believe him. Jean asks him to show us where he used to work and he takes us to the keep.

The keep itself is in ruin, as most of the furniture and tapestries have been destroyed. We get to the main audience chamber and Jean and Vedasi see a painting that resembles our friend almost exactly. Underneath the painting it reads “Baron Hauptner.” Talking with him more, it’s clear that he’s lost his marbles. We ask him to take us to the Baron’s workplace and he heads downstairs.

We go through the dungeon to what looks like it used to be a safe room. There are some dead people here and we smell a strange smell. We find skaven tracks and Hauptner freaks out and almost goes catatonic.

We bring him out and admits that he is indeed Hauptner. He says that after the attack, he sent his double to sit on the throne and retreated down here. The town was sacked and then his men were attacked by skaven who came through the tunnels.

Brokk binds him and Hauptner takes us upstairs to his desk. Everything here has been ransacked, however Tobruk finds a sack of 25 gold in a false-bottom drawer. Jean finds a scroll case at the back of a drawer. There are some maps and drawings, strategies of how he would attack Giovanni or Sasha, scouting reports, and other materials.

We decide to stay here for the night and then make for the Crossed Lances in the morning. We barricade the skaven hole as best we can and stay in one of the guard barrack houses. Brokk keeps a close eye on Hauptner.

The next day we head back, but Hauptner is getting more and more paranoid. We put a sack over his head and have him in a room to keep an eye on him.

In the morning we talk to the innkeeper and we give him 500 gold to help keep things going in the area. He is astonished but promises to help us.

We head through the mountains toward the dwarven keep of Din Borim and a bad storm rolls through. We stay the night on the road and then get to Din Borim the next evening. The place looks much cleaner and they have gotten the forge going. We stay one night and then continue heading south.

We get into the hilly lands to the south and we can hear the thunder of hooves. We head to a small hill and hide. About a dozen riders come near. They are fully decked out in plate mail that is black, red and bronze. They appear to be riding toward a small village. Tobruk and Vedasi look up to see them coming and they notice Tobruk’s hair. They turn toward us, yelling “blood for the blood god!”

Border Princes

Session 24 – An Arrow to the Knee

Our goal is to patrol our area and harass any orks coming in. Jean is hoping that his sponsor will send help by road or by sea. We continue ranging out and we see signs of a large party up ahead quite a ways. We see one scout and the elves turn it into a pincushion with an arrow through its head, eye, and one through each knee. It bleeds out and we advance past. There is a camp up ahead a couple of miles and we sneak toward it.

We see in the camp a bunch of knight goblins  including a spider rider, shaman, several orks, a  swarm of snotlings, a stone troll, and a squig (a fungus-based animal that knight goblins use for mounts and also food). There are probably thirty creatures here. Some of them are arguing and kicking around the smaller creatures.

The elves approach around a hill to the west and the dwarves go to the east. The elves take out a couple of goblins without anyone noticing, but one of them starts screaming and the orks begin running toward them. The spider rider is also taken out, with Jean burying an arrow up to the feathers in its large abdomen and the elves finishing it off.

Tobruk and Eogard see the stone troll and run straight toward it around a hill. Brokk follows them initially but breaks off when he sees the swarm coming toward the elves. Screaming, the slayers slam into the stone troll and kill a nearby knight goblin. Seeing this, the troll picks it up and tries to eat it. Tobruk promptly cuts his arm off and Eogard finishes him off.

Brokk runs through the middle of the battlefield toward the camp and takes out a knight goblin and an ork. The squig charges up and bites him in the arm.

From out of one of the tents comes a war boss and a shaman. The shaman chants something and a dark aura comes out.

Brokk kills the ork that was on him and bisects the squig.

The shaman fires a magic missile into Brokk’s chest but his armor takes some of it. Jean fires an arrow and it goes through the shaman’s leg.

The war boss is fighting both slayers and strikes Eogard savagely. He is overwhelmed and starts to flee. Tobruk catches up with him and continues attacking, and Brokk joins in. The elves finish him with arrows.

Looking around the area we see a small idol to their god, a bunch of mushrooms, a war chest of 500 crowns (in various types of coin).

 

Border Princes

Session 23 – Scorched Earth

We decide to head back to the keep near the crossed lances and see how things are faring there. The rest of our escort stays at the dwarven keep. Going overland, we don’t pass many travelers. We are close enough to the river to see boats. Later on, we see smoke to the northeast where the Khyprian road crosses the river. Jean references the map and imagines that it’s near Volchbach. We are probably 10 miles away. We can hear the sounds of screaming.

Since this is on the way to our keep anyway (Volchbach is 20 miles away from our keep) we head toward the town. We see fire and flaming things shooting through the air. People are fleeing a massive horde of greenskins. There are probably thousands in total. Everything from orks to snotlings running around, there are boar riders, wolf riders, etc.

We think about what we know about orks. They must have come here for a specific purpose, to sack this city. They are all about fighting so they will probably not be sending scouts toward our keep. We head to the keep quickly and see how things are going. The dock area is more finished than when we were last here.

We have a total of five boatmen (one missing a hand), the two halflings (Sleeves and Thomas) and the lumberjacks and their families here.

We are going to have the lumberjacks create a palisade to protect us from any siege. The elves will talk to the wood-elves nearby to make sure they are on alert, then they will head out to find any refugees and bring them back so we can shelter them and they can help defend the keep. The dwarves look at fortifying the keep and getting supplies from town.

The wood-elves promise to send some supplies. The dwarves get to the Crossed Lances and everything seems to be in order. It is more packed than usual, and we see some people who are definitely refugees. Tobruk looks around and sees another slayer in the corner with a large mohawk. This guy is wider than Tobruk but not taller. The dwarf says that the axe Tobruk is carrying belongs to him, because he got it from his dead brother. His name is Eogard Mungrinsson. He is from Karak Kadrin which is out in the mountains of Sylvania. The name does ring a bell to Tobruk. He knows that the axe does come from a smith that is there. Tobruk refuses to give it back so Eogard decides that he will come along with us. We direct the people at the Crossed Lances to send supplies and also anyone who is able to the keep.

The elves bring bows, arrows, nets and other supplies to us. Civilians start showing up and we start training them. We setup daily patrols and start ranging to the road to see what is going on. We go out four miles all around the keep. We will engage with any parties of 30 or less. During this time we see groups of about 10 and take them out, but haven’t seen any larger parties or groups riding mounts as of yet.

Chicago Runners

Session 5 – Thumper Home Remodeling, LLC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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We dispatch the remaining gangers.

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

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

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Chicago Runners

Session 4 – Things that make you go BOOM!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We start our next shift.

Chicago Runners

Session 3 – Isaac pumps up Franz

Things have calmed down after the action from last time.  Mari got a settlement from Saeder-Krupp to keep it hushed up.  She is going to use it to help her mom, and she is incredibly happy and thankful around us.  She knows we saved her from a bad situation.  We are finally back on regular duty.  The runs have been mostly boring, but there does seem to be an increase in gang violence.

Things have gotten a little rougher around the neighborhood, and the regulars at the Triple Tap are carrying more weapons.  We still hang out there several times a week.  One night we are hanging out there when Isaac gets a high priority message from Dr. Hyun.  Her 20-year-old nephew Ayun has been missing for 3 days.  He was part of a young person’s organization that went on a humanitarian project in the slums.  He has not been seen since.  They have not found anything around his last known location.

We recognize the symbol as the Universal Brotherhood.  They have a cover as being an organization about the sharing of universal truth and companionship.  However, we know they have a violent side as well and they have gathered weapons.  The founders of the group created it to promote peace, however they both got sick and committed suicide.  At a guess there are 18,000-20,000 members in the Chicago area.  We decide to keep our eyes and ears open but keep doing our regular runs.  We cannot afford to get in trouble again.

The next day we go back out on patrol like normal.  We get a call around midnight on Thursday.  We notice that the name is Franz Donner, Thumper’s cousin.  The signal is coming from down by the docks, which is nowhere near the restaurant.  It is coming from a warehouse.  As we pull up, we see several Eagle security units with bullet holes in their cars.  The ping from his bracelet is coming from inside this building on the south side.  We get the cops to move and then pull the ambulance to the south east corner of the building.  There are no doors on this side.

We sneak around to the West side and find a side door, along with Edge and Scales, the shadow runners we ran into before.  They try to wave us off, but we come up anyway.  They say there is a blood bath in there and we might not want to go in.  Thumper tries to break the door but fails.  He shoots out the hinges and then runs into the room, yelling for Franz.  We see the same orcs that were bothering the Triple Tap, part of the Sewer Rats.  As we move into the room, we see a group of trolls on the other side.  Many of them are people that Thumper knows, but some of them are dead and others are wounded.  They are in bad shape.

We manage to stabilize Franz and get him on a stretcher.  As we are loading him up one of the trolls says they were selling the weapons so that the gangs would destroy each other.  As we start moving towards the door, the big garage door explodes inward and a combination of Eagle Security and Corp Sec busts in.  They immediately start exchanging fire with the orcs.

The EMTs look in the bins and find some riot shields.  They grab them and use them to cover the stretcher as the group starts moving towards the door.  The trolls start following us, and the orc gang members start shooting at them and us.  Espadas drops one gang member who gets close to us, and Bright swings at another and wounds him.  The orc gangers and the corp sec keep exchanging fire.  A couple of the troll gangers take wounds.

Icebox gets the stretcher and Franz out the door, while Espadas drops another ganger.  Thumper also kills one.  The group piles out into the alley and runs for the ambulance, with Ryoshi and Thumper covering the rear.  We all head for the ambulance, and two of the troll gangers also escape.  Isaac keeps working on Franz, who seems to be getting worse.  We keep driving to headquarters and rush him into emergency surgery.

Isaac helps with the triage and surgery.  Thumper waits at the emergency room.  Franz is in surgery for three hours, but he does pull through.  Espadas and Ryoshi go back to the restaurant.  A few of the trolls that are usually there are not anymore.

Franz wakes up around mid-morning.  He is covered in bandages and very weak, but lucid.  He says that 3 months ago he was approached by corporate guys who said they could make money while the gangs tear each other apart.  Franz wants to get rid of all the other races, metahumans and otherwise, then trolls could take over.  Corp security shows up soon after to question Thumper and Franz.  Icebox rolls up behind them and starts telling them they cannot question him now.  They leave.

Thumper gets the details from Franz about the weapons shipments.  There were 8 shipments with assault rifles, pistols, armor, shields, and cannons.  The shipments come from Germany and are smuggled through customs then they sell them to the gangs at cost just to move more of them.  The meetings were anonymous (his face was masked), but we have the location and time.

The cops come back and separate Thumper and Franz.  They grill Thumper in their paddy wagon.  He cooperates and tells them what he knows.  Eventually they let him go and he comes back to the restaurant.  Ringo had no idea that any of this was going on with Franz.

Our next move is to try and meet with Edge and Scales to see what they know.  Thumper’s fixer does not know how to contact them, but suggests we get a message out on Noose-net.  Isaac wows us with his hacking skills and can find a way to contact them.  We also find out there are possibly thousands of sewer rats and other gangers underground that come out at night, commit crimes, then go back underground.  A user named SuperWiz has tons of information about them including maps of activity.  We also find that Edge and Scales work with SuperWiz, and they are helping law enforcement.  We decide to try and meet them at a restaurant near us and send SuperWiz a message.

We agree to meet at a nearby noodle bar in the afternoon.  SuperWiz shows up and asks is we have some information on the Sewer Rats.  Thumper and Icebox talk to him and agree to share to their knowledge about the weapons deals.  Icebox will give him the video from the warehouse fight (minus Espadas face of course).  They arrange for a drop point.  The decker reveals that his actual handle is Charlie Zero, and SuperWiz is an alternate username. After the drop we get a message says he has it and will be in touch.  We go back to work for Doc Wagon.