Arc 11: Damocles

## Session 1 (12/04/2021)

* In the month between
	+ NPC goings on
		- Marly and Caleb were brought back to New Wells and reunited with their mom by Victor
		- Other Richard is retiring from Team Pancakes
		- The Vanguard’s been sending supplies to Boise to build it up and keep their deal
			* All permanent residents in the city have housing
			* Property around Boise redone: physical training facilities, a track that runs along the edge of the city to mark its limits, hot water, greenhouses all far in the works
		- Ike made a deal with the air pirates to deliver supplies for the Union
	+ New Wells Six
		- Choc’s been working on a 180 machine gun for the Union, taking the month to iron it out
			* Also traded one of his vehicles for anxiety meds and adderall
			* He meets with Victor and Scott, who happily accept this design and mention a deal with Granny Apple’s armory to produce more
			* Nat had given the Union some interesting information on where they could find resources: Mab had been looking into Damocles bunkers, and there was one in Deadwood
				+ Mab’s witches who went to investigate never returned from the site
		- Na-way’s been helping the moorlocks rebuild their settlement, mostly helping out with the manual labor and occasionally getting pulled into playing with the kids
			* Junkyard militia has been working down there too to create low emission industries
			* The moorlocks have been going back to Han’s church, now taken over by Mai, who’s been handing out basic supplies to the mutant families down there
			* Na-way also found some work guarding Librarian book deliveries in Junkyard
			* Near the end of the month, got restless, felt the need to move on, and started trying to tag along with caravans
				+ Seems telling people they’ll get hurt if they don’t take up his guard services isn’t quite the best sell
				+ He notices some caravans that come in with injured people, people talking about fleeing from something harrowing that killed a lot
					- There’s whispers about vampires: buck teeth, pale faced, ate whoever they killed
			* Following what leads he could to find those he’d fought side-by-side in the underground with, Addie eventually was called to Junkyard by H3x and offered Na-way work in Sumpter, which he accepted
		- Addie spent the first week after the Summit looking for Gregg and Heru in the underground, to no progress
			* She runs into long abandoned testing sites, where living abominations: masses of flesh, emaciated things with multiple things scurry around
			* She’s had some help from the others in her interests this month
				+ River’s been helping her research Blessed abilities and rituals
				+ Mac and Dick have been doing most of the physical labor of repairing buildings and trying to get food sources established
					- Dick’s been looking into making restraints for magic users at Addie’s request, to little progress yet
				+ Noni’s been making traps out in the forest for intruders
			* At Anne’s petitioning, she agreed she get more functionality, normal human strength restored
				+ With Jennifer’s help, Anne’s been finding her voice in talking about certain issues more, been having more visits with River, opened up to Jennifer more
				+ Spends a lot of time high up in a tree in her yard time, River mentioning her dad did a similar thing when he wanted to think
			* Addie’s been testing the Snowflake slightly
				+ Has little reaction to Templar magic, but when near Choc, pulls toward him and his magic, and its presence seems to concern Derpy
				+ Choc gets a strong feeling of cold from it, and a feel it wants to drag him in; he loses his connection with spirits the more he hangs close to it
				+ Addie doesn’t seem to receive the same negative effects
			* She got her engraved ring from Victor to keep on her
* July 25th
	+ Choc returns to Sumpter to tell the group about his task from Victor and Scott
		- He meets up with Addie and Mac in the kitchen, Mac sternly reminding Addie to eat
		- Addie agrees to help Choc with the assignment
		- News on the Unity comes up
			* Word on Denver is mayers have been elected, and are charging tolls on the road, with non-compliers getting roughed up
			* There’ve been more public displays of humiliation to discourage dissent, Unity members turning to thievery
			* Addie’s wary about the news
	+ Murphy, recently awakened from his own Damocles bunker, has driven out in search of caches from his project
		- He drives into Sumpter, and attempts to spy on the group to see if they’re a threat
		- He catches sight of Na-way, and heavily distracted, gets caught in one of Noni’s net traps, which activates a siren
		- The group immediately rushes to the trap to find Murphy hanging from a tree
			* He tells them who he is and what he’s there for, which earns him just enough trust to get him cut down for talks, weapons taken off him
		- He’s taken to the inn’s basement, where Addie gives him the brief on what happened since the end of the world, supernatural bullshit and all
			* He takes it as a bit of a hard pill to swallow, but offers to trade our group supplies from the Damocles caches in turn for access to a satellite up-link

## Session 2 (12/11/2021)

* Flashback to the past month
	+ River recruited Ian to help guard the Inn with the best possible sell of our incompetence
	+ Ian spent a fair amount of time hunting down one of his old Combine associates: Anthony J White
* Back in modern day
	+ Ian and Murphy get into some soldier talk
	+ Addie meets Levy, offers to set her up in the Sumpter Stockade
		- As the group preps to leave for the first cache, Levy catches sight of the commotion and Addie invites her along
	+ Before leaving, Addie asks River and Noni if Anne can be trusted with a weapon, with Noni giving a yes and River a solid no
		- River only reluctantly concedes to Addie’s concern for her mom’s safety, and Addie has Anne promise to keep her mom safe before handing off Noni’s gun
* The group heads out, Addie on her bike, Levy and Choc in the tank, Murphy, Ian, and Na-way in Murphy’s vehicle
	+ A hellstorm rolls in on the way: black clouds tinged with green that briefly form the shape of a man screaming, green lightning, eyes falling from the sky
	+ The group takes shelter under an overpass for 6 hours, after which, the hellstorm passes, and all traces of it disappear
* We make our way through the valley, coming upon a diner and gas station on opposite sides, and a corpse on the ground between
	+ Looks like he has gear similar to Murphy, and has a Damocles card
	+ He’s wearing a gas mask, and as Murphy’s examining him, the corpse goes to grab him
		- Ian shoots him in the head, breaking the mask’s faceplate, and fumes rapidly leak out, turning the already dead grass around black
			* Levy uses her magic to twist and mold scrap rebar around her into a dome around the corpse to seal the fumes away
	+ A shot gets taken at Ian from the diner, and combat breaks out
		- Choc discovers he’s standing on a manually detonatable mine, swipes it from the ground before its operator can set it off
		- Levy speeds toward one of the gunman in the diner, another man with a gas mask, punching him backward through the glass
			* The man sets off his group’s own tripwire trap, a pile of grenades detonating into a large explosion
			* Levy gets shot and wounded heavily before the explosives go off, and is sent to the ground when the grenades detonate
			* Choc is launched back as the grenade explosions set off the mine in his hand
			* Addie cushions Choc’s impact, and picks up Levy, healing her wounds
			* One of the gas mask men escape
		- Gun fire sounds from across the street, hitting none of us
			* Na-way throws his hubcap and injures the shooter, who flees into the diner
* No more shots ting out, and the party goes to investigate the gas station, the diner now up in flames
	+ There’s 3 people in there, mutants with heads completely formed of an eyeball
	+ Levy uses her mind reading ability to communicate with them and translate for the group
		- The mutants say they’re survivors who’ve been pinned down here for the last four days, hunted by the gas mask men
			* They aren’t sure who they are
			* They were led here by a Damocles soldier to get supplies from the Damocles bunker
				+ Addie asks if they can cut a deal, share some supplies and the mutants can speak with the Union to share resources
			* They settler on the agreement and split the supplies from the bunker

## Session 3 (1/1/2021)

* We open on the Inn, before the group heads to Boise for Addie and River’s retraining
	+ Mac chooses to stay at the inn to keep an eye on it
	+ Anne will go to Boise with them, using her cybernetic implants to switch up her appearance
* During the 3 weeks of training in Boise
	+ Templar vets get training in leadership, teaching various skill classes
	+ Basically a constant round of war games between the Templars and Vanguard recruits
* After those 3 weeks
	+ Ian gets news about one of his targets
		- He finds Addie, and mentions his deal with River: he’d help her group if they helped him
		- He tells her an old associate he used to work in the Combine with has joined up with the Sea Dogs, a pirate group Kang mentioned
		- He had intel on a national guard depot in Mountain View where they could find a river patrol boat to help in the hunt
	+ Addie and River track down Jo to see if she has any info on the Sea Dogs
		- Jo mentions having a run-in with them
			* They have a reputation for stealing from the weak, taking ghost rock from miners in the maze
			* Have a lot of heavy fire power
			* Broke into a national guard armory and took the gear: full auto weapons, armor, interceptor boats
			* They’re a scattered group that operate as one, but have constant squabbles in leadership
			* Rumors say they’re based out of an old oil refinery, but no one knows for sure

## Session 4 (1/15/2021)

* We open up on August 16th, on the road to Mountain View
	+ Riding order: Ian ahead in his monster truck, Addie and Levy on her bike, Choc, Derpy, and Na-way in the tank, Noni, Dick, and Mac in their car
* While crossing the highways of southern Oregon, heavy fog and cold starts to set in, with the danger of black ice
	+ Driving at a slower clip, we get about halfway there without incident, taking a few breaks
	+ Near the end of the day of travel, the group runs into some scavengers taking shelter in an S-mart parking lot
		- Though wary, they don’t seem hostile, and warn of Road Orc activity on the highways before we head off again
* At the end of a second day of travel, we arrive in Mountain View
	+ There’s signs of long-ago battle in the streets: bullet holes in buildings and worn explosion marks in the streets
	+ Levy notices movement in the shadows, and calls for the figure to reveal themselves or be shot
		- A fish-man mutant climbs from the sewers, yelling for peace
			* Doesn’t seem to speak normal human languages
	+ Addie asks Levy to use her mind reading to translate, as she did with the eyeball mutants
		- As Levy attempts to make the connection, her device malfunctions, and accidentally summons a night haunt behind her
			* Choc immediately attempts to drive into it with his tank, *narrowly* missing Levy, only to find the vehicle passing through it
			* He then aims the tanks gun at it, *while Addie and Levy are within the blast template,* and takes the shot
			* Addie, *only  by the luck of quick reflexes,* drives her and Levy out of the way as the night haunt takes the blast damage, barely left holding itself up
			* Bruh we all get deafened
		- Addie finishes it off with her sword, Templar blade cutting through the creature’s normal immunities
	+ Addie immediately reprimands Choc for friendly fire, threatening to snap the tank’s gun before backing off
	+ The original fish-man mutant seems intrigued by Levy’s ability, and mentions something about taking her to the Great One
		- Other fish mutant people move out of the shadows, wielding bows, but don’t engage
	+ Addie uses Parley to translate her speech and talk to the mutants
		- The original mutant says the Great One is their shaman, who can use magic as well
			* He mentions their people are many, scattered, have many clutches they keep near the docks
			* At mention of Ian’s target, the mutants show hostility, call him the Betrayer, he stole their eggs and used their children as laborers
				+ Their kind matures after 3 months
	+ During this, Choc decides to take a taste of the night haunt’s ectoplasm
		- Addie begs Na-way not to follow his example
			* The best example for the youths
* The fish guy takes us to their Shaman: The Great One, also known as Luigi
	+ In the middle of a former armory is a throne of discarded rifles, where a fishman with a staff sits talking to more of his people
		- He speaks in English
		- Luigi tells us be believes the red cap is using the children of his people to build something off the coast
			* The red hat had originally aided them, saved some of their young that had been harassed by a different group of humans
				+ He then betrayed their trust and took their clutches to raise as slaves
		- He hasn’t seen oil refineries on the coast
		- Addie asks if the man mutated the shaman’s people, he says yes, that they have appendages from different animals
		- The shaman tells them his magic comes from the goddess, can commune with different toxic spirits
		- Those people that were taken from them will be buried, as those mutated by the red cap shouldn’t go on, according to Luigi
		- The shaman, to complement the throne, also has a gong made of brass bullet casings welded together to announce time
			* Ian complements it and asks for a selfie by it, which Luigi confusingly on his part, agrees to
		- Luigi offers us a boat to take to find the red cap, and weapons from the guard armory

## Session 5 (1/29/2021)

* We open on the USS *You’re Fucked Tony*, with the sky rumbling and fog moving in
	+ Ian hands out life jackets, 6 in total
		- Dick, Noni, Mac, Choc, Levy, and himself
	+ Addie’s very anxious as they start to go out into the water
* It’s 18 miles to the refinery lads
	+ Na-way swims beside the boat
	+ Instead of a straight path ahead, we have a couple bodies of water ending in waterfalls before open ocean
		- On the way down the first Dick loses his footing, and Choc has to throw a chain with Levy metal-mage-manipulating it to keep him from going overboard
	+ We move through a narrow water passage, between a cliff face and a bank with foliage
		- On a ledge above, a scaly humanoid starts firing arrows
			* Choc and Mac take shots at it as another climbs onto the boat from the water
			* It’s a crocodile-like humanoid with fanged mouths on their shoulders
				+ It’s the stolen, mutated fish people
			* The creature, after a brief scuffle, is grappled by Addie, who asks Noni to take a look in their mind
				+ Noni tells her they have a very primitive mindset, obey orders from some sort of Alpha
					- Only remember the shit he was born on: The Temptress, and his leader: Corporal Tony
				+ As Levy goes to kill it, Addie uses her magic to take the damage instead, telling her to keep him alive
	+ We go down another fall
		- Levy has to grab Addie and the crocodilian
			* Addie only throws up a little on the prisoner
* We get out to open water, and spot a ship with smoke coming from it, looks like an old galleon
	+ Speed boats ridden by men in gis exit the galleon
	+ It seems to be targeting someone or something else over a cropping of rocks
	+ Bits of garbage: takeout cups, bottles, fall from the sky into the sea close by
		- Levy believes it’s coming from Turtle Isle, a floating boat “island” that serves as Kang’s main base of operations
	+ Ahead of us, the side of the galleon reads “Putrid Temptress”, the same boat the crocodilian remembers
	+ Levy turns our boat, with everyone one it, invisible
		- The boat rides up to the galleon undetected
	+ In the distance, a bird man pics up one of the gi wearing men and drops him from the sky
	+ Dick takes a swig of Choc’s spook juice for some darn reason
	+ Addie boosts the group up into the nearest gunnery port
		- Ian stealthily takes out a a gunner
	+ Because the man must live up to his name, Dick teleports onto the deck of the ship, yelling out a challenge at the crew
		- Addie angrily scrambles up after him
		- The rest move through the lower deck to get up to them
			* Ian quickly kills 3 men on his way
		- As Ian gets up on the deck, a blond man drops down from the crow’s nest, Major Tiger Claw
			* Also known as Tony
				+ Yes
					- Tony the Tiger Claw
		- Ian fires his Damnation at Tony, who catches a few bullets, taking wounds in his eye and chest as he drops to a knee
			* He smiles, a couple bullets spinning between his fingers that he sends back at Ian
			* Ian narrowly misses taking hard damage
		- Choc threatens to blow up mortar rounds on the deck unless Tony surrenders
			* Tony doesn’t feel threatened, but his human crew does, and jumps overboard
		- Levy entangles Tony
		- Addie knocks out a few of the crocodile people, leaving them alive
		- A couple bird people swoop down and take out the gunners, shoot a couple crocodilian people in the spines to down them
	+ With combat over, Ian walks up to Tony, shoving his rifle in his face
		- Tony mentions his boss is a lot more powerful than Throckmorton ever was, and Tony’s a major now
		- Tony struggles to break out, almost breaking through with unusual supernatural strength
		- Levy is able to dig into his mind:
			* This ship was one of Kang’s scavenging boats
				+ A man named Rancor runs Kang’s pirate fleet, and started a small uprising in Kang’s ranks
				+ A mutant group known as the Ahnuman have been attacked by Rancor recently, thieving their ghost rock and hunting their people
				+ Rancor’s been held at the refinery by Kang
				+ Tony works for Rancor, and wants to kill him to take over
				+ Tony and Dick know each other, studied in the same martial arts school
				+ The people in gis are Tony’s students
			* As this is going on, Choc goes to try and put down the crocodilians with spine damage
				+ Noni stops him, reminding him Addie’s keeping them alive
				+ He says they won’t be able to walk, should be put out of their misery
				+ Addie yells at him to stop
				+ Noni reminds him they have a healer, and before he can continue, incapacitaes him with her magic
			* Back at Tony
				+ Ian tells Levy to let him go
				+ As Tony gets up, Ian stabs him through the throat, watching his life slowly drain away
			* It’s as Tony’s stopped moving, lying on the deck, that he smiles, and spits a bullet back at Ian from between his teeth, aiming at his neck
				+ Addie uses her magic to take the hit, bleeding from the spot Ian would’ve been hit
			* Tony makes his escape, flying off the ship and into the water
			* Na-way’s thrown onto the deck, saying a giant red shark overpowered him and flung him out of the water
	+ Dick mentions Tony must be the grandmaster of their old school now, inherited the title
	+ Choc goes to speak to one of the bird men that flies down onto the deck, an owl looking man
		- He introduces himself as Wayne
		- He and his people have been trying to pierce Rancor’s defenses
		- Says that no matter how many times they’ve killed Tiger Claw, he’s always back the next day
		- Ian asks if Tony is a servitor, Wayne says he’s not sure, but he is something greater than what he seems
		- He mentions that when Rancor wanted someone dead, he’d invite them to dinner, fed them a dish of ningyo (kinda like Japanese mermaids), that killed the recipient
			* Anyone who lived was said to become immortal
	+ Ian tells the group about the letter he received detailing Tony’s location
		- There’s a magic circle on the back of the letter
			* Levy mentions if burned, it summons something, though she’s not sure what or who
	+ While searching the ship:
		- Addie finds a clutch of eggs in the cargo bay, in rancid water full of blood
		- Levy finds a bunch of journals, either written by Tony or hoarded by him
	+ Addie ties up the crocodile people, trying to find if they can be returned to the Shaman and given their lives back