Arc 8: Redwater

## Session 1 (11/21/2020)

* Been 8 days since our return from Curie, and the werewolves have been nonstop partying
	+ In these few days:
		- Liberty and Atom have been away for a few days, working on Doomsayer stuff
		- Choc got his hands on a humvee and a confederate tank
		- Gregg’s been chilling with the werewolves
		- Toussaint and Gregg have been wearing down the witch we captured, and we’ve all been keeping an eye on her
			* The witch’s name is Tessa,
			* Gregg has attuned to the staff she stole from Tessa, and found it can summon Hobbs
		- River and Addie have been wary around Toussaint, River especially so
* 4pm on Saturday April 28th
	+ River returns to the group camp, looking agitated
		- Addie meets up with her, asks her what’s wrong
		- River shows her a wanted poster she picked up from the Law Dog headquarters: Anna Mortem, River’s mom
			* She’s a Red Hat and looks to be the same woman that lead the attack on New Wells
		- River says having to hunt her down and kill her isn’t something she wants to do, but has to
		- River restates her distrust of Toussaint when Addie says he might help with tracking Anna down
		- Addie reassures her she’ll be with her, and redirects her attention to their witch captive to distract her
		- Are all these details necessary? Probably not. I’m biased. Sue me
	+ Atom and Liberty return, and the group gathers to speak
		- They’ve made contact with Joan, and she’s directed them toward a certain job
			* The details: Doc Simpson is looking for someone to deliver a package to Redwater, willing to pay a decent sum
				+ Redwater’s an old military town with an army base nearby
		- Atom and Liberty are going to work at finding an artifact, and leave the job to us
	+ After that conversation, we turn our attention to the witch
		- Toussaint tells us what he’s learned from her
			* She’s part of a coven, hates all of them and the feeling’s mutual
			* They had found Curie covered in snow, found a powerful warlock there (Kemlar?)
				+ He proposed a deal, to have them bring fresh bodies to Curie and harvest souls for power, enough to share amongst the coven
				+ He has a book stronger than the standard *How to Serve Your Man,* something that has a spell to control the weather
				+ The cold weather is necessary for absorbing soul energy
				+ The day we left Curie was the last day the coven was staying in town
				+ The coven is lead by a nearly-as-powerful witch called Cassandra, who’s a relic hunter
					- Have an idea of what she may be searching for based on Samual’s intel: Abyssal Maw, Saint Anthony’s Lanturn, and the Witch Blade (especially)
		- We ultimately decide to hand Tessa over to the wolves
	+ With that settled, the party sets off to do business
		- Choc and Gregg head over to H3x’s
			* Choc makes deals with H3x with his vehicles
			* Gregg picks up her new hoverboard
			* Addie’s armor’s nearly done
		- Addie, River, and Toussaint head over to Doc Simpson’s to pick up the package
			* We find someone spying on us from around the corner, Addie and River sneak up on him, and hear sounds coming from inside the building
			* River recognizes him as a Black Hat, she kills him quickly, and we move in
			* Addie messages Toussaint, who breaks through the front window of the building
				+ A few Combine thugs, some Black Hats and a Red Hat, are beating up Doc Simpson
				+ After trying to talk the Combine thugs inside into just leaving, Toussaint uses his vampire abilities to frighten them, then rips through two of their chests, killing them
				+ The other two run in fear, and Addie and River take them out
			* The Red Hat tries to make a break for it a couple times, Toussaint easily catches him
			* Addie speaks to Doc Simpson
				+ He was tasked with making something to open the heavy duty locks on a vault
				+ Combine are looking for whatever’s in that vault at the Redwater military base
			* Toussaint gets the Red Hat to spit out that the Combine’s going for the vault, says we won’t get there in time before his head explodes
	+ Gregg and Choc show up at Doc Simpson’s place just after the chaos, Addie grabs the package they’re to deliver, and rushes the team out the door to get on their way to Redwater before it’s too late

## Session 2 (11/28/2020)

* The posse drove 4 hours to Redwater, finding a town that looked abandoned, a damaged Combine SUV at the intersection
* We ran into those that remained in the town: Mac, Noni (River's syker gf), and a teenager named Turner, as well as some of the remaining kids/teens in town
* They brief us on what happened:
	+ Turner's mother, Pauline Ford, had contacted Doc Simpson 2 months ago to make a key
	+ 2 days ago, Pauline's sister had seen something flying around the ghost storm near the area's military base. She left and didn't return
	+ 1 day ago, black hats rolled into Redwater and started roughly questioning people, and that's when Noni and Mac fought them off
	+ Pauline took all the capable adults to go look for her sister. Black hat reinforcements were coming.
* During our briefing, Toussaint flew ahead, following a black hat convoy near the Redwater air base, and found a cloaked figure assassinating black hats
* Noni, Mac, and River stayed behind to keep an eye on the remaining civilians while Addie, Gregg, and Choc moved through the downtown and to the black hat's make-shift "base", carrying the package with them
* The group coming in from downtown walked into chaos as the cloaked figure took out a few more black hats and started a fight before we arrived
* Combat ensued
	+ The stranger downed black hats with spells
	+ An automaton showed up, Gregg summoned a hobb with her new staff and basically dogpiled the automaton with it and Tony, incapacitating it
	+ She then came very close to dying from a black hat's shots before that dude got dunked on
	+ All black hats were eventually eliminated
* Addie healed up Gregg, and we now know that the cloaked magic user is Richard Mortem, River's father

## Session 3 (12/12/2020)

* We picked up in the parking lot of the base, With Richard Mortem telling us to leave. We convince him we're there to help, Gregg heals his bullet wounds, and we find out he was helping the residents of Redwater that had tried to stop the black hats. Also Addie messages River that her dad's there.
* We get all of them to cover inside the building, River and Noni show up and join us, River gets one solid punch in on her dad before we all get into the elevator.
* Turns out there were 3 cloaked black hats in the elevator, and encounter summed up: Addie picked up a flash grenade before it could go off, taking the brunt of the damage and got stunned for the fight, she got stabbed in the back but didn't take damage, Gregg parkoured to the front of the elevator, and I believe killed one? Noni killed the one that stabbed Addie, and Choc bolted the last one. And the group had to throw another live grenade out the elevator doors.
* During all this, Toussaint had slipped into the pops, got to the bottom floor of the base, and took out a red hat and a black hat, who had already made it behind the vault doors somehow. He found a nuclear warhead in the room. With his supernatural strength, he broke open the vault door.
* Not long after, the group arrived at his location, and started discussing a plan. Choc ended up trapping the elevator with grenades, and with Addie and Noni's help fixed the vault door to reseal it to buy us time. The bomb was on a platform that could be raised into the parking lot. Gregg also found the Combine had made it in through a break in the ceiling where the panel doors were.
* Dick took the tip of the warhead off and retrieved a bell from inside, which as he explained, is the Bell of Saint Michael, a powerful artifact that can be used to channel power by anyone with faith, whatever kind that may be. It is damaging to beings like Toussaint, meant to be used against supernaturally evil creatures.
* River and her dad have a moment ™️
* Dick calls in backup from his old team, and they create a nice distraction for us with the Combine troops to raise the platform up and get the fuck out with the warhead and artifact
* I feel the need to mention the fact that Toussaint turned into mist, went into a red hat's lungs, and became solid again, effectively exploding her from the inside, and then fucked up the raptor she was riding on
* We got back to the town, all townsfolk returned except Paula's sister who couldn't be found, and convinced them to set up in New Wells
* The warhead's to be sent to Junkyard to aid in their fight against the Combine
* Addie and River convinced Dick and the others to let them take the Bell to Boise, where it'd be protected

## Session 4 (12/26/2020)

* We pick up on the road, early Sunday morning, driving through the night
	+ Choc’s tank is hauling the warhead
* Atom peels off with Mac to help lead the Redwater civilians to New Wells
* We are forced to drive through a rad storm, visibility is shit
* About halfway through our drive, about 4 hours in, we are ambushed by raiders in a small town
	+ One takes out a grenade launcher and attacks the front vehicle, which happens to be Gregg’s truck
		- Toussaint caught sight of this, and pushed Gregg out of the car before the grenade made contact
		- The car exploded with Toussaint in it, but Toussaint made it out fine (though most of Gregg’s possessions did not)
		- Gregg made it out with at least her sword and cookbook
	+ Combat ensues, and we take out most of them fairly easily
	+ The raider boss, a dude in a bearskin cape and holding a cinder block hammer, walks out and damages the gun on Choc’s tank
		- River decapitates him in one hit. It’s beautiful. I love her
		- Addie and River recognize the dude as Gris Cane, a failed Templar trainee
		- Addie takes his shit, which includes 3 frag grenades and his bearskin, while River takes the hammer
	+ Toussaint intimidates one of the remaining raiders, telling him to spread the word of what happened here, then lets him go before dragging off two other unconscious raiders and sucking them like capri suns (and taking their gear)
	+ Gregg looks through the ruins of her truck, and the only other object she’s able to find is the dictionary Jenny gave her
		- Toussaint walks out from his snack, mentions he had a skull on him, and it’s the skull of Gregg’s mom
		- Gregg hugs him and thanks him
	+ Addie thanks Toussaint for looking out for Gregg
* It’s another 4 hours before we reach Junkyard
* Dr. Mabuse takes Dick to the courthouse to get a meeting with Tolliver and his council
	+ The issue with the warhead will be taken care of quickly, but Dick’s case will take 30 days to resolve
	+ We’re gonna stay in Junkyard for a week, Dick will hand off the Bell to River, and he’ll remain there while his case is pending
* Other Richard tells us during this that team Pancakes is gonna have a meeting, and whichever of us wants to show up to it is welcome to
	+ Addie, River, and Choc at least are going