Arc 12: Tiger Claw

## Session 1 (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 2 (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 3 (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

## Session 4 (2/12/2022)

* 5 hours before the fight with Tony on the Temptress
	+ We open on a shot of a crew-carrier helicopter flying through the rain, green-robes strapped in and initiates excited
	+ Joel sits with the other initiates, across from the self-proclaimed Bologna Bob (everyone thinks the smell is his mutation)
		- Tough luck with that one bruh
		- Joel still needs to prove himself with the others, but is getting there
			* This is his 3rd mission trip this month, and the others usually ended in a bombardment of bullets
		- Mother Superior is the one that had found Joel and nursed him back to health
			* That bitch has been stingy with the meals lately
		- Lars is a 7’6’’ full Doombringer that wears a green klansman hood
	+ The group is heading to Rancor’s oil rig to cut some sort of deal
	+ As they land, the group meets up with Rancor, a man in red and black suit with a helmet covering his face
		- He introduces himself, and walks the group through his rig to his lab
		- He tells them that here lies the way to win the war with the Doombringers' enemies, for the price of almost nothing
		- He says he’s found a new source of energy, and lights up the pylons in his room
* Back to the NW6 on our flying boat
	+ We hit a patch of clouds, getting all of us soaked as Ian pilots through
	+ We come across a massive flying yacht with thrusters and propulsion systems
		- Aboard are people going about their day, deckhands working, people moving around the market, banners with dragons on them flying over the deck
	+ With some great skill (and luck), Levy gets us within docking distance of the docking area
	+ A startled dock hand tells us we need invitations to enter Turtle Isle, and Levy asserts they do, and Addie fumbles along with her lead
	+ A security guard approaches us, a bit more suspicious of Levy’s claims
		- Levy says they’re on business here with Addie, and the guard recognizes her group
		- He gives the group ‘care packages’
			* 5 mags in 556 ammo, compass, a survival knife, sunscreen SPF 1000, lead-lined object marked 1lb of ghost rock
	+ He leads us to Harkon
		- On the way, we see burns and frays in the banners, as if from acid, and there was some sort of fight here
		- Harkon’s sitting in a pachinko parlor, speaking to an apparent 15 year old boy
			* Harkon’s a bald Han man
			* He tells the boy his family will be returned once the debt is fully repaid, and sends him off
			* Harkon welcomes us, offers food and drink
			* Harkon tells us that he is part of a special investigations unit to discover things left behind, Rancor was also part of that and turned on Kang
				+ Rancor took the oil rig, has been using it for genetic experiments to use in raids
				+ Rancor’s been reaching out for help from various factions, including the Doombringers
		- When questioned about the Ningyo curse, Harkon mentions they have a deal with the mermaids, toss enemies to them
			* Harkon proposes a deal - we clear the oil rig, take out Rancor, and leave the rig intact
				+ In return, we negotiate:
					- Protection for the croakers
					- Access to what’s on the rig
					- Boy’s family given back
					- Trading deal with the Union
			* Harkon reveals a way to kill Tony
				+ He tells us how he once killed an apparent immortal by strangling them with their own spine underwater
				+ The bones of a ningyo should be able to kill him, and he must be killed underwater
			* Harkon has Ningyo bones brought from the trash, and Ian fastens a rib to a spear
	+ Plan to take out Rancor:
		- Harkon loans us a helicopter
		- Levy makes the helicopter invisible, like the boat before, and gives us invisibility devices to stealthing onto the ship
		- If we take out Rancor, Harkon says his troops, his mercenaries, aren’t loyal and will likely surrender or run
			* Stealth in and take Rancor out directly
* One 5 hour helicopter flight in the rain later
	+ Ian has to scramble with the controls as going near the ship makes them go haywire
	+ He’s just able to land us safely on the helipad
	+ Joel is posted to watch duty on the helipad
		- He’s wearing a Doombringer sign on his vest
		- He feels the downdraft of the helicopter, but sees nothing
		- Levy has Noni set us up with a temporary mindlink for communication
			* Na-way has a grand old time testing that out
		- He hears whispering on the helipad, asks if a spirit’s there, Na-way says he isn’t there, Joel proceeds to go with the reasonable response of shouting “what the fuck” and tries to run away
		- Addie grabs him, and we interrogate him, Addie casting confession so he has to tell the truth
			* He’s with the Cult of Doom, and there’s at least one experienced Doombringer with them, along with about 8 others
			* Rancor has some sort of crystal energy there
			* Tony is one of the people Rancor wanted killed on sight
			* Bologna Bob and Lars are the most dangerous
			* Joel admits he hates being in the cult
		- We threaten him into helping us
	+ Joel leads the group to the control center, taking about an hour
		- He talks us past Lars, and we sneak on the elevator
		- As he heads toward Rancor, alarms sound and emergency lights flash
			* He passes another initiate, who tells him they’re under attack, and to go help Rancor
			* A massive metal man barrels down the hall, glowing green eyes, tanks on its back
				+ Heads to the elevator and thankfully doesn’t notice the rest of us
		- On the way to the lab, we pass mechanical pods, with what looks like a pulsing black lung inside and organs moving around within: some kind of artificial womb
		- Ian and Levy hack one of the computers:
			* Developer notes, schematics behind initial construction in the 90s
			* Jonathan Jaeger lived 200 years as a rival to Hellstromme, found a way to make powerful energy without ghost rock: direct spiritual energy focused into a crystal to power things indefinitely
				+ Trials were done to extract it from people, but initial failed
				+ Eventually found a way to put people’s souls into a crystal and create golems that were indoctrinated into perfect machines
				+ The large metal man is one of these golems, and the tanks on its back are the soul stone storage where they’re cryogenically frozen
				+ These creatures can go invisible, be near completely silent, are incredibly strong and armored
				+ Weakness: destabilizing the stones in their tanks
	+ Joel enters Rancor’s chambers, and finds a large golem beside him
		- He mentions he was there to protect Rancor
		- Rancor discloses that his former student is attacking the base, and shows Joel a video feed from multiple security cameras
			* Magnum croakers and devil sharks are attacking Rancor’s security
			* Addie notices Tony in the lab docking bay, and he quickly beheads a Doomsayer with one stroke of his arm
				+ 5 of his croakers are with him
		- Tony enters Rancor’s chambers, looks at the golem, takes out a metal hoop, and tosses it at the creature, taking its head off and downing it instantly
		- Despite the display, Rancor appears calm, tells Tony he chose one hell of a day to screw him over
			* Tony mentions that ‘the guy’ he told Rancor about, the one he needed protection from, is here, likely to kill him
				+ So, afraid of someone more dangerous than us, possibly Ian’s benefactor who sent the letter
		- Rancor, unintimidated, shoots at Tony
			* Tony catches the bullet, and throws it back at Rancor, who catches the bullet, and throws it back at Tony, who catches the bullet and throws it back at Rancor, who catches the bullet and faldkfj askdfj asldkfj asdkfa sdf
		- While the MMA boys are playing bullet dodgeball, the group stealths into position
			* Addie decapitates Rancor in one swift motion
			* Na-way bites Tony’s arm
			* Ian then immediately downs Tony with his sniper rifle, has Na-way help drag him to the submarine bay, drags him into the water, and repeatedly stabs him in the throat with the rib bone, watching him die
			* He takes Tony’s dog tags and leaves his body to sink
		- Ian starts destroying Rancor’s research, shooting the pods and computers, to Levy’s annoyance as she tries to salvage what she can
			* She takes the info on how to make soul stones and extract them: need a place with a high fear level
	+ Meanwhile, far, far away: Bologna Bob is on a speedboat, riding fast toward the nearest shore
	+ Epilogue
		- On the rig
			* Addie makes her way around the ship, the rest of Rancor’s group either surrendering or fleeing
				+ She helps the Anhumans find their kids, and rounds up the croakers, now a bit more docile without their leader, to bring back to their people
			* Levy finds some digitized versions of Rancor’s sensei notes
		- We return the helicopter, with only a few bullet holes. Or a lot
			* Harkon confirms the trade alliance with the Union, protection for the croakers, and freedom for the boy’s family
		- Back on land, while the others are speaking with Luigi
			* Ian burns the letter with Tony’s bits
			* There’s a yawning in the space in front of him, and suddenly, a man stands there: has the manner of an officer
			* He says his name is Adam Hauptman, he’s a werewolf of the Columbia Basin Pack, they’re patriots appointed as special forces operatives to deal with arcane happenings
				+ He contracts people to kill other people, and this was a tryout
			* Ian says he must be one of the Agency’s pet monster and Adam says he stopped working for the Pinkertons near the end, he just wants to make sure America has a future
			* Adam says his people were chosen to take out anything that stands in the way of peace and rebuilding, and that’s where the subcontracts come in
			* Ian mentions he only wants his targets and Denver, and Adam accepts that