death tribble

Who's the boss?
 
Some mild profanity.

Setting: Modern day Earth.
 
---
 
Two of the PCs were in a room beneath this concealed high-tech facility. Unfortunately, as they were exploring it, they set off an electricity trap that wasn't in the official blueprints and had to haul themselves up along the walls to the ceiling as it activated.
 
As both of the guys are perched among the lights like nervous hawks, one of them calls the techie PC occupying the control room inside the facility proper and asks if they can shut off the circuits leading to the room (which I might be underselling...it was more like a converted super-huge warehouse). He agrees and calls up the fourth PC who's able to sneak past security patrols to the section containing the circuit breakers/transformers/various power conduits. Normally, the techie could have worked his networking magic and switched off the flow remotely, but I wanted everyone to feel useful during this mission, so I made an executive decision and stated that because of ultra-paranoid security measures, the redirection of current had to be operated in person and also had to be sabotaged so as not to arouse suspicion (outside of scheduled tests, authorized maintenance, and emergencies, no one is allowed to muck about with the electronics at will).
 
Once within the isolated room, the agent located the relevant access panel and got to work. She asks the techie what needed to be done. A few rolls are made, so there's a bit of flavor description that gets sent back and forth. Misfortune strikes the team once again as the agent botches an assisted Electrician roll. However, she is able to correct her flub by spending some luck to re-roll into a normal success.
 
Techie: "Cut the three wires..." (makes assist roll)
Female agent: "Done and done." (rolls a failure)
Female agent's player: "Damn. I'm going to spend Luck to fix that..." (rolls again) (success).
Techie: "I SAID THREE!"
Female agent: "Don't get your leather pa...pants in a knot. It's just an expression. I haven't lost my grasp of basic arithmetic yet!"

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 Olympian appeared one day at the foot of Olympia. He appeared dazed and confused. He appeared rage driven when he began hurling lightning and sun beams at locals who fled the scene. Opposed by UNTIL, he vanished from the battle. He has appeared several times since to throw his efforts in with others who seem to share the same goals.
CES    

Saturday saw me get my Stingray submarine into position to launch torpedoes with the two other Stingray craft and destroy Titanica. My stretcher bearer was delayed getting to the aid station but two of the other parties lost their patient (i.e. they died on the way there). Lastly I got in as a replacement and helped capture Cmdr Bond as he tried to escape skiing downhill. Sadly his accomplice escaped.

Death Walker
 
Quote: Death Walker is a mute. Among the Corruptors is a saying that when Death Walker speaks the Universe will come to an end.

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?"

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
 
Missing Blood, part 7 - Orkin Man
 
The Universal Brotherhood was secretly being controlled by insect spirits. The team had decided to start by taking out the UB's Redmond chapterhouse.
 
The assault:
 
Unfortunately, Judy hadn't been eliminated before the assault. Therefore, she was a primary target during the assault, second only to the queen.
 
Happy Jack: "I'm going to go in the front door before walking around to the soup kitchen."
Audacity Jane: "Why? So you can run the risk of blowing your cover?"
Judy: (as Happy Jack walked in) "Is there something I can help you with?"
homeless Happy Jack: "Uh ... somebody said there was food here..." (looking around) "um ... sorry ... I guess they were wrong..."
Judy: "You're in the right place. Just the wrong door. If you go out the door and follow the wall along that way, you'll see the entrance to the soup kitchen."
Happy Jack: (subvocalizing over the radio link as he walked around the building) "The front half of the building is one large room. The elevator is accessed from that room, and both fire stairwells, and the stairs to the basement. Judy is sitting at the information desk. There are two guards, and about four other people."
Audacity Jane: "I'm impressed. You actually got some useful recon out of that."
Dent: "I'm less impressed. He mostly learned that the alarm is going to go off when you're halfway through clearing the ground floor."
 
Jack and Jane went into the soup kitchen and picked a spot at an empty table. Jane stayed back at the table while Jack went to where they were serving the food. As the only troll in the place, he drew a lot of attention ... particularly from the security guards.
 
homeless Happy Jack: (speaking a little too loudly) "Scuse me. Do you have bigger bowls than these?"
Jane used her silenced narcojet pistol to drop the two guards.
homeless Happy Jack: "Hey! They just fell down."
Jane used her narcojet pistol to drop the two UB volunteers who were serving food.
homeless Happy Jack: "Hey! You just fell down too."
In the confusion, Jane dropped everyone else in the room.
Audacity Jane: (to Jack) "Thanks for helping."
Happy Jack: "You're welcome."
Audacity Jane: "I was being sarcastic."
Happy Jack: "I was being a distraction."
Audacity Jane: "You didn't do anything except make inane comments ... loudly."
Happy Jack: "Which managed to distract them."
 
Jack and Jane worked their way through the building to the front room.
 
Happy Jack: (holding out his hand to Jane) "When I open the door, roll these into the middle of the room."
Audacity Jane: "What are these?"
Happy Jack: "NeuroStun grenades."
Audacity Jane: "Why do they have Nerps labels on them?"
Happy Jack: "What do you do when a grenade rolls into the middle of the room?"
Audacity Jane: "Dive for cover or throw it back."
Happy Jack: "And what do you do when a can of Nerps rolls into the middle of the room?"
Audacity Jane: (long pause) "From now on, I'm gonna dive for cover or throw it back."
 
Several things happened almost simultaneously: Byte Force severed the building's commline and started jamming cellular frequencies; Dent and No-Step unleashed their swarm of watcher spirits against the building's magickal ward; and Jane rolled the gas grenades into the front room.
 
As Jack and Jane waited in the hall for the NeuroStun gas to disperse, Jack pulled two small Spyder drones out of his backpack.
No-Step: (over the radio link) "The first spirits have reacted to our attack. They're fly spirits."
Audacity Jane: "That's appropriate."
Eye Spy: "Appropriate?"
Audacity Jane: "Your drones will be covering the lobby while we're in the basement." (pause) "So we'll be using your Spyders to catch some flies."
 
Jack entered the fly "queen's" chamber and assumed a wide-legged combat stance. Jane dropped to the floor and fired bursts from her silenced submachine gun between his legs, killing several flesh-form fly spirits.
 
Happy Jack: "Be very, very careful when you pull stunts like that."
Audacity Jane: "Seriously? You're not that well endowed."

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
Madame Ulishia (NPC): a fortune teller; had been possessed by an insect spirit and slain by ant spirits
Universal Brotherhood ("UB"): a charitable fringe religious organization
 
Missing Blood, part 6 - The Best Laid Plans
 
The Universal Brotherhood was secretly being controlled by insect spirits. The team had decided to start by taking out the UB's Redmond chapterhouse.
 
Planning the assault:
 
Byte Force: "The UB doesn't have any security systems that connect to the Matrix ... or any other security systems for that matter. I can run a simultaneous assault against their system in order to get at their money, but that's about the extent of it."
Dent: "That's an extremely valuable contribution."
Byte Force: "It might also be a deadly one. If one of their members is connected in the banking business, they could tie that money to us."
Happy Jack: "That's what money laundering is for. We may give up most of the money, but it becomes nearly impossible to track the money to us."
No-Step: "If they have a person inside the bank, they could find the money launderer as easily as they could find us. I'm sure they'd be willing to torture information out of him."
Happy Jack: "That's why I intend to launder the money through the Yakuza. If the UB wants to tangle with the Yaks in order to get to us, I'm willing to let them start a war."
 
Audacity Jane: (to Dent and No-Step) "Are you sending in spirits like you did when we went after Euphoria?"
Dent: "We can't send in city spirits. It's a hearth spirit domain."
No-Step: "I don't want to summon a hearth spirit in there. We'd get something worse than that abomination you summoned at Madame Ulishia's."
Dent: "And there's a ward around the building, which would keep watcher spirits out."
Happy Jack: "Does it keep them out forever, or do they have to break through it?"
Dent: "They have to break through it ... which is going to alert whomever put it up."
Audacity Jane: "That's fine. If they're busy defending the ward against your spirits, then they're not protecting the targets inside from me."
 
Happy Jack: "I think we need to brainstorm different tricks and tactics to use against them."
Audacity Jane: "We do that for every job."
Happy Jack: "Yes ... but this time is different. According to the investigative reporters, there are over 400 chapterhouses. That means we'll be hitting the UB more than once."
Byte Force: "You think they'll learn our habits."
Dent: "Wait ... Is this all we're going to do from now on? We could spend years fighting them without wiping them out."
Happy Jack: "Consider that incentive to brainstorm some alternate ways to bring them down."
Dent: "..."
 
Byte Force: "I combed through the UB's membership roles for the Redmond chapterhouse. I think they have about 16 security guards per shift. Ex-gang members and ex-street samurai wannabes. No serious muscle."
No-Step: "What about human form insect spirits?"
Byte Force: "That's the good news. Other than Madame Ulishia, they only have one other human form in this chapterhouse. Her name is Judy. She works at the information desk in front."
Audacity Jane: "I think Judy is about to become the victim of random street violence."
Happy Jack: "Or become a casualty of a fatal workplace accident."
 
Audacity Jane: "So are we sneaking in through one of the upper floors?"
Happy Jack: "I'd rather go in through the soup kitchen."
Audacity Jane: "Any excuse for you to play dress up."
Happy Jack: "The homeless carry a lot of crap around with them. That means we can sneak a lot of gear in while looking just like everyone else."
Dent: "But you only get to pull that trick once. After that they'll install security scanners and put more security in the soup kitchens."
Happy Jack: "Yep. Even a basic scanner will set them back 15,000 nuyen. Multiply it by 400 chapterhouses. That's a nice little hit to their cash flow."
No-Step: "That's not much compared to how much nuyen they're pulling in."
Happy Jack: "A few million nuyen here, a few million there ... pretty soon it starts adding up to some real money."

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
Danial Simpson (NPC): a pudgy, middle-aged junior exec at Renraku
Victoria Delling (NPC): the missing girl with the missing gift
Detective Bambra (NPC): a private investigator
Madame Ulishia (NPC): a fortune teller; had been possessed by an insect spirit and slain by ant spirits
Universal Brotherhood ("UB"): a charitable fringe religious organization
 
Missing Blood, part 5 - Tying it Together
 
The Universal Brotherhood had tried to kill Detective Bambra.
Detective Bambra had been hired to find evidence of Danial Simpson's affair.
Danial Simpson had an affair with Victoria Delling, until she disappeared with an expensive necklace.
Victoria Delling had regularly visited Madame Ulishia, who had encouraged Victoria to do whatever caused her to disappear.
Madame Ulishia was actually possessed by an insect spirit (but not an ant spirit) and had been killed by people possessed by ant spirits.
 
No-Step: "We need to figure out how this all fits together."
Eye Spy: "At the moment, I'd like to know how any of this fits together."
 
Byte Force: "I'm going to take a run against the Universal Brotherhood's network. Is there anything specific you think I should look for?"
Happy Jack: "Any references to Bambra, any references to Victoria Delling, any references to Danial Simpson, any references to Madame Ulishia, or any references that would indicate insect spirits."
Byte Force: "You think all of those are tied to the Universal Brotherhood?"
Happy Jack: "No. But this is more like the 'shotgun' method of evidence gathering. Put enough stuff in the air, and you might get a hit."
Audacity Jane: "That technique works as poorly for evidence as it does for marksmanship."
Happy Jack: "If you think it works poorly for hitting a target, then you're not using a big enough shotgun."
 
Some time later, Byte Force completed his run on the UB's system. The most important information was an eight page exposé on the Universal Brotherhood, plus eighty pages of background notes.
 
The summarized exposé and notes:
The Universal Brotherhood was controlled by insect spirits, or more accurately, the queens.
These insect spirits included ant spirits, fly spirits, termite spirits, wasp spirits, and possibly others.
The UB had over 35,000 members (counting both normal people and insect-possessed people), over one hundred million nuyen in annual cash flow, and was growing rapidly.
The majority of UB members were normal people who were ignorant of the organization's true nature.
Unwitting members were duped into becoming voluntary hosts for insect spirits.
Through its members, the UB had influence in almost every major corporation and other powerful group, including Lone Star.
The reporters who wrote the exposé had been killed. The UB had successfully prevented the story from being released, covered up the crime and the exposé, and even found and blown up a local Shadowland hub to keep this secret.
 
The other information discovered:
Victoria Delling was a member of the UB, and was undergoing the process of "initiation" (possession).
The missing necklace was being stored in a vault in the UB's Redmond chapterhouse.
Madame Ulishia had been an initiated member and a recruiter for the UB.
Hours after hiring the team to find the necklace, Danial Simpson had attended his first UB meeting.
 
Eye Spy: "We are so screwed."
Audacity Jane: (grimly) "As soon as the Universal Brotherhood realizes we have this information, they're going to come after us with everything they have."
Happy Jack: "So far they don't know we have the information. They don't even suspect we have it. From this point forward, we're now under black-ops rules. No trails lead back to us."
Byte Force: "But there will be a trail leading back to us."
Happy Jack: "How? Were you spotted in their system?"
Byte Force: "No. The necklace. Blood. After we give it back to Danial, someone at the UB will eventually realize that his wife's necklace is the same as the one that used to be in their possession. They can trace the necklace to Danial. They can trace Danial to Noggin. They can trace Noggin to you...."
Happy Jack: "That trail only exists if Simpson gets his necklace back. At this point, I'm in favor of returning the 2,000 nuyen advance. It's certainly not worth 6,000 nuyen to connect ourselves back to this mess."
 
Dent: "If we're not getting the necklace back, what are we doing?"
No-Step: "We have to go public with this information."
Byte Force: "That didn't turn out that well for the two reporters."
Happy Jack: "This whole report sounds like a crackpot conspiracy theory. The only reason it sounds plausible to us is because of that whole Euphoria affair ... and because of the possessed guys who attacked Ulishia."
Eye Spy: "So you're saying that people won't believe us if we tell the truth. What's your solution? Lie to them?"
Happy Jack: "Let's convince people the UB is lying to them."
Audacity Jane: "I'm not seeing the difference."
Happy Jack: "Just wait."
No-Step: "I hate it when you give that answer."
GM: Not as much as I do.
 
No-Step: "We need to warn Danial Simpson somehow."
Audacity Jane: "Why should we risk ourselves to warn him?"
No-Step: "If we don't, the UB will get control over a Renraku executive."
Happy Jack: "There's an easier way to solve that problem. Can you fake being Detective Bambra well enough to fool Mrs. Simpson?"
No-Step: "I only have a few pictures to work off of, and that's generally not enough." (pause) "But if I look like I've been beaten up, with some bruises on my face and some swelling, I should be able to pass."
Happy Jack: "Perfect. Pretend to be Bambra, give Mrs. Simpson the disk of Victoria's vidphone message, she divorces Danial, and her father fires Danial. The UB may still have a hold of him, but he'll no longer be a junior exec."
 
Byte Force: "I think we need to start by hitting the Redmond chapterhouse."
Dent: "Why there?"
Byte Force: "The necklace is being stored there."
Happy Jack: "We're not returning it to Danial."
Byte Force: "I know, but if No-Step, posing as the detective, returns it to Mrs. Simpson, they will follow the trail back to him, not us."
Audacity Jane: "Since they're already trying to kill him, they could end up shooting him before they get the chance to interrogate him."
Happy Jack: "Even if they do interrogate him, they won't get much out of him besides screams and pleas for mercy."
 
No-Step: "I realize the strategic value of pinning our actions on somebody else, but I can't just let someone be horribly tortured by insect spirits in order to save ourselves."
Happy Jack: "I'll make you a deal. If we get a lead on Bambra, we'll make sure that doesn't happen to him." (looking around at the rest of the group) "If we can find Bambra without leaving any evidence that leads back to us, does everyone agree that's a reasonable compromise."
Audacity Jane: "Sure. Lone Star will find his corpse in a back alley. The UB's search for us will hit a literal dead end."
Happy Jack: "I was going to suggest slipping him enough money so he could lead them on a wild goose chase across the continent ... but your suggestion works just as well."

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
Victoria Delling (NPC): the missing girl with the missing gift
Madame Ulishia (NPC): a fortune teller that Victoria had regularly visited
 
Missing Blood, part 4 - Miss Fortune Teller
 
Danial Simpson had hired the team to find a missing necklace (called "Blood"). The necklace was in the possession of his missing mistress (Victoria Delling). Madame Ulishia had sent the team chasing a red herring, even though she clearly knew more about Victoria's disappearance. Since it was the middle of the night, the team decided to confront her immediately.
 
No-Step: "I think we're rushing into this. We don't have any idea what kind of defensive preparations she could have."
Happy Jack: "Assume she's a shaman. What kind of defenses would she have?"
No-Step: "She'll have a hearth spirit. Maybe a weak watcher."
Dent: "Maybe an ally spirit."
Happy Jack: "And if she's a hermetic mage?"
Dent: "She'll have one or more elemental spirits instead of a hearth spirit. The rest will be the same."
Happy Jack: "Gee. It took you a whole 10 seconds to figure out her magickal defenses."
 
The team planned to do a careful recon before entering ... but as they approached the door they heard a cry of pain and breaking glass from inside.
 
Audacity Jane: (quietly over the radio link) "The front door is ajar. The latch is broken." (pause) "Frag. Do we go in blind?"
Happy Jack: "No."
Happy Jack casually strolled in front of the big picture window in the front of Madame Ulishia's shop/home and looked in.
Dent: "The blinds are closed, Genius."
Happy Jack: "And I have thermographic vision."
 
Happy Jack: "Two people down on the floor. A third is crouched over one of them."
Audacity Jane: "The two on the floor ... alive?"
Happy Jack: "They're warm ... so either alive or recently alive."
 
No-Step's watcher spirit started making a racket in the back room.
Happy Jack: "Number three just charged into the back. The other two didn't twitch."
Jane eased open the front door, stepped inside, and came face-to-face with a fourth person ... who was coming out of the other back room.
Audacity Jane: "Oops?"
 
The people in Madame Ulishia's had large, weird teeth ... and they preferred unarmed combat over using weapons.
 
Audacity Jane: (retreating back into the street) "What are they? Some type of vampire? Physical adepts?"
Dent: "Oh **** me! They're possessed by ant spirits!"
Happy Jack: (smacking one with the haft of his naginata) "Didn't anyone tell you ... don't bring an ant to a troll fight."
 
Dent and No-Step's city spirits killed the ant spirits. Unlike the ant-possessed humans they had encountered previously (here and here), these could pass for humans with weird cyberware/bioware.
 
Dent summoned a hearth spirit inside Madame Ulishia's, which immediately caused some consternation.
Eye Spy: "What the **** is that?"
No-Step: "Your spirit looks like The Fly decided to dress up like Carnac the Great."
Dent: "I think my conjuration is bugged."
 
The hearth spirit was somewhat recalcitrant, but eventually helped Dent by locating a clue (a handwritten journal).
Dent: "Whoever wrote this journal talks about her queen and her host's body. I think it was written by an insect spirit possessing someone's body."
Byte Force: "What was Madame Ulishia doing with an ant spirit's journal?"
Dent: (astrally inspecting Madame Ulishia's corpse) "I think she was possessed by spirit. Not an ant spirit, but something similar."
No-Step: "That's impossible. I saw her astral form earlier. She was a normal human."
Audacity Jane: (examining the corpse) "And I don't see any insect-like mutations."
Dent: "Some spirits can mask their auras and look human. Maybe Ulishia was one of those?"
 
This revelation started driving the normally paranoid shadowrunners to new heights of paranoia.
 
Dent: "We don't have any way to detect someone like Ulishia."
No-Step: "They could replace someone we know, and we might not be able to tell."
Eye Spy: "Maybe they already have!"
Dent: "Maybe we can invent a spell to detect them?"
Happy Jack: "Use brute force."
Audacity Jane: "You mean, 'Kill them all and let the gods sort them out'?"
Happy Jack: "Not exactly." (pause) "Normal people can't be attacked from the astral, and mages and shamans can only be attacked from the astral when they're astrally assencing or projecting, right?"
Dent: "That's the only way they can be directly attacked. There are still ways to indirectly attack them."
Happy Jack: "Okay. And spirits are always present on the astral, even when they're physically manifesting, right? They can't avoid being in the astral?"
No-Step: "That's correct."
Happy Jack: "So you can attack a normal person astrally. If they're really a normal person, there's no effect. If they fall over dead, you know that they're actually possessed by something."
Dent and No-Step thought this over.
Happy Jack: "And if you warn a mage or shaman about what you're about to do, and then they fall over dead, then you know they were either possessed by something, or they're too dumb to live."
 
The team had also taken custody of three catatonic ex-hosts of ant spirits.
 
Audacity Jane: "I don't think these guys are worth much. Organ-leggers don't have a market for mutated parts."
Happy Jack: "Let's keep them alive for a little while anyway."
Dent: "That's dangerous. The other ant spirits may be able to track these bodies down."
Happy Jack: "Really? That could be helpful."
Dent: "How is that helpful?"
Happy Jack: "We can stow them in a safehouse and use them as bait."
Eye Spy: "We could put tracking devices on them."
Audacity Jane: "I could rig booby traps."
No-Step: "I think 'safehouse' may be a bit of a misnomer under these circumstances."

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
Danial Simpson (NPC): a pudgy, middle-aged junior exec at Renraku; employing the team for this job
Victoria Delling (NPC): the missing girl with the missing gift
Detective Bambra (NPC): a private investigator
Madame Ulishia (NPC): a fortune teller who fingered Detective Bambra as Victoria's stalker
 
Missing Blood, part 3 - Getting a Clue
 
The team had collected a load of evidence from Detective Bambra's office: audio chips, video chips, five unconscious gang members ... even their gear was providing clues.
 
Audacity Jane: "These gang kids are using APDS ammo. How are they getting their hands on that? I can barely get my hands on it."
Happy Jack: "We don't have that hard of a time getting it."
Audacity Jane: "Well, no ... but that's because you had Ares pay us in crates of it. I'm fairly certain that these kids aren't getting it the same way."
 
Dent: (after doing a Mind Probe) "These gang members all belong to the Universal Brotherhood. One of the leaders in the local chapterhouse sent them to kill the private investigator."
Happy Jack: "What? The Universal Brotherhood is that group that runs the soup kitchens. Why would they send out a hit squad? Did he poison their soup?"
Dent: "They were told that he was causing trouble for the Universal Brotherhood."
Audacity Jane: "That still doesn't make much sense. Charitable organizations don't resort to violence, even when they should."
Byte Force: "It's hard to get donations if you have a reputation for violence."
Audacity Jane: "Really? I've always found that a reputation for violence makes fundraising easier."
No-Step: "Charities don't function like protection rackets."
Audacity Jane: "That's why protection rackets raise more money than charities."
 
The discussion digressed onto various shadowrunners methods of "raising money for charities."
 
Dent: "I've noticed something weird about these gang members. On a subconscious level, they're the happiest and most self-confident people I've ever Mind Probed. They're surprisingly well adjusted, given their background."
No-Step: "Do you even know anyone who is happy, confident and well adjusted?"
Eye Spy: "Jack is happy."
Happy Jack: "I'm probably not well-adjusted, though."
Audacity Jane: "I'm well-adjusted."
Everyone turned and stared at Jane.
Eye Spy: "Yeah ... riiiiiight."
Audacity Jane: "I'm not all wishy-washy or angst-ridden. I'm perfectly happy with who I am and what I do."
No-Step: "That's because you're amoral and remorseless. That's not the same as being 'well-adjusted'."
 
Byte Force: "The old troll with the cats and the fortune teller both made a comment about Victoria. They said she was becoming more self-confident. Maybe there's some connection between her growing self-confidence and the gang members' self-confidence."
Dent: (after doing another Mind Probe) "They're more self-confident because of what they're learning from the Universal Brotherhood ... but it sounds like a bunch of hippy, flaky gibberish to me."
Byte Force: "You might be able to produce that kind of effect with subtle doses of pharmaceuticals."
Happy Jack: "Brainwashing techniques could do it."
Eye Spy: "What about magick?"
No-Step: "It could do it, but we would be able to see the magickal signature in their auras."
Happy Jack: (laughing) "That's life in 2051. We found six people who are happy and confident, so we're absolutely convinced that it's a sinister plot."
 
Private Detective Bambra's audio chips (which he dictated his notes on) provided some very different information.
 
Byte Force: "Bambra was hired by Danial Simpson's wife. She suspected that he was having an affair."
No-Step: "Even if we recover the necklace, she's probably going to keep digging."
Byte Force: "She may not need to keep digging. Bambra had her plant a bug on Danial's phone."
 
Bambra had used the tap on Danial's phone to download a vidphone message that Victoria had left for Danial. It seemed likely that Danial had never seen this message.
 
Victoria's recorded message: "I'll be gone for a day or two. I just wanted you to know that I'm all right. I also ... wanted to thank you again so much for the necklace."
Dent: "He is so busted."
 
Victoria's recorded message: "... Madame Ulishia has told me that this is something I shouldn't pass up. She said to me, 'Victoria Delling, this is your moment. Seize it!' So I'm going to."
No-Step: "I believe the fortune teller had a little more information than she let on."
Audacity Jane: (to Happy Jack) "It looks like your detective disguise didn't get the cooperation that you expected it to."
Happy Jack: "I warned that woman about withholding information from me."
No-Step: "You told her you'd arrest her. But you're not really with Lone Star. You can't carry out that threat."
Happy Jack: "Of course I can. It's just called an abduction instead of an arrest when I carry it out."

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
Danial Simpson (NPC): a pudgy, middle-aged junior exec at Renraku; employing the team for this job
Victoria Delling (NPC): the missing girl with the missing gift
Detective Bambra (NPC): a private investigator
 
Missing Blood, part 2 - Gang Banging
 
Danial Simpson had hired the team to find a missing necklace (called "Blood"). The necklace was in the possession of his missing mistress (Victoria Delling). The missing woman had been stalked by a private investigator (Detective Bambra) ... who possibly could be found ... and whose office they had definitely found.
 
Astral recon showed that his office was unoccupied, so Dent and Jane went to break in.
 
Happy Jack: "Let's keep an eye on those gang members. They seem very suspicious to me."
GM: (rolling dice) They seem unusually cheerful and self-confident for gang members, but they're not otherwise suspicious.
Byte Force: "Gang members are common in the Barrens. It would be more suspicious if this area was gang free."
Happy Jack: "Gangs are common in the Barrens, but those three are sitting in a Eurocar Westwind. That's a very pricey ride for poor Barrens kids."
Eye Spy: "It could be stolen."
Happy Jack: "Then why aren't they joyriding it or stripping it? That's normal behavior for gang members."
 
Detective Bambra's office was full of useful clues.
 
Audacity Jane: (over the radio link) "The PI wasn't stalking Victoria. He was stalking Simpson. He has a bunch of audio chips for each case, and one set is labeled 'The Simpson Affair'."
Byte Force: "Can you make a copy of them?"
Dent: "We don't have the time or equipment to make copies. Do you want us to just take them?"
Byte Force: "If we take them, he'll know we're onto him."
Happy Jack: "Clean out all of the chips for every case and his electronic equipment. That way he can't be sure which case is involved, or if it was just simple theft."
Dent: "And it gives us more stuff to fence."
 
Happy Jack: "Heads up. The gang members just got out of their car and are heading into the same building you're in."
Dent: "See if you can figure out where they're going."
Aided by a hearth spirit's Concealment, Denta and Jane hid in the office. After a couple minutes, the gang members burst in with drawn machine pistols.
gang member #1: (crashing in through the door) "The Iceman cometh, dudes!"
The gang members looked around in confusion at the apparently empty office.
gang member #2: "Where did Bambra's muscle go?"
There was a loud racket from down the hall as Happy Jack charged up the stairwell.
gang member #3: "Oh drek! They're behind us!"
As the gang members turned to charge back into the hall, Jane and Dent opened fire into their backs with narcojet pistols.
 
Audacity Jane: (as Jack charged into the office) "What are you doing up here?"
Happy Jack: (gesturing at the unconscious gang members) "I came to help you with these guys."
Dent: (snickering) "Help do what with them?"
Happy Jack: "Help carry them down to the van, apparently."
 
Eye Spy: (watching everything get packed into the van) "With all the junk you're..."
No-Step: (interrupting) "Evidence, not junk."
Eye Spy: "...evidence you're loading, there won't be enough room for all of you."
No-Step: "Don't worry. There's one more piece of evidence. It definitely won't fit in the van. And it will solve our little space issue."
Eye Spy: "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Dent: "That made no sense."
No-Step: (gesturing at the Eurocar Westwind) "That's the piece of evidence I'm referring to."
Audacity Jane: "And like the gang members, we can sell it for parts when we're done with it."

Crusader
 
The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was a great wonder of the world  overlooking the city of Halicarnassus for many years. It was untouched even when the city fell to Alexander the Great and after attacks by pirates . It stood above the city's ruins for sixteen centuries. Then a series of earthquakes shattered the columns and sent the bronze chariot crashing to the ground. By 1404 AD only the very base of the Mausoleum was still recognizable.
 
In 1404 the knights of st john of rhodes a crusader order, invaded the region and built Bodrum Castle , When they decided to fortify it in 1494, they used the stones of the Mausoleum. In 1522 rumors of a Turkish invasion caused the Crusaders to strengthen the castle at Halicarnassus (which was by then known as Bodrum) and much of the remaining portions of the tomb were broken up and used in the castle walls. 
 
During the fortification work, a party of knights entered the base of the monument and discovered the room containing a great coffin.the histories of the Mausoleum state the following happened: "The party, deciding it was too late to open it that day, returned the next morning to find the tomb, and any treasure it may have contained, plundered. The bodies of Mausolus and Artemisia were missing too." but that was not the truth the Knights did open the coffin and within was a golden suit of greek armour .
 
when the leader of the knights touched the armour it flowed over him like water and formed into a perfect duplicate of his own armour.
 
he collapsed causing his men to flee fearing witchcraft but the leader heard the voices of angels telling him that  it was a gift from god that it would give him the strength to slay his enemies and to take the lands for his god. only it wasn't the Christian God it was Ares god of war to whom the temple at the heart of the mausoleum complex had been consecrated. the leader arose from the tomb and swore all of his men to secrecy this was a gift from god and word must not get out to the saracen heretics .  The voices where true to their word the armour gave the bearer undying strength in combat and vengeful blood fury and the armour itself would turn all but the luckiest of blows .
 
The Leader of the knights would used it to great effect passing the armour down from one knight to another within in a secret order the Knights of the Golden Cross a hidden sub-group within the order that would eventually become the Knights of Malta.
 
Yet even the wondrous Golden armour could not stop the Knights defeat at the hands of Suleiman the Magnificent  some time in the tumult of battle the last bearer of the armour was lost cut down despite his god forged might crushed under a wave of foes and thus the suit vanished from history.
 
Until a few years ago when a new super villain appeared suddenly clad in glorious golden armour acting as muscle for neo nazi crime organisations across europe. he is The Crusader a Xenophobic hooligan with a love of battle and mayhem. (of course unbeknownst to him a small but very formidable secret order of knights is hunting him and the Knights of the Golden Cross will stop at nothing to recover their most holy relic.)
 

oops accidentally did a hero lets try again
 
Professor Pyramid was a B-list super villain in the 1970s granted extraordinary powers from the ancient energies of the pyramid. drummed out of academia as a quack.
 
Prof Pyramid travelled the world investigating pyramid sites and committing pyramid themed he disappeared following his final defeat in 1977 almost 30 years later he returned seemingly unaged and massively more powerful seemingly having discovered the true secrets of pyramid power.

The 100th anniversary of The Gallipoli campaign has just been celebrated. I thought our Australian correspondants would have said something.
 
Two British athletes who have had outstanding careers have just retired. Paula Radcliffe, the long distance runner, and A.P. McCoy who won the Champion Jockey every year from 1995/6 to date. we wish them well in retirement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuD-7pcjdSk

Must be seen to beee believed.
 

If You Wait by London Grammer, New Eyes by Clean Bandit and Hozier by Hozier. Reduced to $5 for London Grammer which was a steal.