Houston GM

Be polite to everyone. The next person you meet might be a world-class supervillain in their secret ID.
 
Even in a world with superpowers, knowledge is power.
 
Everyone has their kryptonite. Mine is cupcakes.
 
Spandex is a privilege, not a right.
 
Superscience has built powered armor suits that can fly and fire lasers without needing to be recharged ... but our smartphones still crap out before we get the chance to recharge them.
 
The worst part of being a superhero is the slash fanfic.

Be polite to everyone. The next person you meet might be a world-class supervillain in their secret ID.
 
Even in a world with superpowers, knowledge is power.
 
Everyone has their kryptonite. Mine is cupcakes.
 
Spandex is a privilege, not a right.
 
Superscience has built powered armor suits that can fly and fire lasers without needing to be recharged ... but our smartphones still crap out before we get the chance to recharge them.
 
The worst part of being a superhero is the slash fanfic.

Be polite to everyone. The next person you meet might be a world-class supervillain in their secret ID.
 
Even in a world with superpowers, knowledge is power.
 
Everyone has their kryptonite. Mine is cupcakes.
 
Spandex is a privilege, not a right.
 
Superscience has built powered armor suits that can fly and fire lasers without needing to be recharged ... but our smartphones still crap out before we get the chance to recharge them.
 
The worst part of being a superhero is the slash fanfic.

Be polite to everyone. The next person you meet might be a world-class supervillain in their secret ID.
 
Even in a world with superpowers, knowledge is power.
 
Everyone has their kryptonite. Mine is cupcakes.
 
Spandex is a privilege, not a right.
 
Superscience has built powered armor suits that can fly and fire lasers without needing to be recharged ... but our smartphones still crap out before we get the chance to recharge them.
 
The worst part of being a superhero is the slash fanfic.

Be polite to everyone. The next person you meet might be a world-class supervillain in their secret ID.
 
Even in a world with superpowers, knowledge is power.
 
Everyone has their kryptonite. Mine is cupcakes.
 
Spandex is a privilege, not a right.
 
Superscience has built powered armor suits that can fly and fire lasers without needing to be recharged ... but our smartphones still crap out before we get the chance to recharge them.
 
The worst part of being a superhero is the slash fanfic.

Champions - Return to Edge City : Mall Zombies
 
First two hours of session spent discussing nuclear weapons, nuclear accidents, and engineering failsafes.

Hardlight: And moving from nuclear weapons to biological weapons?

Because the Fast Zombie virus is apparently in the most exclusive hi-end mall in this part of California.

Hardlight: Are we going to have to nuke somebody?
GM: Hopefully not.
Hero Shrew: Unless it looks like the zombie virus is going to get loose and infect half of the state. Maybe we should tell somebody about this?
Fireflash: Who'd believe us?
Hero Shrew: Well, I know it would be embarrassing if it turns out we're wrong, but -
Flux: So, the probably-wanted-super-criminal calls the police saying he has a spell that says there's a zombie plague loose in the Mall. How well do you think that will go?

GM: Where did this virus thing come from? I never mentioned zombie virus.
Hero Shrew: I've seen movies.

Fireflash: I seem to be more pulchritudinous than I was before I got my powers.
GM: Well, you have to store the energy somewhere.

Hero Shrew: So what kind of clothes am I going to have in my Garfield disguise? I don't think my usual wife beater and torn jeans are going to cut it, here.
Hardlight: ... Look like Garfield and dressed like Top Cat?
Hero Shrew: So, purple hat and vest, and no pants?

GM: It's a mall - a high-end mall.
Fireflash: Oh my gosh, I want to go shopping.
Hardlight: You can come back after you get your Christmas bonus.
Flux: We get a Christmas bonus?
Hero Shrew: News to me... Nice to think we'll live until Christmas.

The Laguna Complex is full of luxury car dealerships, face-change clinics, bespoke electronics and a few places that actually advertise as Moreau-friendly.

Hero Shrew: We are going to do so much damage here.
Flux: We? You.

GM: I was watching Repo Man the other day.
Flux's player: ?
Hero Shrew's player: Famously weird movie that ends with a highly radioactive flying car.
GM: There was a bus in one scene, and the destination was Edge City. *eyes go wide*

(Actually, Repo Man was also an Edge City Production)

Flux: OK, where are the medical outlets, we'll look there first.
Hero Shrew: You'll have to stop me first - I WAS going to look up the mall security sections, but now I'm having too much fun seeing how fast I can spin the map.

We need to get into the secure underground carpark.

Hero Shrew: I suppose I can look around for some matronly customer, and say 'Hey lady, you going down?'
Flux: .... No, no you are not.

Hardlight: Can I Bubble the lifts?
GM: Sure, but you'll attract even more attention.
Hardlight: Great! Either security will come and talk to us, or they're not paying attention and won't be any use to us anyway.

The game is interrupted by a violent 30 second thunderstorm that strikes just outside the door.

GM: It's like there was a tiny storm cloud going prrrrrrrrrr across Perth, F**K THAT GUY, prrrrrrrrrrr and moves on.

Flux: OK, the zombie signal is behind this wall. Scooter, get digging.
Hero Shrew: OK.
Fireflash: Hey, wait, hold on - can we at least LOOK for another way in first? Maybe a door?
Flux: ... I'm not the only person here who can come up with plans.

GM: Tig, what is your actual name?
Flux's player: Flux's or mine?
GM: Yours.
Flux's player: I'm been gaming here for years now!
GM: I know, but everybody calls you Tig, and I'm terrible with names.
Flux's player: That's fair - I knew you as The Care Bear Guy for years.

Fireflash: If I get banned from the Laguna Complex I'm going to ban your ass.

GM: You're getting a few nervous looks from people, since they know you're four superheroes in a mall, and especially since Flux keeps waving his hands and saying 'This way'
Hardlight: Don't worry people, he's hunting an Arcticuno

Flux: Maybe we do need to talk to security.
Hardlight: Hail, good citizen.
Fireflash: Shut. Up.
Flux: Oh god, Mr Foot-in-Mouth is speaking.
Fireflash: Can we talk to your boss?
Security: Whhhhy?
Fireflash: Because there's a situation he needs to be aware of.
Hero Shrew: And we don't want to start a panic.

Security Chief: OK, what's under my mall?
Fireflash: We're found evidence of a lab producing hyper-velocity undead constructs under the building.
Hero Shrew: Fast Zombies.
Fireflash: I was trying to avoid the Z-word.

Flux: Can we help you guys with the situation?
Security Chief: Like I can stop you.
Flux: Can we get PERMISSION to help with the situation?
Security Chief: It's not worth my job to give you permission.
Flux: Ah, another guy who knows his law.

Security Chief: So that's why there's Voodoo Crew in one of the loading bays right now?
Hero Shrew: Oh, f**k.

We'd made the mistake of using the public map of the mall as we tried to triangulate the zombie's position - and none of the loading bays are included on the shopping map. As a result, we were wandering through the galleries and carparks and continually winding up at solid walls.

Flux: So the Voodoo Crew followed us to the mall rightly assuming we'd find the zombie-tech for them. And that's why they're in the loading bay.
Fireflash: We have been here an hour.

Flux: Oh my god, we are horrible horrible superheroes.

Fireflash: Hi. Would you like to leave?
Voodoo Crewman: Yes, when we have retrieved our property.
Fireflash: Would you like to leave now?
Voodoo Crewman: Yes.
Flux: Well, that is a valid answer. I think we need to set some caveats, we have a smart-arse.
Voodoo Crewman: You're not as scary as Papa Friday. The worst you can do is kill me.
Fireflash: I'm not going to do that.
Voodoo Crewman: You might still kill me by accident. And you're still not as scary as Papa Friday.
Fireflash: I'm not letting you take the stuff.
Voodoo Crewman: OK, that was the signal. We can go.
Fireflash: .... What?
Hero Shrew: I think they found what they were after.
GM: Worse - they switched them on.
Hero Shrew: Oh f**k.

The two drug-harnessed corpses trot towards us, as we move to defend ourselves. And trot right past us.

Flux: What?
Hero Shrew: They've probably been told to head back to base.
Flux: They have to control them somehow.

Fireflash doesn't even want to touch them. Hero Shrew doesn't want to get bitten.

Fireflash: ew ew ew.
Hero Shrew: I've seen the movies, I'm too pretty to be a zombie!

GM: By the way, Scooter, keep track of how much property damage you do.
Hero Shrew: Called it.

Hero Shrew swats one of them back into the concrete wall of the loading bay, which hurts it not at all. And now they're paying attention to us.

Zombie: HHHRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHH.

Hardlight finally reaches the loading bay.

Hardlight: Hi guys, how's thi- oh, shit!!!!

Fireflash: Grab that one and hit that one with it!
Zombie: *narrows eyes*
Hero Shrew: Well, she's the leader of Quadrant and seems to know what she's doing most of the time-
Zombie: *grabs Hero Shrew and hits Fireflash with him*

Fireflash is no longer moving, to Hero Shrew's alarm. And there's a cyber-zombie looming over us. And another that's giggling alarming and doing a super-speed run at the nearest truck in an attempt to roll it over on us. The shrew launches himself at the dearest undead in a crushing tackle.

Hero Shrew: Apparently shrew hugs are more dangerous than bear hugs.
GM: You feel a cracking inside it, and grin in fierce satisfaction. And then it seems to inflate again.
Fireflash: They have Regenerate????
Flux: Goddammit... Now I want one. You bastard.

GM: You can't rip the harness off, it's an implant. It's like trying to rip off somebody's nose.
Fireflash: That IS doable.
Hero Shrew: 'My zombie has no nose' 'How does he smell?' 'F****ing awful, he's a f**king zombie, what do you think?'

Fireflash recovers enough to blast the other zombie across the carpark and into a car.

GM: INTO a car.
Hero Shrew: So the airbags go off?
GM: Yup - so does the alarm.
Flux: ... OK, she has the matter under control, I'm outta here.
GM: No she doesn't it.
Fireflash: I can't do that twice!

Hero Shrew is trying to pile-drive the one he has grappled.

Hero Shrew: What's a suplex manoeuvre?
Fireflash: Hoist the zombie over your shoulder and fall back on him.
GM: You're doing a pile driver.
Hero Shrew: I never watched wrestling.
Hardlight: Says the guy who can suplex a train.

Hardlight: I call this the HUSQVARNA SPECIAL!
GM: Hey, Hero Shrew, Hardlight is swinging a giant chainsaw at you!
Hero Shrew: FUUUUUUUUUU-

Hardlight misses, Hero Shrew's piledrive doesn't, and the truck has now had a zombie plowed through it three times. Somebody is going to complain.

GM: At least you're paying attention, so you notice when the zombies are trying to regenerate. BLAST. The pieces are crawling back together. BLAST BLAST BLAST. NOW they stop moving.

Searching the zombies finds a card with 'Come home - kill any who try to stop you' in Haitian Creole. The Voodoo Crew weren't fucking around. And we also find where the zombies were being stored - in a locker belonging to one of the Dysprosium Dawn's tech-head allies that worked at the mall. Also, forensics indicate that the zombies were volunteers, and alive when the process started. At least it's very unlikely that the Voodoo Crew and Dysprosium Dawn will ever recreate them.

Hardlight: Do you have any evil Nemeses?
Flux: Well, there's that f**king accountant. 

In a pulp genre rockets-and-ray guns campaign, the PCs' ship arrives at the homeworld of one of the party characters. In the finest nonsensical pulp tradition, individuals of that race look like collections of organs floating in a fluid-filled jar, even in their native environment.
 
One of the humans (Jake, the former rum-runner driver/pilot, a relatively coarse individual) addresses one of the natives: "Hey, Testicle Face, where can a guy find a card game here?"
 
Again in the finest nonsensical pulp traditions, the natives speak English with odd lapses. The addressed native says to a companion: "What is 'testicle'?"
 
"It is an organ, a gonad. It is a sensitive and delicate organ."
 
"Ah! He is using an endearment and announcing affection!"

Champions: Return to Edge City
 
News on the Moreau front - one has actually had to move to L.A. For an actual job! Albeit in the new live-action Chester O'Star, about a spacefaring bunny ranger. It helps that the Screen Actor's Guild already accepts animal members.

Hero Shrew OoC: If I was actually intelligent enough to actually come up with conspiracy theories, I'd say my live action Zootopia idea is looking more and more plausible.
GM: That they're hiring might actually be a good sign. More likely it just means a few years of Hollywood making Moreau-ploitation flicks.

Oh, and Tyrell has released a line of humanoid domestic robots.

Hardlight: How humanoid?
GM: Not very.
Hardlight: So, C-3PO, then.
Hero Shrew: So, are they Freemium model, or come with lots of Downloadable Content?

Flux: If one crosses my path I'll fiddle with it.
Hero Shrew OoC: There's laws against that. Or will be.

Hardlight: Given our luck we're meet one that's sentient and wants to sing show tunes.

GM: Most of Tyrell's research budget went into LIMITING their AI.
Flux: ... That's a very scary sentence.
Hero Shrew OoC: It's a superhero Mileau - AI is a crapshoot. Just ask Hank Pym.
GM: That is a low blow.

Flux: I think Hank Pym was a little unstable.
All: A LITTLE???

Flux: My days are spent programming, my nights are spent kicking supervillain ass. I have very little free time.

The robots are supposedly perfectly safe - they're not very strong and they're not very fast.

Hero Shrew: But we've all seen zombie movies.
GM: ... True.

GM: And the Internet is already saying 'By the time I've finished typing this somebody will have released a porn kit for them'.

And in gangland news, our hit on Dysprosium Dawn has lead to several nighttime altercations between the mad scientists and other gangs. There have been a number of stabbings, and a number of Boosters have ended up in hospital too but that's only to be expected given the hierarchy of gangs in Ditko - the cyborgs and mad scientists have a mutual protection pact. So, who is actually doing the stabbing?

Hero Shrew: Well, you've got the cyber-Margery-power-thingies, Flux. We go to where the security cameras are and you chat them up.
Flux: How are am I going to get there?
Hero Shrew: Be environmentally aware - ride a bike.
Flux: I don't have a bike.
Hero Shrew: Steal one.

He ends up getting a cab.

Flux: This is mildly embarrassing for a superhero.
Hero Shrew: That's OK, you're mildly embarrassing.

GM: Why are you doing it all yourself? You don't have that as a Psychological Limitation.
Hero Shrew's player: He's used to roleplaying with me and Aramis, and used to shit never getting done.
GM: It's true - Drhoz's characters would probably want to f**k whatever is going on, and Aramis ...
Hero Shrew's player: Stick his foot in his mouth and fall over? And I dispute the thing about my characters, it really only applies to Jrska. And Ripper.

Flux: I won't call Fireflash, I don't want to upset her Mom.
GM: How has Fireflash's mother, who none of you even interacted with, turned into a total boogeyman for the party? This is worse than the 150pt housewife - I haven't even statted her out!
Fireflash: I did ask how I ended up in charge of this party.
Hero Shrew OoC: Because the rest of us are too afraid of being called sexist or misogynist to shut you down over anything.
Flux: Sexist, too.

Flux: I'll call the impressionable one.
GM: ?
Flux:*points at Hero Shrew*
GM: Ah, right

Flux: Everybody meet me at the Owlcave.
GM: Owlcave?
Flux: Owlcave. And this is my butler, Whoo. 'Who is your butler?' 'Yes, Whoo.'
GM: 'And where is your butler?' 'No, Where is my chauffeur, Whoo is my butler'
Hardlight: What's with the British accent?
Flux: I've been awake for two nights, ignore it.

Hero Shrew has heard more accurate rumours that the media are given us - the stabbings have all been non-fatal, and appear to be an effort to force the Dysprosium Dawn into something, and ruin the arrangement between them and the Boosters.

Hero Shrew: We could always find a Dysprosium Dawn ganger and ask them.
Flux: We aren't exactly their favourite people right now.
Hero Shrew OoC: Then arresting whoever has been stabbing them will make them feel more favourably towards us 'Hey, I hear somebody has been stabbing you, and for your information it wasn't us'.

Hardlight: Are we catching a cab or are we Banjo-Kazooie-ing it?
Hero Shrew: I'm fine with a cab. Hey, can we get one with a human driver? It always gives me a kick making a human drive me around.
Hardlight: Are there even human cabdrivers anymore?
GM: Of course there are - some people don't like being driven around by a robot. Mechanon the Genocidal Robot is a thing.

Flux: Stealth is on the list of things to get.
GM: Not really - Fireflash glows, and Hero Shrew...
Hero Shrew: Subtlety? What's that?
Flux: Mister Walking Property Damage. Right.
GM: Makes a nice change from the Streets of Magnimar campaign.

Flux: So we walk around Ditko looking not stealthy at all.
Hero Shrew: Alright then - we can put baseball caps and jackets on, and walk around holding up our phones like we're playing Pokemon Go.
GM: .... OK, that works. Augmented Reality games are popular in Edge City.
Hero Shrew:*rolls Stealth check* Very popular. Apparently I got so focused on Pokemon Go I forgot what we're actually doing here.

Flux figures out that a pair of Dysprosium Dawn Gangers are hurrying south as if they're trying to avoid something. In fact, they're being herded into an ambush by eight members of the Voodoo Crew.

Voodoo Crew: Time for another lesson*all draw their Zo Lams, scary curved cleavers*

GM: Time for Energy Blast 101 - you can Spread your attack.
Hero Shrew OoC: So how far will Hardlight need to Spread his Energy Blast to-
GM: Actually hit something?
Hero Shrew OoC: I was going to say 'to scorch off all their clothes but leave them mostly unscathed', but that works too.

The Voodoo Crew members all grab for the Loa Dust pouches around their necks, and inhale the contents.

Voodoo Crew:*snorts derisively* You need superheroes to rescue you?

GM: Hero Shrew isn't here yet - the Murderball got distracted by 'Hey, that Sandshrew is actually kinda cute'

Fireflash's blasts are super effective - unfortunately for the Dysprosium Dawn gangers who are behind the Voodoo Crew that just got blasted down the street.

Flux: Nice work - now we've got people to question AND people to arrest.
Fireflash: Sorry! Sorry!
Flux: To be fair her last opponent WAS a giant robot.

Hero Shrew leaps to assist! - and overshoots the fight, street, and city block, but luckily avoids landing in anybody's prize rose garden.

GM: Scooter lands in the street. Face first. He seems a bit surprised.
Flux: Wait, I know that ass!

Hero Shrew bounces up and advances gleefully on the last Voodoo Crewmember standing, grinning in a most alarming manner.

Hero Shrew: I get to hit you now!
Hardlight: Too late!*punches at the ganger with a giant holographic fist, and misses entirely**facepalm*

Voodoo Crew Survivor: Hey, this none of your business, mon.*bugs out*

Fireflash calls the police in, and we cart the Dysprosium Dawn gangers off for more private questioning.

GM: That was the most Keystone Kops fight I've ever gamesmastered, and I used to GM Toon.
Hero Shrew OoC: Was that you or a Dysprosium Dawn ganger that said that - because it sounds like it could be either.

The two gangers aren't full members of Dysprosium Dawn.

Hero Shrew: Lab assistants.

The Dysprosium Dawn gangers don't know why the Voodoo Crew are trying to teach them a lesson. Common knowledge about the Voodoo Crew - they're the biggest gang in Edge City, the businesses under their 'protection' pay tribute at any cost, they were once found stockpiling human corpses, and their leader is the deeply scary Papa Friday, who claims to be a bokor, and may actually be one. Fireflash has a plan - we harass the Voodoo Crew drug dealers, confiscating and destroying every gramme of drugs they're carrying.

Fireflash: After all, who are they going to complain to?
Hero Shrew: So, your plan is to piss off the voodoo sorcerer...
Fireflash: Yup.
Hero Shrew: Do you actually like your mother?

Hero Shrew has a public ID too - Retaliation by the Voodoo Crew is likely to be very very unpleasant.

Hardlight: Drug dealing must be pretty lucrative.
Fireflash: It's probably the biggest business in the world.
GM: We're talking about a business that makes disposable submarines, and shrugs off losing 13 in a month, and just keeps making them. One of those subs was carrying 7 tonnes of coke. Once again, gaming at this table has taught you things you never wanted to know.

GM: Drug addicts, by definition, tend to be repeat customers.

Hero Shrew OoC: If I recall correctly, the plan was 'Get killed trying to take down Papa Friday'
GM: To be fair, that wasn't the actual plan.
Hero Shrew OoC: But it IS the destination.

Hero Shrew OoC: So, who's running for President, in-universe?
GM: I cannot make the U.S Presidential campaign more comic-book than the real one actually is, and you may quote me on that. It's actually pretty depressing.

Flux: So.... We're relying on Scooter's streetwise?
Hero Shrew: Hooray, I'm relevant again!

The economics of drug dealing means that harassing the Voodoo Crew's minor members will rapidly cut into the gang's financial margins. And make a lot of people very angry, but hey, that was going to happen anyway. Papa Friday has real mojo, to the point that many San Fransisco mystics won't even come to Edge City. His lieutenants include Mr. Gato - Mister Cake, in charge of drugs and actual cakes, Mr. Zanmi - Mr. Friend (in change of the protection rackets), Le Dokté - The Doctor (in charge of prostitution), and Madam Nwa Dantél in charge of special operations.

Hero Shrew: Mademoiselle?
GM: Madam. She is very clear about that. She has views.

Hardlight: Mr Cake's icing sugar must really be something.
GM: No, actually.
Flux: Ah - only*actual* ingredients go into his cakes.
GM: Yep. He runs a bakery in Little Haiti - specializes in little Creole dainties.

Of course the question arises is why the Voodoo Crew aren't going after the Boosters Gang, when they're so busy terrorizing the lesser threat of the Boosters' allies in Dysprosium Dawn. The Voodoo Crew*have* been known to forestall gang warfare by pre-emptively stomping whoever is getting uppity. They like the status quo. They will not like us. We split up.

Flux: F**k, we're got somebody with a Code vs. Killing on both teams. Well, drug labs are highly flammable.
Fireflash: But we're not going after the labs.
Hero Shrew: We're going After Jesse, not Heisenberg.
GM: Can you imagine how scary Walter would be in a superhero-milieu?

Hardlight: OK boy, find me a kilo of heroin.
Hero Shrew: Boy? I get the feeling I should take offense at that.
GM: You should keep a shoe handy, for whenever you need to insert one in your mouth.

GM: Not all Moreaus have tracking senses - Hero Shrew only has Acute Senses.
Flux: Actually he smells pretty bad.
GM: 'Oh, you're not that type of Moreau' ' We come in types now do we?'

Hardlight promptly forgets what the plan was, and starts shaking down a dealer.

Flux: Now shake vigorously until information falls out.

The dealer - and all the other members of the Voodoo Crew - have been warned that Hardlight is bad juju, and not to speak to the superteam under any circumstances. Hardlight seizes the drugs.

Hardlight: I'm taking these for the good of the city.
Dealer: Really? Hey, everybody, come watch a shakedown!
Hardlight:*vaporises the stash* I feel I have done good for the city today.
GM: Yes, you've just destroyed a few hundred dollars worth of Loa Dust and Weed. Well done. Now let's go check in on Flux and Fireflash, and actual competence.

GM: Once again, Hero Shrew, the only actual investigator in the party, is hamstrung by having to work with Hardlight.
Hero Shrew OoC: And they say I have a short term memory problem.
GM: Hardlight just has a very fixed idea about how heroes are supposed to behave.

Fireflash and Flux actually watch who is supplying the stringers, and THEN destroy all the drugs and drug money.

Fireflash: We can't destroy their phones, they're guaranteed those by the city. You can f**k them though.
Flux: ... Oh, you mean f**k their phones! Yes, I can do that.

GM: That's the problem - you've got Captain Obvious teamed up with Captain Oblivious.
Hero Shrew: Actually, it works pretty well - Hardlight and I blunder through drawing all the attention while the dealers just pass off their stashes behind their backs. Meanwhile, YOU two are watching from the rooftops making notes on everybody to pick up later.

GM: Just think of that scene from The Sixth Sense, but replace Dead with Stupid. "I see stupid people. They walk around just like everyone else, but they don't know they're stupid".

Typically for the table, the conversation then wanders off through Oreos complete failure in Australia, Vegemite, MREs, and excellent breeds of apple.

Hero Shrew: Is prostitution illegal in California?
Fireflash: Yes.
Hero Shrew: Oh. Well, I'd rather not go after the Voodoo Crew's prostitution interests, because I can predict what will happen next.
GM: Yes. The Collar Club will be getting a visit.
Hero Shrew: And then I'd be having a very awkward conversation with Colin the Collie.

Fireflash: Well, we're doing some good for Edge City anyway.
Hero Shrew: Yeah, we're raising the price of hard drugs in Edge City. Well done us.

Current fad drugs in Edge City include Pogo - an inhalant super-stimulant that's very popular with the college crowd and lethal to anybody with a heart condition - and Jackhammer - which appears to be a combat drug somebody is selling recreationally.

Hero Shrew: 'I WILL CLEAN THE ENTIRE HOUSE'

The after-effects, an hour later, are even worse than the ones for Pogo. The cocktail includes heroin AND cocaine.

Flux: And this is what we're vaporizing in the middle of the street.

Fireflash: 'I miss having an erection'
GM: 'Really? I miss NOT having an erection.'
Fireflash: Ouch.

Eventually Madam Nwa Dantél suggests a meeting - on the condition Hardlight doesn't come within a hundred meters of the Fern Gardens. For some reason the Voodoo Crew really, really don't like our erstwhile employer. The Fern Gardens in Lake Park are midway between Corporate Circle and the University.

Hero Shrew: i.e. One of the worst possible places in the city for a super fight.
Hardlight: I'll keep Hero Shrew with me. I need a bodyguard, even in my civilian guise.
Hero Shrew: Is there an observation deck with those pay-telescopes some up in Corporate Circle?
Hardlight: Screw that, there's a revolving restaurant.
Hero Shrew: But we need to see what's happening down in the park, in case they need us to jump down there.
Flux: And jumping out the window of a revolving restaurant will cause comment.

Madam Nwa Dantél wants to know why we're targeting the Voodoo Crew - she's apparently a little insulted that we're harassing the Crew, when the attacks on Dysprosium Dawn are all in retaliation for some slight the mad scientist leadership caused the Crew. The mad scientists are all in hiding, and just as well, since the Voodoo Crew are prepared to put up with our harassment until they've finished punishing Dysprosium Dawn. Whatever the mad scientists stole from the Crew was indirectly responsible for that entire Boosters vs. Juicers trouble, and has really, really pissed off the ju-ju leadership.

Madam Dantél: The price of research to replace what they have stolen would be measured in lives - lives already paid on their side by previous generations.

Fireflash: Thank you for your time.
Madam Dantél: In future, if you want our attention, simply let one of our soldiers know. Mr. Gato, he is not happy.
Flux: It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.*flies off*
Madam Dantél: How rude.

There's a possible DD hideout in Chinatown.

Flux: F**k. You're going to be a problem.
Hero Shrew: Yes, yes I am. That's because I'm me.

Hero Shrew: I've never been there myself. I don't want to end up as somebody's dinner.
Fireflash: How could you? They couldn't get through your hide!
Hero Shrew: Hey, I've seen those ads for Ginsu Knives - I'm not taking any chances.

Hardlight slaps a hard-light disguise over the shrew, and we stick our noses in the retro-tech coffee shop.

Hero Shrew puzzles over the slide rules nailed the wall. The rest are more alarmed by the metal face of one of the historical steampunk automata hanging over the bar, since they're seen in the records at the ancient base.

Ancient Oriental: You don't need that here.
Hardlight: Excuse me?
Ancient Oriental: Everyone here already knows who that is, since he is here with the three of you. Go ahead, drop his disguise - we don't lose customers because of Moreaus.
Hardlight: Oh.*drops the holofield*
Dysprosium Dawn soldiers having coffee: Huh. That's interesting.*go back to their coffee*

Fireflash heads over to talk to the soldiers.

DD Soldiers:*groans*
Fireflash: Hey, be cool, guys.
DD soldiers: What do you want? You already took the Arena.
Fireflash: Hey, we only wanted the metal - and then that robot attacked us.
DD soldiers: We were IN that robot. It was not fun.
Flux: Well, it was a hard fight. You nearly hit us, once or twice.
DD soldiers: Hey, if we'd got fully charged up things would have been different.
Flux: Proper Preparation Prevents Piss-poor Performance.

Fireflash runs through plan A, and B, which are asking nicely for info, and then threatening them for the info.

DD soldiers: Yeah, but the Voodoo Crew have already moved on to plan K, where they start killing us.
Fireflash: Yeah, and that's when we get to Plan C, where we destroy all your gear.
DD soldiers: Hey, no reason to get personal!

The soldiers have a problem - they haven't been able to get in contact with the Dysprosium Dawn leadership, by ANY of the usual methods. True, they get buried in their work sometimes, but when the Boosters aren't answering their calls either... The brain-frying precautions the mad scientists installed in their underlings don't help either.

DD soldiers: You don't get it, we don't talk to you if we want to be able to rub two neurons together.

DD soldiers: You guys are the city's superteam? We're boned.
Hero Shrew:*picking his ear* Huh?
DD soldiers: We should retire and let you guys become Dysfunctional Dawn.

One of the DD members throws Flux a pair of Mad Scientist googles as a gesture of respect.

Mad Scientist: Stop embarrassing yourself.
Flux: ... Ok? Won't explode, right?
Mad Scientist: We had a passive Dysprosium sensor set up when you set off that Active Ping of yours.
Flux: ... Oh. Law of unintended consequences strikes again.

We head off to talk to Edge City's premiere info broker, who indeed can pass on a message to the mad Nobel prize winners. She confirms that the Voodoo Crew and the Dysprosium Dawn were involved in a joint research program.

Info broker: The prototype is in safe hands. So is the duplicate. And the notes on replication. The leadership of the Dysprosium Dawn are of the opinion that they would be hard-pressed to replicate their success, but Papa Friday would have no restrictions on replicating the item in question.
GM: And that sacrificing their entire gang is worth preventing Papa Friday getting whatever technomagery the Macguffin actually is.

Happily, we have an expert on technomagery and tracking spells in the party. Alarmingly, there are already multiple emanations of magic and tech in sync all across Edge City, popping up and disappearing.

GM: You were looking for a needle in a haystack, and found a seamstress.

One of the interactions of magic and technology is Hardlight.

Hardlight: What?
Peanut Gallery: You're a wizard, Harry.
GM: That crystal that powers you is probably magic.
Hardlight: I thought it was aliens!

There's also a large one in Lake Effinger, where one supervillain plot removed a large chunk of real estate and ruined Edge City's economic future.

GM: Probably an Atlantean down there. Better not poke it.
Flux: Welcome to Edge City, enjoy your stay.

GM: And there's a large signal of necromantic and technology in the Laguna Complex - that's probably your target.
Flux: Oh goody.

The Laguna Complex is a high-end mall with sales of minor cybernetics and same-day cosmetic surgery.

GM: Been snorting Pogo all week? They can clean you up!
Hero Shrew: High Colonic cleanses all round.
Flux: And this is why I don't go shopping for anything but food.

The Laguna Complex is built in a suburb where the customers don't have to look at anything disreputable, like the poor, or the less socially acceptable species of Moreau. Guess where Hero Shrew lies on the Venn Diagram. Hardlight disguises him as Ted, the famous former denizen of the Zoo.

Hero Shrew: NOT. F***ING. COOL.
Hardlight: What???
Hero Shrew: I knew this guy!
Hardlight: Oops.
GM: Ted was a drug addict, so he wouldstop remembering ever experiment that was done to him.
Hardlight: Wow - I just foot-in-mouthed Hero Shrew.
GM: Yup - foot-in-mouthed so hard he actually noticed.

He tries a Lasagna Cat disguise next.

Hero Shrew: I hate Mondays. And you.
Flux: 'Mostly you'.

GM: It's nearly 11, we'll call it here.
Hero Shrew OoC: It's going to be zombies, isn't it.
GM: Well, I COULD have called it Rhodes Plaza. Guess what the spin-off technology the Dysprosium Dawn came up with was.
Hero Shrew OoC: .... The Juice the cybergangs were using? Oh god... Fast Zombies.  

Star Wars: Scum and Villainy
 
Since the D&D game collapsed from lack of players, we found a new one and are playing Star Wars. Star Wars was probably the first RPG I got to play in. I played a thermal detonator Sales-gibbon, who lasted less than a session. But then I was gaming with Team Demolition. After what they did to the poor gibbon, and several subsequent characters, it's amazing I kept roleplaying at all. Still, in memory of that long deceased character, I'm playing the next best thing, another highly sociable, tech-orientated, arboreal species. It's not an Ewok.

Aramis: How do you even get Ewoks off Endor?
Paul: That's easy - trébuchet.

Aramis: I'm the plausible deniability guy.
GM: Good name for a ship, too.

The F Troop - a bunch of ne'er-do-wells out to make a dishonest buck, in the era after the first Peace Moon was blown up by terrorists.

Aramis: Are we playing in the actual continuity, or the Darth and Droids version?
Drhoz: The version where an interstellar dictatorship controls all the media, and can call it a Peace Moon if they want to.
Aramis: Point taken.

The characters
 

Forvuk Zahj - Dressellian brute
Fakybe - Chandra-fan smuggler and diplomancer
Fendri Nekut - Bothan pilot
Fendri: Do we get a scrolling text intro?

GM: If you can't afford the A Team or an X-wing, there's always F Troop.

Fakybe: I get most of my Imperial war tech from that stormtrooper BLK-0.

GM: Old Ben Kenobi described Mos Eisley as a wretched hive, but that's because he never went to Formos.

The F Troop and their ship have been hired to transport a Wookiee and a medical droid from some place called Tatooine to Formos. Formos is a haven for smugglers, but there are disquieting rumours that this will change. But for the time being BOSS is still in change, and the live music is great.

GM: You didn't see any Star Destroyers or Tie Fighters on the way in. There is a small Imperial presence on the surface though.
Forvuk: And that is a moon?
GM: ... Yes.
Forvuk: It pays to check, these days.

We head to the Formos cantina to hand off the passengers, and make note of all the smuggling shenanigans, screeching aliens, and heavily burdened water carriers advertising The Cheapest Water On Formos.

Fakybe: I'll go talk to the old lady selling water.
GM: She'll be happy to talk to you.
Fakybe: Of course she will, she's an old lady, she'll talk my ears off.
Forvuk: Do you have Disengage?

Old Woman: What brings you to Formos?
Fakybe: Tourism.
Old Woman: ... Oh?
Fakybe: Yes, those tourists we're transporting wanted the scenic route.

The old lady is a survivor of Alderaan, which interests Forvuk since his family got wiped out in the atrocity at Dralk. Fakybe is sure they'll have a lot to talk about.

Forvuk gets pickpocketed by a street urchin, who legs it with a stimpak.

Fakybe: Just shoot his leg off, he's got two.

Instead Forvuk assumes the theft is to distract us from an attack on our passengers.

Fakybe: Ah well, at least you didn't just shoot the kid in the back of the head. I'll add the cost of the stimpack to whatever we bill the 'tourists'.

The wookiee and the droid pick themselves back off the ground. Forvuk notices somebody has been following us.

GM: Do you know what a Rodian is?
Forvuk: Short, green, snout, taste like chicken.



Everybody in the street turns to look at the Rodian when we point him out. The Rodian gets very nervous. He claims to be a businessman, so we steer into the Cantina by both shoulders.

Fakybe: To talk business. Since you're so fond of business and everything.

And then we come across a half-dead diplomacy droid, one J9B8 whose astromech friend R4-W9 was kidnapped by slavers as they were going to meet a bountyhunter in the cantina.

Fakybe: Popular place, this bar.

GM: The musician is playing a cluhorn, and ... Sigh ... smooth Freeform Jatz.
Forvuk: And does it drive us crackers?
Fakybe: At least it's better that Freeform Jizz.

There are also Dead or Alive posters from the local prison.

Fakybe: Is this the only bar on Formos?
GM: Yes.

We're approached by the cantina's owner, or at least somebody circulating from table to tab;le like he owns the place.



Devaronian: Greetings, Adventurers - I am Snoo.
Fakybe: Hi there - what's Snoo with you?
Devaronian: I have lots of snews - about your passengers, for example.*wriggles his horns*
Forvuk: That's nice - but we have a contract to complete first.
Devaronian: I'm your contact, moron.
Forvuk: Oh, good.*hoists up the Rodian* Is this yours?

The Dead Or Alive poster that everybody is ignoring is for a scary space pirate wanted both by the Empire and the Hutts. Snoo has no idea who the droids were going to meet, unless they were bringing info about the pirate to a bountyhunter.

Snoo: There was a Rodian bountyhunter in here.
All: Oh really?*all turn to our new friend, pushed into the back of the booth*
Rodian:*sinks into his chair*
Medical Droid: Calm down, young Rodian, he is not going to kill you, or feed you to the Wookiee. That is just a vile rumour.
Fakybe: Drinks all round - the Rodian is paying.
Rodian:*sad meep*

Why should we rescue the kidnapped astromech, even though the medical droid insists we get involved?

Fakybe: It's a free astromech for the freighter if we do.
Forvuk: Point.
Fakybe: Through the bits of that diplomacy droid into a bag - I'll see if I can fit him back together.
Medical Droid:*electronic wince*

After we get him sufficiently liquored up the Rodian admits he's the pilot for a smuggling ring that were looking into making contact with us.

Forvuk: So do we treat him as a hostile?
Fakybe: Nah, he's a potential contact. Who is terrible at making contact.

The Rodian is distracted by the arrival of a very attractive and well-dressed Rodian female.

Fendri: Rodian females are hot because they're the only ones with hair.
Forvuk: What do Rodians think about Wookiees?

The Rodian woman is soon followed by three very obvious smugglers.

Fakybe: Well, they're obvious smugglers - which means they can't be very good smugglers.
Rodian:*slurred* You know... You know, I think those guys are the ones I was supposed to be following.
GM: He's obviously going to try and hit on the Rodian Princess. Although why a human would want to baffles me.
Fakybe: It's the snout.
GM: And there's also the question on why a well-dressed Rodian would even come in here.
Fakybe: ... For fucks sake - it's the bountyhunter.

Fakybe: Do you want to intervene?
Forvuk: What about our Rodian pilot friend?
Fakybe: I really don't think he's going anywhere.
Forvuk: Good point.*props him back upright*

The Dresallian, the Bothan, and the Wookiee walk into a bar - the two PCs and NPC moving into position to intervene on the bountyhunter's behalf.

Medical Droid: Oh dear, are we going to need my services soon? I've made a study of my associate's body language, and he always behaves like this shortly before violence breaks out.
Fakybe: Yes, I think that blood- or ichor-of-choice-shed is imminent.
Medical Droid: Perhaps we should take cover.

Fendri: Is there a problem?
Scary Smuggler: Step away, boy. You don't want to get involved with us.
Fendri: You need to learn to respect women.
Fakybe OoC: 'milady'

Fakybe, watching the situation escalate from the upstairs booth, flings a bottle at the smuggler's bodyguard.

Medical Droid: Have you stopped taking your anti-psychotics?
Fakybe: No, but now is the time to hide under the table.*pushes the Rodian to slide slowly sideways* Besides, it's the classic way to start a barfight.
Forvuk: Especially by characters with no combat skills.

The smuggler's bodyguard realizes that actually starting a fight would be a bad idea, since he brought a vibro-axe to a fight that will include a Wookiee Vibro-axe, a Dresallian heavy blaster, and whatever else the idiot on the mezzanine can throw. Backing down will look bad, but not as bad as actually losing.

Thug: Let's go get pizza boss - we can deal with this ... later.

The Rodian woman claims to be a researcher for what is effectively The Bountyhunter's Guide To Galaxy. She does know of a reckless Rodian bountyhunter missing in the area though.

Fakybe: Anyway, this is our pilot Fendri, our engineering aide Forvuk, and we haven't known the Wookiee or the droid for long. They're tourists, we've been showing them the scenic parts of the Kessel Run.
Rodian Researcher: Scenic??
Fakybe: You have to admit, in many ways it's unforgettable.

We all move to head back to our ship and read that diplomacy droid's memory chips, when we are forced to follow somebody that was apparently spying on us and is now leaving to report. He spots Fakybe and Fendri following him, turns and gets angry, we get angry too claiming total innocence, and in the ensuing confusion the spy spots Forvuk taking up a sniping position and flies for cover. Forvuk shoots.

Fakybe: He's been shot! Somebody call a medic!*elbows the medical droid* That was your cue.
Forvuk:*hands his huge slug thrower to the drunk Rodian*
Medical Droid: You shot him.
Forvuk: No I didn't, the Rodian did.
Fakybe: The one who is too small to even fire it? Well, it'll be a good defence if they catch him.

We get everybody back to the ship, and pin the flying alien out on the dartboard. He still tries to negotiate.

Fakybe: Well, I have to appreciate him for that, anyway.

Spy: You shot me, you're obviously Imperial terrorists.
Fakybe: Hey, do we look like the kind of people who go around yelling 'Democracy is Great!' and blow up Peace Moons?
Wookiee and Medical Droid:*exchange glance*

Spy: Why didn't you use a stun rifle like civilised people?
Forvuk: The slug thrower makes the situation clear.
Fakybe: It's not the most versatile of tools - I have talked to you about that before.
Forvuk: It makes things clear.
Spy: It's direct, I'll give you that.

Forvuk: You know anything about the massacre at Drelk?
Spy: I heard it was hilarious.
Fakybe: Aaaaaand steering Forvuk out of the room. Right now.

We agree to release the spy if he helps us get a job introduction with the local space pirates. Who probably include those smugglers at the cantina. But where is good neutral ground?

Fakybe: That's obvious. Right in front of the local Imperial base.
GM: Congratulations - you have broken the module.

Fakybe: And somewhere the Rodian pilot's friends are still waiting for him to come back. 'Why did we send our pilot?' 'I dunno, we're stupid' 

The start to the Northlands campaign (basically, all characters are young members of the Viking Jarl's household, starting out eager to prove their worth). We are summoned before the Jarl, and assigned the task of watching over his three young daughters as they go out this early Spring day to pick wildflowers for the festival. The daughters range in age from about 9 or 10 to 16. There is an almost apologetic "I know this isn't exactly the assignment a young, eager Viking is hoping for, but there's no one to bash and pillage at the moment" aspect to the speech.
 
When we note that our four PC's consist of a young Elven druid (who's pretty OK with going out to pick wildflowers), a 17 year old warrior (who's OK with it since nothing better's out there) and two...sixteen year old twin sisters, one of whom is likely hard to distinguish from the Jarl's daughters.
 
Now, on the way out, we meet a band of hardy warriors headed back from a (failed) assignment to find a couple of criminals (clearly very nuanced foreshadowing of the foes we will face later in the scenario). One of whom chooses to be insulting, and mock the PC's with their "job of shepherding young girls". 16 YO female PC responds, loudly as they depart, "Of course [Warrior's Name] would think little of such a task. EVERYONE knows he doesn't like girls."

Star Wars game, referring to our captain:
"She's sticking with her core competencies: hurting people and breaking things.'
"Don't forget threatening to hurt people and break things."
"What about her piloting?"
"That would also fall under threatening to hurt people and break things..."

Pathfinder : Craptastic
(Small note - Harshal's Harrow card should actually be the Twin, which makes much more sense than the Bear.)

In this episode, the party learn more than they ever wanted to know about Magnimar's sewerage disposal systems, rescue a bunch of kobold slaves who go on to invent communism, and enable graverobbing from Fantasy-Native-Americans (awkward!!!!).

GM: I give a Hero Point to the Chronicler, and whoever keeps track of the party treasure.
Harshal: Which is currently two hundred pounds of garlic.

In fact, the garlic is more valuable than the job we were originally hired for - substantially more so.

GM: Which explains why there was always a guy out the back of the spice merchant's shop. You can guarantee he'll be investing in a better lock.

GM: And that set of printers dies was only the basics.
Harshal player: Didn't even include the cliches.
Gillert: Ha.
Harshal's player: I'm serious - it's where the word cliche came from. Preset blocks of frequently used words and phrases, 'clicked' into place.
Gillert's player: I love gaming at this table - you always learn something. History, criminology...
Zin's player: Entomology.
GM: AND etymology.

Erstwhile noble Tannis Orbereck has been hearing stories about the Silent Circle turning up around Magnimar - deeply creepy individuals with suspicious synchronisation and blank silver masks. Typically for the Circle, nobody knows what they're doing in Magnimar, or why they're here. Also, the Nightscales - the Magnimar thieves guild - are pissed off that somebody bypassed their smuggling operation.

GM: They've been asking questions, but haven't got very far.
Harshal: *looks innocent* I hope they make an example of somebody.

And one of the Gargoyles - a brutal Underbridge gang - got mauled in an alleyway. Despite his bodyguard being just outside the alley. In hopefully unrelated news, Tannis gets an invitation from his cousin Emalliandra Orbereck, inviting him - and Harshal! - around for tea.

GM: Knowing your cousin, you might want to take your own chair.

She is very diligent into her research into Azlanti heritage and artefacts, so you'd think she'd be quite respected in the Orbereck clan. But she doesn't actually like her family much, and keeps to herself in her bookshelf-choked rooms in the Docklands. Harshal shares her interest in Azlanti and Thassalonian artefacts, which may explain why he's been asked to attend. Tannis shows up deliberately late.

Tannis: My family may deserve respect, but they are not masters of me.

Emalliandra: Who is it?
Tannis: Your cousin.
Emalliandra: Is it teatime already?
Harshal: *sigh* I anticipated this - I brought a hamper.

Emalliandra: Look at you, cousin! You've been busy!
Harshal: 'And look, you've actually grown a beard!'

The rooms are even worse than rumours suggested, with books piled up high against every wall.

Tannis: You know, dear cousin, if you were actually willing to pay you could find a better apartment.
Emalliandra: Oh, I couldn't do that - it's too entertaining listening to the landlady entertaining her visitors.
Harshal: *chokes on his tea*

There is actually a small table and four chairs.

Emalliandra: I've been making friends. And I friends tell me you and your friend Harshal have been naughty boys.
Harshal: *tenses up*
Tannis: I'm pretty sure that's not true.
Emalliandra: I'm pretty sure it is - that much lead coming into the city will be noticed.
Tannis: We didn't do anything illegal.
Harshal: *internal facepalm*
Emalliandra: Did you pay import duties?
Tannis: Oh, you mean illegal under Guild Law.
Emalliandra: Now, I've nothing against a little smuggling now and then, but the Nightscales have been making enquires and they're getting close. Your friend Harshal here - good day to you by the way.
Harshal: *bows and kisses her proffered hand* Ma'am.
Emalliandra: As I was saying, your friend here is a known associate of our Mr. Crispin, so it won't take them long to make the connection.

However, the Nightscales can be distracted. They've been digging a tunnel - not under the Irespan, since they're not insane - and if this smuggling operation gets disrupted, the current master of the thieves guild will lose a huge amount of face, and hopefully lose interest in pursuing minor smuggling issues.

Tannis: And how does this benefit you?
Emalliandra: Who knows how many priceless Thassalonian artefacts they're smashing as they dig? This is an area that needs finesse and careful excavation, not...
Harshal: Hamfisted pick-axing in the dead of night.
Emalliandra: Exactly. But you will be doing me a favour, and favours must be repaid. I offer you and your associates silver - so much less suspicious than gold, don't you think? - and an assortment of potions. I can reward you appropriately. *glances at the alchemical and appraising set-up in one corner*

Tannis: Well, thank you, cousin. Family must stick together.
Emalliandra: Especially those more 'interesting' family members.

Half an hour of small talk over tea and cakes ensues, as Harshal considers the matter.

Harshal: I'll need a reliable team - or at the very least warn them they may have to get out of town in a hurry.

One complication - nobody seems to know who is doing the actual digging for the guild. And of course getting involved in Nightscales affairs right now is possibly the worst thing we could do.

Zin: So... Your solution to our pissing off the thieve's guild is to piss them off even more?

Emalliandra's contributions include potions of Cure Light Wounds, and one of Concealment from Animals.

GM: The effect ends if you actually touch an animal, so it's not much use in the sewers, because you'll keep stepping on rats.

Tannis: This operation might be rewarding for us.
Harshal: Her Ladyship is in a position to express her gratitude appropriately.

Gillert: I bought an umbrella.
GM: Some people in Underbridge never see rain. Or daylight.

Harshal: Do we need to put a false tail on Zin?

Zin: I'm a Kobold who disguised as a Halfling trying to disguise himself as a gnome.

We gather rumours.

Dockworker: Damnedest thing - bunch of Nightscales come in to pick up a shipment. That's not the weird thing - it was all moon-radishes! And mushrooms.
Harshal: Moon-radishes. Hmm.
Tannis: Gee, I wonder what races eat moon-radishes and mushrooms.
Harshal OoC: *nudges Zin* Hint, hint.
Tannis: Oh look, the Halfling seems to know something.
GM: 'Hey, I remember moon-radishes! *drools*'

Tannis: They must have wanted miners that aren't very bright.
GM: That explains why they're using kobolds.
Harshal: 'Gee, I wonder what burrowing race we can pay in radishes'

Insulting Zin's heritage is quite easy, even if most of us don't actually know he's a Kobold yet - maybe we can stir up the kobolds against the Nightscales just as easily.

Zin: And then we'll have freed Kobold slaves running around under Magnimar.
Ys: Not our problem.
Harshal: Unless they burrow into the Irespan, and then it IS our problem.
Ys: Nope. Then it's the city guard's problem
GM: Nah - The kobolds would run into the sewer goblins first. Rats aren't the only pests under Magnimar.

We track the excavations down by backtracking along the complicated chain of gangs, mafia, and nightsoil carts the Nightscales are using to conceal their activities. Fortunately, the team is very very good at not being noticed.

Harshal OoC: Stealth Synergy - the entire party sneaks down the street disguised as a wall.
NPC: 'This corridor seems a lot shorter than it used to be'

Harshal notes that the Shoanti gangers the Nightscales are using are all from the Skoan-quah or Skull Clan, who when they're out on the steppes protect the Shoanti burial grounds, and so on.

The richest districts of Magnimar are all up on the ramp leading to the stumps of the Irespan, overlooking Underbridge and the port.

Harshal: Makes for easy sewerage disposal too. *reach out, pour*
GM: Actually, when they were founding Magnimar they got a master engineer in to design the sewer system.
Zin OoC: So Magnimar is one of the few medieval cities with indoor plumbing.
GM: One problem is that nobody has a complete map of the sewers. Which is why they have all those cultists down there. Turned out later the engineer was a Norgorber cultist. He put in a lot of extra tunnels and dead-ends.

One puzzle is why material from the excavation is going in multiple directions.

Gillert: Maybe they're finding valuables as they excavate.
Harshal: Thassalonian artefacts? Well, they're not gong-farming, anyway.
Gillert: Gong-farming?
Harshal: Collecting old nightsoil for gunpowder production. Fine old profession.

The Nightscales have been very clever - the building they're using as a front is also the main collection point for uptown's privy buckets. Hiding the excavated soil and stonework is easy, given all the nightsoil carts that come through the yard here. The carts head out of town to deliver the valuable fertiliser to surrounding farms, and nobody finds out about the digging operation, which is just as well for the Nightscales since everybody remembers what happened the last time somebody delved too far and dug too deep.

Tannis: So, how are we getting in?
GM: There's one entrance that's unguarded. The slide all the nightsoil comes down.
Harshal: Ah. And if we ever need to blackmail Tannis in future, when he's become an actual noble, we can remind him about the day he slid down the shitslide.
Tannis: I'm not going down the shitslide.
Harshal: Oh?
Tannis: No. Ys is.

Given the number of people watching the building - 'sleeping' beggars, suspiciously inefficient street sweepers, and the fairy dozing on the lintel, it's just as well we're a party of sneaking sneakers.

Ys discovers somebody waiting near the bottom of the slide, flicking through a loose-bound pornographic blockprint by the light of a candle-clock.

Harshal: Ah, technology.

The unfortunate porn aficionado is promptly murdered by Ys and Zin.

Harshal: I don't think he needed to DIE for his taste in erotica. Publicly flogged, perhaps.

Harshal narrowly avoids an unfortunate accident getting into the building.

GM: Nearly went face first into an ogre's dingleberry.

The dead guy get dumped down the slide into the waiting nightsoil cart, with the hope enough nightsoil comes down to cover him up before anyone checks.

Harshal: Do we need to make our own contributions?

At least we've found the tunnel entrance. And the tunnels is much more complicated than we expected, wide enough for carts, with sound-baffling turns, workers camps for the Kobold slaves, and scorched mud-and-shit ceilings.

Harshal: Let me guess - they're burning dried shit as fuel? They've got plenty of it.
GM: Nope - they've got a use for that. *points to ceiling*

This explains a rumour about a 'black market' we heard, too - it's certainly going to be big enough for a market. There's a number of Nightscales guards about the place too - some with scourges to use on the brutalised kobolds.

Nightscale: Break! Taskmaster! On high!
High Taskmaster: This one! No buckets spilled, no matter how I tried to trip him. Quick on his feet. I like that. *throws the Kobold a radish*
Nightscale: On low!
Low Taskmaster: This one! Three buckets dropped - a new record. You know the price - you make up the difference. The rest of you get to eat!

At least one of the ten overseers is a Mage. Sneak attacks and stirring up the kobolds seem like the best plan. Tannis doesn't actually know that Zin is really a well-disguised Kobold.

Tannis: Can the Halfling speak Draconic?
GM as Zin: *mutters* Speak it better than you do, smooth-skin

Zin: *sneaks in and whispers* Clanmates! Help is on the way!
Kobolds: *stare at the Kobold-disguised-as-Halfling-disguised-as-gnome* Uhh.... You want us to do anything? We wouldn't mind getting a few hits in.
Zin: Just wait for the signal.
Harshal: The signal will be screaming.

Sneaking into position. Ys is already within arms-length of a taskmaster. Gillert is going to colour-spray the others, and Tannis, Zin and Harshal are going to turn the Mage into a kebab.

Ys: *Whispered prayer* Norgorber hear my prayer - this blood for you.

Tannis: I ready my Vorpal Cudgel.
Harshal: *raises eyebrow* Is that what you call it?

The surprise attack works brilliantly - right up until the mage's familiar, a raven that was resting under the table, flies off cawing in panic. Crap. Ys manages to wing it with a thrown dagger.

Zin: *in Draconic, to the kobolds* Clanmates! Attack!
Tannis: *who also speaks Draconic* ... Wait, what?

Tannis is pulling hidden daggers out of every orifice, Harshal is doing pinhole surgery on people's spleens with his rapier, Zin is pinning people to the wall with his crossbow, and Ys is being sneaky death on two legs. The kobolds turn the raven into nuggets. Then the survivors get their retaliation in. Harshal goes down with a club to the solar plexus. Gillert tries to Acid Splash them and takes mental damage as the spell backfires.

Tannis: Next time don't visualise the spell effect inside your own head.
Harshal OoC: It's 'Acid', not LSD.

Tannis: Lower your weapon or die like your friends!
Thug: *looks intimidated, drops his club, and is torn apart by a mob of Kobold slaves*
Ys: You were right - he didn't die like his friends. He got killed by kobolds.

What to do now? Could we use the tunnel for our own purposes? Inform the authorities about unlicensed archeology? Or collapse the chamber? We now discover that the brutalised Kobold slaves are all bearing the brand of the same Chellaxian trader that owned Zin. So we can leave by the other end of the tunnel, hand the kobolds over to the guards as slaves illegally imported into Magnimar, and let the powers-that-be treat them as a public relations opportunity. Or there's a half-elf alchemist in the Docklands named Iria that's known to take on unusual cases.

GM: She's the kind of alchemist that has stuffed specimens and organs on the shelves.
Harshal: Let's hope that's a crocodile hanging from her ceiling and not a Kobold.

Kobolds: You're taking us all? Even the weak????
All: ....
Tannis: ... Yesssss?

The kobolds start talking animatedly among themselves, invent communism, and start sharing out the moon-radishes equitably.

Harshal OoC: Have those kobolds just invented communism? I sure that will end well.

Some of the loot includes fragments of Thassalonian inscriptions - quite valuable to collectors. And the Mage was reading an elven family's magical workbook, despite not being an elf.

Harshal: Gee, I wonder where he got that - oh wait, the Nightscales are all thieves.

Gillert recognises the Mage from his apprenticeship.

GM: He was the master's favourite. He was the studious one.
Gillert: I became a rogue, he became a douche.

Tannis: We need to collapse this chamber. Hey Gillert, I've heard wizards can cast Acid Splash. I don't know if you can.
Gillert: .... Arsehole.

Iria is very excited.

Iria: Do you realise how little opportunity I've had to study scalykind!
Zin: Please! You have to help them! *whips off his disguise, revealing his species to the rest of the party*
Harshal: Huh. Well then.
Iria: Can I speak to you later about optioning your body after you die?
Gillert: She's one of those people with no filter between brain and mouth, isn't she?
Tannis: You're not dissecting any of them.
Harshal: Or vivisecting.
GM: How did you guess her archetype?

Zin: I'm going to stay with the kobolds overnight.
Harshal: Is that what you call it?
Tannis: ?
Harshal: Kobolds ARE the notorious hornbags of scalykind.
Zin: Well, yes, but then Iria would want to watch.

Emalliandra: Cousin! My friends tell me the thieves guild were busy last night. Apparently the bodies were piling up.
Harshal: I'm surprised they could dig the bodies out that quickly.
GM: No no no - what she's referencing is what happens when there's a leadership spill in a thieves guild. The bodies start piling up.

She's also very interested in the inscriptions, and suspects that's how the Skull Clan got involved. Since the Shoanti are the descendants of the Thassolonian slave-warrior caste, adding such inscriptions and fragments to a Shoanti gravesite adds honour to the late inhabitants. She happily mentions that there are always Shoanti who can be paid to take them away again, and starts making plans to do so. This makes Harshal - Shoanti himself - very uncomfortable, but he doesn't say anything. Either way, she adds extra magical items into our payment, on top of paying for the inscriptions. One of the items is a elf's hand on a chain.

Gillert: ... Well, as long as it wasn't made recently.
GM: It was.
Gillert: ...
Tannis: My family are not nice people.
Gillert: Isn't there a spell that lets elves regrow lost limbs?
Tannis: There's a business idea for you.

Is this someone's strategy for getting good quotes? Post horrible puns until I come up with some quotes to break the chain?
 
More excerpts from the Shadowrun game. As previously stated, the runners are an ork/troll group. Completely against stereotype, they specialize in stealth, subtlety, bluff, illusion, deception and misdirection.
  Dent: ork, rat shaman No-Step: ork, snake shaman, healer Byte Force: ork, decker, chemist Eye Spy: ork, rigger, drones, paramedic Audacity Jane: ork, combat, stealth, security systems Happy Jack (aliases include Jonathan Bridges): troll, combat, disguise, negotiator Mr. Johnson: generic name used by/for secretive employers who hire shadowrunners     When Happy Jack meets with clients, he usually goes as one of his alternate identities: the distinguished Jonathan Bridges.   Mr. Johnson: "Thank you for meeting with me mister ..." Jonathan Bridges: "It's my pleasure to be here, Mr. Johnson. I'm Mr. Bridges." Mr. Johnson: "Mr. Bridges ... as in ..." Jonathan Bridges: "If you're about to make some comment regarding bridges and trolls, I've heard it before."     The shadowrunners discuss how they're spending their latest windfall...   Audacity Jane: "I can't believe you just spent 10,000 nuyen on a suit. What a waste of money." Happy Jack: "It's a high fashion suit with an armor lining. It's what the top executives wear." Audacity Jane: "So what? It's not like you're going to sneak into a building dressed like a troll CEO on our runs. You're still going in dressed as a janitor or a maintenance man like usual."   A few weeks later, while Jonathan Bridges (aka Happy Jack) was negotiating with a different Mr. Johnson...   Mr. Johnson: "And I'm prepared to pay each member of your team 6,000 nuyen." Jonathan Bridges: "6,000 nuyen? My suit costs more than that." Mr. Johnson: "..."   Unsurprisingly, the pay got negotiated above 10,000 nuyen apiece.
 
 
Discussing equipment on hand...
 
Eye Spy: "Do you have any anti-vehicular grenades?" Happy Jack: "Sure." (tosses a grenade to Eye Spy) Eye Spy: "This is a paint grenade." Happy Jack: "It's hard to drive or shoot when your windshield is covered with paint."   This led to the following conversation a few weeks later...   Byte Force: "What chemicals can I cook up for you today?" Happy Jack: "Paint for grenades. I'd like something that works a bit better than what we already have." Byte Force: "What are you looking to change?" Happy Jack: "Could you mess with the viscosity and surface tension? I'd like it to stick better to vehicle  windshields. And if they run windshield wipers, I'd like that to just smear the paint around without clearing it off." Byte Force: "Okay. That might be possible..." Happy Jack: "And could you include something that has a bit of an exothermic reaction? It doesn't need to be too strong. Just push the temperature of the paint over body temperature so it blocks infrared and thermographic vision." Byte Force: "Heh. That still won't help you much if the vehicle has radar." Happy Jack: "I was just getting to that. Could you mix in tiny particles of metal in order to scatter radar beams?" Byte Force: "****! Do you want the paint to yodel too, so it blocks sonar?" (long pause) Happy Jack: "That's a good idea ... but that might be a bit too much to expect from paint."     Needing no explanation...   Audacity Jane: "Of course dragons are at the top of the food chain. I can't eat that much."

That reminds me of a couple things I pulled in MMOs. (In general, names have been changed ... because I can't remember them.)
 
-------------------------
 
in Everquest (the original one)
 
I was running my bard (Staccato) through West Freeport (one of the starting cities), when I heard the following...
 
Newbie: "Everyone watch out! There's a druid killing noobs in the arena!!!"
Dr00d: "free druid buffs in the arena"
 
I checked the list of players in the zone, and the Dr00d was the second highest level player ... a 34th level druid.
The highest level player was Staccato ... a 60th level bard.
 
The list didn't mention that Staccato worshiped the Tribunal ... the gods of justice.
 
What happens when a follower of the Tribunal discovers that a druid is making false promises in order to trick newbies into getting killed?
What happens when the druid announces that he's located in a free-for-all PvP Arena?
 
Staccato entered the Arena invisibly. The Dr00d didn't notice Staccato until Staccato charmed him. When you're charmed, your avatar responds to all the normal pet commands. Some of them are lots of fun in PvP.
Dr00d: "Staccato is my master."
Dr00d: "Staccato is my master."
Dr00d: "Staccato is my master."
Staccato: "You got that right."   Charm only lasts for 30 seconds, and you have to wait for it to break before you can reapply it. I was a little worried that the Dr00d might escape when charm broke, so I quickly switched over to mezzing him ... because I could do that forever.  
Well, maybe not forever. After about 5 minutes, the Dr00d decided that he could disconnect from the internet, which would disconnect him from the game and log him out. Of course, his avatar stayed in the game for another 15 seconds. How long do you think it takes a 60th level bard to kill a 34th level druid?
 
Less than 15 seconds.
 
Staccato: using guildchat "There was a druid offering free buffs to newbies in the Freeport Arena, then killing them."
Guildmember #1: "That's horrible."
Guildmember #2: "I ought to go there and kill him."
Staccato: "Too late. I beat you to it."
Guildmembers: "lol"
 
Two minutes later...
 
Dr00d: in a private message "u killed me"
Staccato: "Yep. If I catch you killing newbies again, I'll kill you again."
Dr00d: "u made me lose xp."
This was surprising. PvP kills aren't supposed to cause XP loss.
Staccato: "Serves you right."
Dr00d: "i reported u to the gms"
Staccato: "For killing you in the Arena? Let me know when they laugh in your face."
Dr00d: "im goin 2 report u 2 ur guild get u kicked out"
Staccato: in guildchat "The druid is back. He wants to report me to my guild."
GuildOfficer #1: "Give him my name. I want to tell him off."
GuildOfficer #2: "Me too."
GuildOfficer #3: "Definitely give him my name."
Staccato: in a private message to the Dr00d "Several officers are online. Would you like a list of names?"
 
-------------------------
 
In City of Heroes
 
This took place in The Hollows, which is a low-level zone. The Hollows were very dangerous to travel through. There were obstructed lines of sight, so you could run into enemies before you spotted them. The enemies hung out in large groups, capable of quickly killing most newbies. And newbies didn't have advanced travel powers (Fly, Superspeed, Superleap, Teleport), which would help them cross the zone quickly and safely.
 
Newbies could get access to low level travel powers (i.e. Hover, Recall Friend). Even though Hover was painfully slow (slower than walking, and who does that in an MMO) it was popular because it was the only safe way to get yourself across The Hollows. Recall Friend was also useful. It allowed you to teleport your teammates to a spot near you. If you could get to the entrance of the mission (without dying), you could safely bring your teammates to the mission. This saved time, since newbies would sometimes die multiple times when trying to get to missions.
 
Good samaritans would also offer to use Recall Friend to help newbies leave The Hollows. You would invite them to your team, they would teleport you to a spot near them (and they'd be near the zone entrance), and you'd safely leave.
 
On the day this occurred, I was playing my Warshade. Warshades were a prestige class, and they got one perk that set them apart at low levels ... Warshades got the Teleport power for free at level 1. I had also chosen the Recall Friend skill, since it's useful for helping teammates.
 
...
 
I was using Teleport to leave The Hollows one day, and I noticed something strange. Near the entrance, there was someone standing on top of the guard tower, and there were several heroes inside the guard tower. The person on top of the guard tower wasn't too strange. Newbies could hover to get to the roof of the guard tower. But it wasn't possible for people to run, jump or fly through the windows of the guard tower. They weren't big enough.
 
I watched for a few minutes until I figured out what was going on. The windows were big enough to teleport through. One person had used Hover to get to the roof of the guard tower. He then offered to team up with people and use Recall Friend to help them leave The Hollows. The inside of the guard tower was close enough to the roof for him to dump the newbies inside. Once they were there, he would disband from the team and they were stuck.
 
I snuck back out into The Hollows, and pretended like I needed a ride out. He used Recall Friend to dump me into the guard tower -but- as soon as I landed in the guard tower, I used Recall Friend to teleport him right next to me. He disbanded, then realized he was stuck inside with everyone else. I then invited all of his victims to team up with me. I used Teleport to get out of the guard tower, then used Recall Friend to get everyone else out too.
 
Except for the "hero" who had pulled the stunt. I left him there.

Quotes from Owlcon - part 4
 
Drama Dice 2.0 "Team Maximum: Little Girl Lost"
 
Team Maximum is the Justice League of their universe. That level of power, but without the squeaky-clean image.
 
The core members of Team Maximum
El Bombastico: the toughest man in the world, Em's husband
Em: a powerful witch, El Bombastico's wife
Ghost: the deadliest man in the world, ex-special ops with high-tech gear
Mach: the fastest man in the world, a flying speedster
Madame Raven: the supreme sorceress
Fox: the world's greatest shapeshifter
The Imagineer: the world's smartest man, wears nano-crystalline powered armor
 
While selecting characters.
Player: "Em has a signature spell called 'Find MacGuffin'."
 
El Bombastico and Em have a daughter. Loki kidnapped her.
El Bombastico: "I'm going to shove my boot so far up Loki's ___ that he's going to be tasting shoe leather for a year."
 
The daughter's trail led to Asgard. Loki's trail led to Earth-616. The core members followed the trail to Asgard.
 
Asgard was shielded and ready for war. The group opened a small hole in the shield and snuck through. Em used her illusions to disguise Madame Raven as the Enchantress. Em disguised the rest of the group as normal Asgardians. Madame Raven made the illusion look more complete by charming two valkyries. The group used the disguises to reach Odin's throne room unopposed.
Em: "As we walk into Odin's throne room, I'm going to drop the illusion."
Mach: "Why not leave it up and try to fool him?"
The Imagineer: "We will be facing Odin, on his throne, at his center of power."
Madame Raven: "There is no illusion powerful enough to fool him."
The Imagineer: "That's his thing."
 
The Imagineer, Mach and Fox were of Atlantean descent, so they decided Odin would be more receptive to having them speak on the group's behalf. Fox assumed a large, imposing, regal, draconic form for the meeting.
The Imagineer: (to Odin) "Odin All-Father, we apologize for this intrusion into your domain, but we do so only under the utmost duress. The daughter of two of my companions was stolen from them, and the trail led here. As a father, I'm sure you understand the lengths someone would go to to protect their own child."
Loki: (stepping out from the shadows behind Odin's throne) "Father, they are telling you lies...."
Fox: (interrupting) "I see you have a serpent too."
 
Loki: "If what they are saying is true, then why have they weakened our defenses and allowed our ancient enemies to attack?"
Loki paused. Nothing happened.
Loki: (yelling loudly) "Why have they weakened our defenses and allowed our ancient enemies to attack?"
Sounds of battle erupted outside. This was followed by an explosion as Surtur, king of the fire giants, smashed through the wall of the throne room.
 
El Bombastico, Mach and the Imagineer forced Surtur out of the throne room, off the bridge and into the lake.
GM: "Surtur is standing in 20 feet of water, but he's 50 feet tall."
Fox: (describing actions) "As I stalk out of the throne room and onto the bridge, my scales shift to a silvery-white color."
GM & various players (ooc): "Oh my god. I don't believe it. He's a white dragon."
Fox blasted Surtur with his frost breath, leaving Surtur's legs pinned with ice. Surtur was alive, but ashen-skinned, with only a few small flames still flickering around him.
Fox: "Surrender ... or die ..."
Fox inhaled. Surtur surrendered.
 
Loki fled the throne room during the battle. Afterwards....
The Imagineer: (to Odin) "Hopefully we have demonstrated that we are not your enemy. But we cannot leave without my companions' daughter."
Odin: (nods) "Follow me."
Em: (quietly) "I'm glad he didn't say, 'Walk this way.'"
 
The group caught up to Loki in the vault and rescued El Bombastico and Em's daughter from him.
Daughter: "Mommy! Daddy! You came! I missed you!"
El Bombastico: (sweetly, to daughter) "Look away honey. Daddy has some business to attend to." (not so sweetly, to Loki) "Prepare to taste some boot leather."
Fox: (cheerfully, to Loki) "Bend over and cough."
 
If Loki was in Asgard, why did his trail lead to Earth-616 ... ?

Quotes from Owlcon - part I
 
Pulp Hero "The Fiendish Plan of Dr. Mephisto"
 
The Sentinels of Justice investigated the mysterious disappearance of a skyscraper.
 
GM: Theron
Dirk Morgan: a newspaper editor
Huan Ju Morgan: Dirk's Chinese adopted sister, a martial artist
Dr. Diogenes Sinclair: a jungle doctor
"Pat" Garrett: an Arizona cowgirl
Jeremiah "Sparks" McGee: a mad scientist
Eugene Bullard: a black American fighter pilot who fought in French Foreign Legion during the Great War
The Amazing Bosco Patterson: an acrobat and brawler
 
A 27 story skyscraper was under construction. Then it disappeared. All that remained was the foundation.
Dirk: "I could have sworn that I parked it right here."
 
Elmo, a homeless man, was the only witness.
Bosco: (to Elmo) "There's a drink in it for you."
Elmo: (slurring) "I don't touch the stuff."
Bosco: "You don't touch it ... but you will drink it."
 
The Sentinels of Justice were attacked by a group of mooks.
Huan Ju: (catching a mook's fist in her hand) "Denied."
 
Pat tried to climb a fire escape to reach a gunman. The fire escape wouldn't lower, which left her hanging from the bottom rung.
Pat: "Could you give me a boost?"
Sparks threw his wrench at the mechanism, freeing it and allowing the fire escape to deploy.
Sparks: "I used my science."
 
The Sentinels of Justice tracked Dr. Mephisto down to his dirigible. While Eugene flew the plane, the rest parachuted onto the top of the dirigible, then climbed down through the superstructure. When they were attacked by mooks, Pat lassoed one of them and pulled him so he was dangling by one leg.
Dr. Sinclair: Piñata time.
 
While the rest of the team climbed down through the superstructure, Eugene discovered that the dirigible had a "trapeze": a mechanism which allowed it to deploy and retrieve a small fighter plane. The Sentinels' seaplane had a hook, allowing it to make use of the trapeze. Even though the seaplane was too large for this trapeze, Eugene managed to catch the seaplane's hook on the trapeze, wedge the seaplane up into the dirigible's hangar, climb out of the seaplane, fight off two mooks and sneak onto the dirigible.
 
Eugene coincidentally entered the dirigible just as the rest of the group climbed down out of the superstructure.
Dr. Sinclair: (to Eugene) "It took you long enough."
Eugene: "I had a hard time finding a place to park."
Bosco: "Parking is hell in New York."
Eugene: "I nearly got towed."

Against a supervillain, make sure you've worked out 'Plan B.'  Against a mastermind, you're better off just improvising.
 
NEVER humiliate a supervillain when he is defeated; he is already going to jail, so don't give him additional motivation to escape.
 
DON'T collect souvenirs for your Rogues' Gallery.  They are just plot fodder for the GM.
 
Most supervillains don't care what your Secret I.D. is; odds are you're nobody special without the mask anyway.
 
Always take a moment for the members of the media - you WILL need them on your side someday.

Those who put "Hell" in their name can expect to visit it.  

The shadowrunners were an ork/troll group. Against stereotype, they specialized in stealth, subtlety, bluff, illusion, deception and misdirection.
 
Cast of characters: 
Dent: ork, rat shaman
No-Step: ork, snake shaman, healer
Byte Force: ork, decker, chemist
Eye Spy: ork, rigger, drones, paramedic
Audacity Jane: ork, combat, stealth, security systems
Happy Jack: troll, combat, disguise, negotiator
Universal Brotherhood ("UB"): a charitable fringe religious organization; secretly controlled by insect spirits
The Octagon: the UB's large, iconic chapterhouse in Seattle
 
Universal Brotherhood - What's worse than a real attack?
 
Eye Spy: "I wish we could just drop a bomb on the Octagon and be done with it."
Happy Jack: "Figuratively speaking, I'd like to do just that."
Audacity Jane: "I'm on board ... except for that figurative part."
 
Happy Jack: "The UB has to be expecting another attack. And Lone Star has to be expecting another attack on the UB too. Let's show them what they expect."
No-Step: "Make them overreact to a perceived threat? What does that get us?"
Audacity Jane: "A Lone Star SWAT team running headfirst into a pack of flesh form insect spirits...."
 
Byte Force: "Jane, do you think you could get onto the Octagon's roof and get something into their ventilation system intake?"
Audacity Jane: "Probably. What did you have in mind?"
Byte Force: "Mercaptans."
Eye Spy: "That sounds too large and aquatic to fit in a ventilation system."
Byte Force: "It's a gas. In low doses its non-toxic."
Audacity Jane: "You want to use a much larger dose."
Byte Force: "No. I'm going to use it to make them think there's a dangerous amount of a different gas in the building ... natural gas."
 
Happy Jack: "Jane, when you're putting the mercaptans in the vents, can you drop some noisemakers down in there too?"
Audacity Jane: "Sure."
Byte Force: "That's not going to start a fire. Mercaptans, by themselves, aren't flammable."
Happy Jack: "I'm not trying to start a fire. But when Lone Star and the fire department arrive on the scene, I want them to be convinced that somebody's shooting inside."
No-Step: "They're not going to go charging into an active shooter situation."
Happy Jack: "If they think there's an active shooter on site, they're not going to leave until they do a room-to-room sweep of the building. If there's a gas leak, the fire department's not going to leave until there's a room-to-room sweep of the building."
Dent: "You want them to find the hive."
Eye Spy: "Knowing our luck, they'll have enough clout to keep them from entering the building."
Happy Jack: "They may be able to hide the hive, but they won't be able to hide the cover-up."
 
Byte Force: "I'm going to monitor Lone Star and the fire department. If the UB manages to keep them out of their hive, they're going to have to pull some major strings."
Dent: "Thank you for telling us what we already know, Captain Obvious."
Byte Force: "And if we know who the UB has their hooks in, those may be their human form insect spirits."
Audacity Jane: "You're so sweet. You're getting me a hit list for my birthday."
 
When it was time to start the "incident" at the Octagon, Byte Force triggered a couple bursts of autofire and a few shotgun blasts, then followed it up by releasing one of the canisters of mercaptans.
 
Dent: "That was kind of pathetic for gunfire. Didn't Jane put a lot of noisemakers in the vents?"
Byte Force: "I'm saving most of them for later."
Audacity Jane: "What are you expecting later?"
Happy Jack: "A bigger audience."
 
Byte Force: "I have a cell phone line set up. It's going to track back to the Octagon."
Lone Star operator: "Lone Star emergency line. Please state the nature of your emergency."
Happy Jack: "Hello?" (muffled gunfire could be heard sporadically in the background) "Can you send some police?"
Lone Star operator: "What is your name and location?"
Happy Jack: "I'm Toby." (a young girl could be heard in the background) "I'm in the Octagon."
Lone Star operator: "What's happening, Toby?"
Happy Jack / Toby: "There's a bunch of shooting and people yelling." (pause) "And I heard some people scream, but that's stopped now."
Lone Star operator: "There's a report of a gas leak at the Octagon. Do you smell gas?"
Toby: "It smells funny, but not like somebody farted."
Lone Star operator: "..."
 
Happy Jack had "Toby" stay on the line for a dozen minutes or so until the cell phone's "battery died".
 
No-Step: "Is there any reason you dropped so many specific details?"
Happy Jack: "Lone Star is going to want to find Toby and his little sister. If they can't find him, they're going to want to search the room with the black and gold doors ... that's the Inner Chamber where the queens live."
Eye Spy: "How do you know that?"
Happy Jack: "In the background material that the investigative reporters put together. The one reporter described the doors when he raided the Octagon with some Shadowrunners."
Eye Spy: "You actually read the background material [the GM] gave us?"
 
The UB personnel were trying to keep Lone Star from entering the Octagon....
 
Eye Spy: "They're saying that the attackers already fled the building."
Byte Force triggered the noisemakers to fire a several more shotgun blasts and a few SMG bursts.
Eye Spy: "They now look like they just swallowed a shoe."
 
Later, the UB tried a new tactic. The team heard some additional gunshots (that they hadn't caused) followed by...
 
Eye Spy: "They're saying that the security guards killed all of the attackers ... and ... Drek! They're bringing out some dead bodies. Where did they get those?"
Audacity Jane: "That's brilliantly ruthless. They must have killed some of their own members to get the corpses."
Happy Jack: "That plays into our hands."
Dent: "How?"
Happy Jack: "Instead of appearing to be the sympathetic victims of outside persecution, they now look like they're killing themselves with internal strife."
Byte Force: "Let's see if we can inspire a repeat performance." (triggered more noisemaker shotgun blasts)
 
Finally, Galen Walker, a human form insect spirit and the nominal leader of the UB, put in an appearance....
 
No-Step: "He's staying next to the building, inside the magickal ward."
Dent: "He's worried about us sending more spirits to kill him."
Audacity Jane: "He's got the right idea, but he's worried about the wrong thing...."
Jane fired her sniper rifle, and Byte Force simultaneously triggered the remaining noisemakers. Therefore, the sounds of gunfire erupted from the Octagon almost at the same moment that Galen Walker's head blew open.
No-Step: "Congratulations Jane. I think that's going to be the most played video segment on national news this evening."
 
Byte Force: "I managed to unscramble the Lone Star transmissions. In one of the transmissions, the Lone Star chief is telling the SWAT captain on the scene that the crisis has been completely resolved ... several minutes before Jane turned Galen's brain into a fine red mist."
Happy Jack: "Let's sell both the encrypted and decrypted versions of that transmission to Ares Global Entertainment. After that, we can anonymously send them to the other networks and let them know that Ares already has them."
No-Step: "I'm sure you have some terribly clever reason for doing that, but would you care to explain it to the rest of us?"
Happy Jack: "Ares owns Knight Errant. Knight Errant competes with Lone Star for municipal police contracts. Therefore, Ares will pay good money to make Lone Star look incompetent."
Dent: "Why aren't we selling it to the rest of them?"
Happy Jack: "It's not worth as much. But by telling them Ares already has it, that means they'll broadcast quickly in order to scoop them."
Dent: "Can't we prove that Lone Star is being controlled by the UB?"
Happy Jack: "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."
Dent: "What?"
Happy Jack: "The radio transmission only proves the chief royally fragged up. It doesn't prove that he was influenced by the UB."
Eye Spy: "So he gets away with it."
Happy Jack: "Not exactly. His 'incompetence' could cost Lone Star hundreds of millions of nuyen. They won't be forgiving about that."
Eye Spy: "But he still gets away without people knowing what really happened."
Happy Jack: "It's the best way to guarantee he gets creamed. If he's accused of being corrupted by the UB, he can always defend himself by saying he made a mistake. If he's accused of incompetence, what's he going to do? Excuse his decision by claiming he was corrupt?"
 
Anonymous tip to the media: The attackers killed by the Universal Brotherhood security guards all appear to be Universal Brotherhood members. [attachment: Universal Brotherhood Seattle membership list] This violence bears a striking resemblance to the fighting between the Universal Brotherhood chapterhouses in Gilroy, CFS and San Martin, CFS, in which the San Martin chapterhouse was completely destroyed.
 
No-Step: "Did anyone actually prove that the violence in CFS was due to a conflict between the chapterhouses? I thought the dead reporters just speculated that was what happened."
Happy Jack: "You're worried about proof? I intend to make the UB waste resources keeping some hungry young reporters from digging through the evidence."
No-Step: "Don't you think the UB will just kill them too?"
Happy Jack: "If a bunch of hungry young reporters start dying while investigating the same story, that's going to look like a cover-up. The media loves to report on those."
 
Eye Spy: "Won't the UB eventually track these anonymous tips back to us?"
Byte Force: "I've been leaving some indications that Detective Bambra is the source. They won't even begin looking for us until they kill him."
Audacity Jane: "Aww ... you're actually making me start to like the scapegoat."

The shadowrunners were an ork/troll group. Against stereotype, they specialized in stealth, subtlety, bluff, illusion, deception and misdirection.
 
Cast of characters: 
Dent: ork, rat shaman
No-Step / Gomi No ShuShu: ork, snake shaman, healer
Byte Force: ork, decker, chemist
Eye Spy: ork, rigger, drones, paramedic
Audacity Jane: ork, combat, stealth, security systems
Happy Jack: troll, combat, disguise, negotiator
Universal Brotherhood ("UB"): a charitable fringe religious organization; secretly controlled by insect sprits
 
Universal Brotherhood - The Saga Continues
 
For their next attack, the team chose the Universal Brotherhood chapterhouse in Auburn, which was controlled by termite spirits.
 
Audacity Jane: "When we attack the Auburn chapterhouse, let's break into one of the top floors."
Eye Spy: "Why? Isn't the hive in the basement?"
Audacity Jane: "We can take the elevator straight to the basement ... and nobody will expect us to break into the third or fourth floor when everything important is in the basement."
No-Step: "There's a difference between 'nobody will expect it' and 'it's a good idea'."
 
Byte Force: "I don't want to use cell phone jammers for this attack. If UB security is smart, they'll be listening for those by now and use them to trigger alarms."
Audacity Jane: "That's going to put us on a really tight timetable. Lone Star has a much better response rate in Auburn than Redmond."
Byte Force: "Don't worry about that. I have another way to slow them down."
Eye Spy: "Any time one of you says 'don't worry about that,' you make the rest of us worry more."
Byte Force: "Lone Star is going to get bombarded with several 'officer down' and 'officer needs assistance' calls at the same time you enter the chapterhouse. I think those will take priority over any calls from the UB."
 
Audacity Jane: "I can override the elevator controls, so nobody can use it but us. But that won't stop the UB guards from coming down the stairs behind us."
Happy Jack: "That's easy. We can use a paint grenade to slow down the reinforcements."
Audacity Jane: "How is a paint grenade going to do that?"
Byte Force: "I've taken the paint out of several of them and replaced it with lubricant."
Dent: "Won't that make them get downstairs even faster?"
 
As the team battled the flesh form and true form termite spirits in the basement...
 
Dent: "This building can't be worth very much ... it's infested with termites."
 
After killing the queen, Jack put a few flesh forms into body bags and dragged them into the elevator. No-Step, on the other hand, hid a few noisemakers around the basement.
 
Dent: "Is that your idea of helping?"
No-Step: "If we fire these off after we take the elevator back to the third floor, the remaining guards will be too busy storming the basement to look for us there."
 
After the raid, the Universal Brotherhood was forced to perform more spin control. The team, on the other hand was perfectly willing to provide anonymous tips to investigative reporters.
 
Anonymous tip: The Universal Brotherhood blamed the first attack on a homeless, mentally disturbed troll. They're blaming the second attack on a hate group. However, the Universal Brotherhood's security guards at both chapterhouses were taken out by narcojet darts and neurostun gas. That seems rather sophisticated for a homeless troll, and it seems like a soft touch for a hate group.
 
Anonymous tip: Have you checked out the ammo that the Universal Brotherhood security guards use? Their machine pistols are loaded with armor piercing discarding sabot rounds. How does a non-profit charity group get the legal clearance to use those?
 
In order to get the megacorps in on the action, it was time to start selling flesh forms to the megacorps "procurement specialists."
 
Happy Jack: "No-Step, you get to adopt a new identity and sell the flesh forms to the corps."
No-Step: "Why am I getting this job?"
Happy Jack: "Most of the megacorps who deal in biotech are Japanese owned. Those guys are notoriously biased against metahumans. You can disguise yourself as an overweight human. I'm three meters tall. I can only disguise myself as another troll."
 
No-Step adopted the alternate identity of Gomi No ShuShu, human, American-born, of Japanese descent.
 
Gomi No ShuShu: (to a prospective client) "I understand you're generally in the market for biological samples. Would you be in the market for samples of a previously unknown paranormal animal?"
Yamametsu procurement specialist: "First, you would need to persuade me that you had discovered a paranormal species that we're not already in possession of."
Gomi No ShuShu: (showing the buyer a picture of the flesh form insect spirit) "This is what my associates killed. We believe that it's a paranormal species, rather than genetic engineered. However, I suspect you would be interested in it either way."
Yamametsu procurement specialist: "Does it have anything that would make it commercially valuable?"
Gomi No ShuShu: "Security applications. It was being used to guard the sensitive areas in a building."
Yamametsu procurement specialist: "What size sample did your people get?"
Gomi No ShuShu: "Two nearly-complete bodies. And they've been kept refrigerated."
Yamametsu procurement specialist: "Nearly complete?"
Gomi No ShuShu: "There's a few bullet holes in each."
 
Yamametsu procurement specialist: "I can't authorize a very large payment, since this could still turn out to be worthless."
Gomi No ShuShu: "My associates said they would accept a modest payment for these preliminary samples."
Yamametsu procurement specialist: "Preliminary samples...?"
Gomi No ShuShu: "They're confident that you'll want to purchase a live sample later, and they intend to charge a much higher price for that."
Yamametsu procurement specialist: "They have a live sample?"
Gomi No ShuShu: "They know where to get one."
 
Afterwards...
 
Happy Jack: "Good work No-Step. Now you just need to sell some to MCT, Renraku and Shiawase." (long pause) "And you also need to sell the mostly-human flesh forms to Saeder Krupp."
No-Step: "Nobody is going to think that the mostly-human ones are paranormal animals."
Happy Jack: "Of course not. That's why you're selling them as examples of a new form of bioware."
Dent: "That's risky. Ripping off Saeder Krupp is a good way to get on Lofwyr's bad side."
Happy Jack: "Lofwyr's been around at least since the 4th Age. I'm going to bet he knows exactly what a flesh form is. This is my way of sending him a message."
Dent: "If he ever sees it."
Happy Jack: "Lofwyr's the micromanager from hell. He'll find out about it."
 
Unsurprisingly, a couple weeks after Saeder Krupp bought the specimens (for 5,000 nuyen apiece), No-Step / Gomi No ShuShu received a voice mail from a Saeder Krupp fixer. Byte Force set up an untraceable call.
 
Han Brackhaus of Saeder Krupp: "I am willing to pay 10,000 nuyen to learn where you acquired the specimens you sold us."
Gomi No ShuShu: "Let me discuss your offer with my associate."
No-Step put Brackhaus on hold and had a quick discussion with Happy Jack.
Gomi No ShuShu: "My associate tells me that if all you want is the location of those three specimens, he will provide it for free ... and he will refund 10,000 nuyen of the 15,000 nuyen deposit you paid me."
Hans Brackhaus: "That's a ... surprising offer."
Gomi No ShuShu: "However, if you want to know every location where he personally  encountered 'specimens' like that, he will keep the deposit and require an additional 35,000 nuyen. If you want you want his list of suspected locations, it will cost 250,000."
Hans Brackhaus: "Why would I consider paying that much for suspected locations?"
Gomi No ShuShu: "Based on his sampling, he says that he's 95% confident that over 50% of them have specimens at that location."
Hans Brackhaus: "That's still a large amount of money for 'suspected' locations."
Gomi No ShuShu: "It's a large number of suspected locations."
Hans Brackhaus: (long pause) "How large?"
Gomi No ShuShu: "A three digit number."
Hans Brackhaus: "I ... I'll need to get back in touch."

D&D continues, with sidequests proliferating galore. Now we have to attack a bunch of orks, on behalf of a dragon, who we're hoping to assassinate anyway. And we still have no idea why King Gurnt is kidnapping dwarf miners, or what this increasingly notorious map is. The dwarf who originally hired us must be quite annoyed no-one's come o rescue him yet. Plus, through in the mysterious conspiracy and it's obvious we're going to be at these for years.

PC Characters so far:

Lamech Judocus, gnome wild sorceror
Urlon, Elf fighter
Elethandiel, Blue dragonkin fighter
Kavorog, Blue dragonkin fighter-mage

But a dwarf – one Kerak Darkstar - HAS turned up to investigate what the hell is going on, and exercise suspicious eyebrows about our own activities. Such as standing around in dragon cultist costumes, with a pile of half naked humans in one corner.

Kerak: And they are?
Lamech: Dragon cultists.
Kerak: There was a dragon around here?
Lamech: Still is.
Kerak: What's it been doing?
Lamech: Bossing people around. Exercising his megalomania glands basically.

Kavorog: We offered Venomfang the Wyvern Tor orcs as minions.
Kerak: Minions?
Lamech: Meals on heels.

And of course there's an even bigger green dragon off in that direction, so if Venomfang finds out that he's moved closer to the territories of at least two other wyrms, there WILL be trouble. Especially if one is granddam to Venomfang.

: This is why you shouldn't meddle with the environment.
Lamech: Hey, YOU were the one that wanted him moved on.

The druid's apprentice transforms in a wolf and runs off to deliver our message back to the village of Phandalin.

Lamech: If you really want to be dangerous transform into a Cape Buffalo.
GM: I think we can safely assume you're not going to the Jungle of Chult so he can learn how to shapeshift into a dinosaur.
Lamech: Eh. Cape Buffalo are bad enough. And hippos are worse.

Karek insists we investigate Venomfang's lair while he's out hunting. This is probably suicidal, but then, so is getting into an argument with a dwarf.

Kavek: I'd be dead with treasure than alive without it.
Lamech: Spoken like a true dwarf.

Lamech: You know, if the dragon comes back we'll tell him we brought you as a sacrifice.

GM: Do you want to search through the chest?
Lamech: This is a really bad idea. I'm saying this now so I won't have to later – assuming I live long enough to do so.

At least some of the treasure already smells of us, which should make Venomfang less likely to hunt us down after he gets back. There IS a magic dwarf battle-axe named 'Hew'. And Lamech gleefully replaces the scrolls with blank paper.

Kavek: Can we replace the gold with copper?
Lamech: We can be pretty sure the dragon knows the difference.

Kavorog attempts to clean the patina off Hew.

GM: And every collector in the world rises up to murder you.

A small encounter with giant spiders passes without comment, even if Lamech got webbed and bitten, and we set off for Wyvern Tor.

GM: Lamech sets the web and himself on fire. You've never seen a gnome go “WHOOF” before.
Lamech: No, but the druid's apprentice did when he turned into a wolf.

We run in two rangers on the march back towards Neverwinter and Phandalin, who want to know who this party of adventurers and half-naked prisoners are.

Lamech: Neverwinter BDSM Club Field Trip.
Kavorog: This one's my favourite *rubs the cult leader's head*

Handing over the prisoners, we cut across country back towards Phandalin. With any luck we'll run into some wandering monsters. A school of land sharks, or dire gerbils perhaps.

Kavek: What about were-rabbits?
Lamech: Too dangerous.

: We'll more likely to be attacked near dawn.
Lamech: We're more likely to be hit by meteors in the morning, too.

We're also more likely to be hit by ghouls. Lamech is soon reminded that the undead are immune to Sleep spells, and is badly mauled

Lamech: Oh, that's very fucking thematically appropriate, that is.

GM: You're half the gnome you used to be.
Lamech OoC: At least Turn Undead works. It's like holding a crucifix up to a Christian vampire. Or a joint to a Rastafarian one.

Kavorog, like a raging idiot, heads off in pursuit of the fleeing ghouls, and finds himself quite a distance from the fire before the adrenaline wears off. Happily, ghouls aren't bright enough to set ambushes.

Urlon: Don't give the GM ideas.

The ghoul we did manage to take down was wearing magic armour.

Urlon: You can wear leather armour, can't you?
Lamech: Yes?
GM: Rubber gives him hives.

The next day we get ambushed by ogres. At least, they probably THOUGHT they were ambushing us, but boulders generally don't carry clubs. Or hold small sprigs of foliage in front of them. They charge Lamech anyway.

Lamech: Not again!

Given how the ogres uses him as a hockey puck, it's probably very lucky that the wild gnome sorcerer vanishes into thin air just before he dies - Punted into the next dimension. Happily, the other manage to kill the ogres, while Lamech gets a quick tour of the USS Enterprise, Ravensloft, and elsewhere. Hopefully by the time the astral bungee cord snaps him back, the others will be rested enough to stop him actually dying from his injuries.

Our Sunday night gaming group alternates games (I run Champions and a friend runs D&D 4.0), and the other GM asked me to run a second week in a row.  Unfortunately, I wasn't really ready and didn't come up with a solid idea until sometime Saturday.  So the villains and adventure were a bit rushed and slapped together at the last minute.  I decided to update a villain group that I hadn't used since 2004:  the New Gods (artificial bioforms based on the Greek pantheon).
 
Also, the player with the mentalist character (Circe) wasn't able to attend.
 
Pops:  I've got Circe's character sheet.
Malarky:  So, since Andy's not here, what embarrassing stuff should we put Circe through this week?
GM:  Actually, other than maybe some stuff at the very beginning of the adventure, Circe's going to be unavailable for most of the adventure.  (pause)  But I think she'll enjoy her new career as a stripper.
 
GM:  So, Dr. Stevens has been asked to give the keynote address at a science and technology symposium in Philadelphia. (looks pointedly at Pops' player)
Pops:  Who the heck is Dr. Stevens?
GM:  (confused pause)  Isn't that Pops' secret identity?
Pops:  (looks at character sheet)  Oh!  So it is!
 
Stevens is talking to another scientist (Dr. McCormick) that he hasn't seen for a while.  Rumor has it the scientist was working on a top-secret government project.  As they're talking, Dr. Stevens notices some odd light-warping effect on the wall a half-dozen meters away.  He quickly realizes that someone is moving along the wall using a chameleon form of invisibility.
 
GM:  I assume you're trying to be subtle and not let on that you've seen them.
Pops:  That's correct.  (to Dr. McCormick)  Do you know of anybody trying to attack or kidnap you?
McCormick:  (confused)  Noooo...
Pops:  Because there's somebody trying to sneak up on us invisible.
GM:  (rolls some dice, getting a not-so-good result)  Dr. McCormick spins around, saying "Where?!"
Pops:  (facepalms)
 
As Pops drags McCormick away, the foes become visible.  They appear to be military types, but without insignia of any sort.  The two scientists are trying to get lost in the crowd and make their way out of the convention center.
Pops: What have you been working on that would make somebody come after you?
McCormick:  You don't know they're after me.  They might be after you.
Pops:  You don't want to mess with me.  I took out someone with a f--king toaster.
 
Meanwhile, back in Boston, Maker (in her secret identity as Li Jenkins, a NASA astronaut who worked on UNTIL's Gateway space station) is contacted by UNTIL for debriefing about her recent run-in with Wight, who is a Russian cosmonaut (Andrei Vyelov) that everybody thought died after an incident outside Gateway that caused his body to re-enter Earth's atmosphere.
 
UNTIL Capt. Roe:  You'll be contacted shortly by an UNTIL investigator, Lt. Ingrid Bruckert.
Honey Badger:  (OOC) Frau Bruckert!  (horses' whinny)
 
GM:  (to Maker)  You know that random name booklet you got for me from GenCon way back when?  I just opened it to a page and pointed to a name on that page, figuring that would be the country of origin and name for the UNTIL person.  When I saw Bruckert, I pretty much knew how this was going to go down.
 
Lt. Bruckert:  Prior to the incident of May 17, what contact have you had with Andrei Vyelov?
Maker:  The last time I saw him was the day he supposedly died.
Bruckert:  Vyelov arranged specifically to go on that spacewalk with you.  Why was that?
Maker:  You'd have to ask him.  Maybe because he was a lecherous jerk. 
Bruckert:  Other individuals have said that you and he were... involved, that you were in a relationship.
Maker:  They would be wrong.  (pause)  Who said that, by the way?
Brucker:  (thin, humorless smile; doesn't answer)
Maker:  (OOC)  When I find out which joker thought telling her that would be a fun joke, I'm going to pull a prank on them...
 
Malarky:  (OOC)  Admit it, when Vyelov's maneuvering jets fired and he started spinning out of control, you grabbed the tether just long enough to make sure he was headed for atmospheric re-entry...
 
Bruckert:  Those are all the questions I have.  For now.
Maker:  Well, have a nice trip... Frau Bruckert.
Honey Badger:  (OOC horse's whinny)
Bruckert:  Please ask your friend to stop doing that.  It is very irritating.
 
We briefly discussed the superhero team's ongoing lack of a name.
 
GM:  If you don't come up with a name, you'll end up with something like Boston Area Super-Heroes, or BASH.
Maker:  I'm good with that.
GM:  Or maybe it'll be Massachusetts United Super-Heroes.  How does MUSH sound?
Honey Badger:  Name us what you want.  Honey Badger don't care.
 
Back to the main plot.  Pops researches and finds out the attackers at the symposium match the troopers employed by Project: Cadmus and their New Gods.  Note that the MC Protectors was a prior PC hero team, who had a small base in Millennium City but their real base was a volcano lair in the South Pacific, accessed by teleportation.
 
GM:  Cadmus was taken down by the Millennium City Protectors about ten years ago.  According to media reports all the New Gods, being artificial bioforms, were shut down and... dismantled.. for study.  Unfortunately, the Protectors were one of the teams that disappeared in the Cross-Rip a few months back, so you can't get any other info from them.
Shadowboxer:  What about the Champions?  They were based in Millennium City.  I'd bet the Protectors shared info with them.
GM:  You contact Jaguar, who came out of retirement to rebuild the Champions after his former teammates disappeared in the Cross-Rip.  He can give you some info on Project: Cadmus' use of broadcast electricity to help power the New Gods, but the Champions don't have schematics or anything.  He says he heard a rumor that the Protectors had a secret base somewhere, so anything they had on it is probably there.  (pause)  I don't recall if the Champions ever visited your former team's volcano lair.
Shadowboxer:  I'd hope so.  They were our guests at a luau there.
 
The team visits the mothballed Protectors base in Millennium City to use the teleporter to get to the volcano lair.
 
Malarky:  Does anybody know how to use a teleporter?
Honey Badger:  Well, there's three sliders.  Just make sure you move them all up or down at the same time, and you're good to go.
Shadowboxer:  (to Pops)  Do you know how to operate a teleporter?
Pops:  Given that all my powers are based on teleportation, I sure hope so.
 
While researching the New Gods, Shadowboxer realized that he had seen Apollo (in civilian clothing) near the PRIMUS base in Boston.  So after borrowing the former Cadmus broadcast energy equipment from the Protectors' base and building a tracking/homing device, Shadowboxer is driving around the city in secret ID in his cab hoping to locate a broadcast power truck.  The rest of the team is discussing whether they're all riding along with him.
 
GM:  There's six of you, so there's not really room inside the cab for all of you.
Honey Badger:  Do I have to ride in the trunk again?
Maker:  Honey Badger don't care - what does it matter?
 
They locate the truck, and using Shadowboxer's shadow-sight/hearing to eavesdrop inside, the heroes discover that the New Gods are gearing up to attack the PRIMUS base.  So Shadowboxer (in his cab) and Maker (flying overhead cloaked) are preparing to take down the broadcast power truck while the rest of the team heads toward the PRIMUS base to stop the New Gods.  Unfortunately for the heroes, Apollo is near the broadcast power truck and can detect Invisibility to Sight, so he spots Maker and calls the rest of the New Gods back to the truck, and the battle goes down there.
 
More to follow

From the older son to his younger siblings.
 
"If you don't fight the big bad guy till the end of the story, you won't lose as much."

The shadowrunners were an ork/troll group. Against stereotype, they specialized in stealth, subtlety, bluff, illusion, deception and misdirection.
 
Cast of characters: 
Dent: ork, rat shaman
No-Step: ork, snake shaman, healer
Byte Force: ork, decker, chemist
Eye Spy: ork, rigger, drones, paramedic
Audacity Jane: ork, combat, stealth, security systems
Jonathan Bridges / Happy Jack: troll, combat, disguise, negotiator
Danial Simpson (NPC): a pudgy, middle-aged junior exec at Renraku; was given his position by his father-in-law
Victoria Delling (NPC): Danial Simpson's mistress; went missing after receiving a unique necklace called Blood
Detective Bambra (NPC): a private investigator hired by Danial Simpson's wife to find evidence of Danial Simpson's affair
Universal Brotherhood ("UB"): a charitable fringe religious organization; secretly controlled by insect spirits

HMHVV: Human Meta-Human Vampiric Virus
 

Missing Blood, part 9 - Aftermath
 
The raid on the Universal Brotherhood's Redmond chapterhouse was successful. The team had recovered the missing necklace, Blood. They had found the missing girl, Victoria Delling, and had put her out of her (insect possessed) misery. And the Redmond chapterhouse was being investigated for a HMHVV outbreak ... which would be a seriously nasty thing ... except when compared to their actual activities.
 
Byte Force: (posting to a Humanis Policlub forum under the handle 'VampireHater') "You won't believe what those bleeding-heart metahuman-loving slags at the Universal Brotherhood are doing. They're helping HMHVV infected monsters like loup-garou, dour and nosferatu by hiding them in their chapterhouses. Not only are those idiots going to get themselves killed, they're going to get a bunch of decent humans sucked dry because they think those monsters have 'rights'. Anything that believes that people are food has rights. The right to DIE!!!!!"
Eye Spy: (reading what Byte Force had posted) "If Humanis tries to tangle with the UB, they're going to get slaughtered."
Audacity Jane: "Awww ... you're breaking my heart."
 
Then there was Judy, the human form fly spirit captured in the raid.
 
Dent: "I don't want to read that thing's mind. It could drive me insane."
Happy Jack: "I thought shamans could take control of spirits. You could just compel her to tell us what we want to know."
Dent: "In order to take control a spirit, I have to wrest control away from the summoner."
Happy Jack: "The summoner ... you mean that thing I killed in the basement last night? I don't think it will be putting up much of a struggle."
Dent: "Um ... this could be easier than I originally thought."
 
The afternoon after the raid, No-Step disguised himself as Detective Bambra in order to update Mrs. Simpson on his investigation into her husband's affair. In order to cover for the flaws in his disguise, he made himself look bruised and swolen.
 
Mrs. Simpson: "What happened to you?"
No-Step / Detective Bambra: "Your husband's mistress ... some of her friends objected to my investigation."
Mrs. Simpson: "Do you have evidence that I can use this time?"
No-Step / Detective Bambra: "Absolutely. I used the bug you planted to pull a message off your husband's answering machine."
No-Step showed Mrs. Simpson the vidphone message Victoria Delling had left for Danial thanking him for the necklace ... while wearing the very distinctive necklace, Blood.
No-Step / Detective Bambra: "I think I was able to erase the message before your husband saw it. He'll be completely surprised when you show it to him."
Mrs. Simpson: "I'm going to play it for him right after he gives me that whore's necklace."
No-Step / Detective Bambra: "About that ..." (handing her a box) "... I was able to get to the necklace before he was."
Mrs. Simpson: "Thank you sooo much. I think I'm going to give him divorce papers as an anniversary present." (eyes flashing with anger) "I want to see how he tries to weasel out of all of this."
 
Jonathan Bridges, on the other hand, had to apologize to Danial for failing to recover the necklace.
 
Danial Simpson: "Did you get it?"
Jonathan Bridges: "I'm afraid our investigation hit a dead end. I believe we found Ms. Delling's body, but we would need a DNA test to confirm that."
Danial Simpson: "She's ... she's dead?"
Jonathan Bridges: "Someone tried to dispose of her body by feeding it to the ghouls. That's why I'm not 100% certain that it was her."
Danial Simpson: "And there was no sign of the necklace?"
Jonathan Bridges: "It's a rough neighborhood. If anyone knew she had it, they may have killed her for it."
Danial looked aghast.
Jonathan Bridges: "We snooped around at the local fences, but any competent fence would be smart enough to just try to sell the stones, which are far harder to trace."
 
No-Step: (after Jonathan/Jack had returned from talking to Danial) "Do you have any idea what you've just done?!?"
Happy Jack: "Yep."
No-Step: "He's going to think his wife murdered Victoria!"
Happy Jack: "I certainly hope he's smart enough to reach that conclusion. I practically drew him a map."
No-Step: "He's probably going to murder her!"
Happy Jack: "And if he does, he's no longer going to be a junior exec at Renraku. He'll be a convict ... and safely out of the reach of the UB."
No-Step: "You're setting him up in order to ... save him?"
Happy Jack: "Nah. I'm setting him up in order to frag with the UB."
 
Hours later the leader of the UB, Galen Walker, gave a press conference in front of the Octagon, the largest  UB chapterhouse in Seattle. Byte Force slipped a list of questions onto a couple reporters' PDAs. Dent used his Influence spell to ensure they would ask the questions at the press conference.
 
Galen Walker: "... According to what we have learned from the Lone Star officers who investigated the tragedy at our Redmond chapterhouse, the attacker was a homeless troll, probably suffering from some form of mental illness. Contrary to initial reports, there is no indication this troll suffered from HMHVV. He was the chapterhouse's soup kitchen, receiving dinner when the attack began. Despite yesterday's tragedy, the Universal Brotherhood remains dedicated to helping the poor."
reporter #1: "Was this incident in any way related to the murder of Madame Ulishia four days ago?"
Galen Walker: "Who?"
reporter #1: "She was a member of the Redmond chapterhouse who was murdered in her home. Are you saying that there's no connection?"
Galen Walker: "Not that I'm aware of."
reporter #2: "Is there any connection to the murder of Christine Simpson? She was murdered just over an hour ago at the Glass Onion."
Galen Walker: "I'm afraid that this is the first that I've heard of this. She was a member?"
reporter #2: "No. Her husband was a brand new member of the Octogon chapterhouse. He's the one who murdered her in front of a crowd of witnesses."
Galen Walker: "I'm not sure why you believe that there's a connection between these unrelated...."
reporter #1: "What about the attempted murder of Patrick Bambra at his office four days ago? The five men who tried to kill him were all members of the Universal Brotherhood."
Galen Walker: "I'm not sure where you're getting this information...."
reporter #1: "Do you need to confirm that they were Universal Brotherhood members? I have their names."
reporter #2: "Is this level of violence normal for the Universal Brotherhood?"
And that's when Dent and No-Step's swarm of watchers came in for the attack. As a spirit-possessed human form, Galen Walker could see them coming. He made the extremely sensible decision to flee for the safety of the chapterhouse's magickal ward.
Audacity Jane: "Do you want me to pop him?"
Happy Jack: "Hold your fire. Right now, it looks like he ran away from some tough questions. If you kill him, it will look like he ran away from an attack."
No-Step: "He did run away from an attack."
Happy Jack: "An attack that none of the reporters or cameras could see. Let him be the one to try to sell that excuse to the media."

The shadowrunners were an ork/troll group. Against stereotype, they specialized in stealth, subtlety, bluff, illusion, deception and misdirection.
 
Cast of characters: 
Dent: ork, rat shaman
No-Step: ork, snake shaman, healer
Byte Force: ork, decker, chemist
Eye Spy: ork, rigger, drones, paramedic
Audacity Jane: ork, combat, stealth, security systems
Happy Jack: troll, combat, disguise, negotiator
Universal Brotherhood ("UB"): a charitable fringe religious organization

Judy (NPC): a human form insect spirit; almost impossible to distinguish from a normal human, even when assenced astrally, and therefore extremely dangerous

HMHVV: Human Meta-Human Vampiric Virus; different strains cause people to become vampires, banshees, wendigo, etc.
 
 
Missing Blood, part 8 - Cover This Up
 
The team had destroyed/neutralized the fly spirits in the UB Redmond chapterhouse and drugged unconscious all the normal humans. This gave them several minutes of free reign to do whatever they wanted (including Byte Force pilfering from the UB accounts).
 
Dent: "I'm going to kill the spirit possessing Judy."
Audacity Jane: "Wait ... there's no hive mind left for it to connect with, right?"
Dent: "Yeah. So?"
Audacity Jane: "So we have a prisoner to interrogate."
Dent: "I don't think you can torture a bug."
Eye Spy: "Cats do it all the time."
 
As Jane started raiding the vault for the Blood necklace, Jack pulled out several body bags and stuffed the flesh form fly corpses into them.
 
No-Step: "That's revolting. Why would you want to take those?"
Happy Jack: "We're going to sell them to megacorps."
No-Step: "That's your idea of making a profit from this?"
Happy Jack: "It's also my idea of creating something that's too big to cover up."
 
In the fly "queen's" room, the team found three cocoons with humans in the middle of mutating into flesh form fly spirits. After No-Step killed the possessing spirits, Happy Jack eviscerated the mutated bodies, then dragged the bodies up the stairs, through the lobby and onto the sidewalk.
 
Dent: "Doesn't the UB control Lone Star? As soon as the cops show up, they'll just cover this up."
Happy Jack: (grinning) "Then we'll just have to make sure that they're the last ones called."
 
Byte Force: "I have the voice masks queued up and the cell phones we stole from the building. Are we ready to make some calls?"
Happy Jack: "Yep. Make me sound like a little old lady."
DocWagon operator: "Thank you for calling DocWagon. May I have your account number."
little old lady Happy Jack: "Hello? I'm calling about one of your employees..."
DocWagon operator: "Are you making a complaint? If so, I'll need your account number."
little old lady Happy Jack: "No ... there's a man lying on the sidewalk. I think he's wearing a DocWagon uniform."
DocWagon operator: (alarmed) "Is someone attacking a DocWagon employee?"
little old lady Happy Jack: "No ... there was a gunshot ... so I waited a minute before looking out the window..."
 
After the call...
 
Dent: "You 'waited a minute before looking out the window'?"
Happy Jack: "Nobody in Redmond looks out the window immediately after a gunshot. Not unless they're looking to get hit by the subsequent gunshots."
 
Happy Jack and Byte Force followed up with a call to the CDC (pretending to be a DocWagon paramedic) reporting a suspected new strain of HMHVV infection, and then called Shiawase Environmental hazmat cleanup (pretending to be a CDC physician).
 
Happy Jack: "Let's get several blocks down the street and get some telephoto pictures of the bodies and the ensuing chaos."
Eye Spy: "I can get better pictures from above."
Happy Jack: "I don't want them to realize you were above them. I want them to think we're a nosy bystander."
 
Eye Spy: "It looks like all of the party guests have arrived."
Byte Force: "I have the little old lady voice queued again. Ready for the next round of phone calls?"
MegaMedia operator: "MegaMedia News. How may I help you?"
little old lady Happy Jack: "Hello? Why aren't you showing the men in spacesuits on the news?"
MegaMedia operator: "The men in space suits? I don't ..."
little old lady Happy Jack: "I can see a bunch of men in space suits in the street a block from my apartment" (pause) "and there's a DocWagon ambulance ... and a Shiawase truck...."
MegaMedia operator: "What are the men in space suits doing?"
little old lady Happy Jack: "I can't tell." (pause) "The space suits have letters on them ... C ... D ... C."
MegaMedia operator: "CDC ... Wait! What?!?"
little old lady Happy Jack: "I thought NASA owned all of the space ships ... no ... wait ... they sold them to Ares."
 
Later....
 
No-Step: "Aren't you handing the UB its cover-up on a silver platter? They can just claim there was a biohazard scare."
Happy Jack: "Do you want to visit a building where there was a biohazard scare?"