Arc 15: Chasing Coyotes

## Session 1 (9/10/2022)

* We begin in Aurora, Colorado, a town a short while away from Denver, On Thursday, November 15th
	+ This town is the first attempt of the Union to create a community from the ground up
	+ Vanguard engineers and other Union members have been helping build up the ruins into a functioning settlement
	+ The party has been asked to help with the process
* Group activities, 11am
	+ Addie
		- Along with four newby Vanguard troops, working to clear out buildings of walking dead
	+ Ian
		- Going on his own walking dead hunt with Sickle
	+ King (Formerly Derpy)
		- Testing the limits of their swarm abilities to move materials and transform scrap metal into sheets
* Around 2pm, the party goes to lunch
	+ Addie gets a message on her palmcorder from Simon, who arrives in a Unity designed AV outfitted with Vanguard colors, landing on the admin building
		- She meets him, along with two others: Charles and Anna Kornach
		- Detail only important to me: Charles confirms Bran was delighted to receive Addie’s wedding invite, and will sing at her wedding
		- Anyway: Charles says he got a message from Rackem 24 hours ago
			* A group of Sioux scouts were lost in Houston
			* Lotta toxic shaman activity there, tearing at the borders of the hunting grounds
			* Bran’s gotten word that his adopted daughter, Mercedes, was captured by unknown actors, along with several Sioux people, from Rat’s reports in his investigations in Texas
				+ Mercedes is a werecoyote, part of a pack, hasn’t been seen by Bran since Judgment Day
				+ She was separated from her pack
				+ Bran is furious that she’s been abducted, and if she’s harmed, he’s likely to start a war between werewolves and OPEC, fallout in the area be damned
		- Rat had sent a prayer message to Simon, that he was in a sticky situation, though not as desperate yet as Vickers was
			* He’d had contact with a couple Librarians that went dark : Herold Trim and Hazel
			* Rat’s last known location was Nacogdoches, ramshackle town that the Convoy regularly passed through
* Addie briefed the group, and they headed out on the road
* We rewind 48 hours
	+ A bustling town in Texas, racetrack filled with gas stations (Gas Town)
		- Hazel had been working with her librarian mentor on gathering reports on the town and the area when she awoke one night to a gun barrel pointed at her, a sack thrown over her head
		- She was thrown into a car with another person
			* It’s Rat, he slips her a data slug with his notes, tells her he’s a spy for the Templars, and that data slug has all he’s learned about the area and the people that took them
			* Rat plans to make a distraction so she and the others can get away at least
			* Rat tells her he’s sent a message to his friends for help
	+ Hazel, Rat, and a few others are pushed out in front of a couple men: one of average height with short cropped hair, greasy skin, and black eyes, another much larger and wider with a lot of muscle, green skin, and large canines
		- The larger man asks if the smaller one expects him to pay for these people, they seem low quality
			* The man replies he brought double the people, he expects double the price
			* The larger man, Red Fang, leader of the Road Orcs, says the man won’t make demands of him
			* The man looks into Red Fang’s eyes and says he won’t be intimidated
		- Fog rolled in, and Rat made his move, grabbing at a guard’s rifle and ripping it from his hands
		- Chaos ensued, Rat got away, Hazel and others got pushed into another van
* Back to modern day
	+ Near New Mexico: the group comes across a couple vans on the road, and try to get around them
		- We see a few people in the back with bags over their heads
		- A passenger of the car pulls a gun and aims at Addie, she tells him to pull over, the man in the passenger seat says that’s the wrong answer, goes to pull the trigger, aaaaaaand that bitch jams and explodes
		- Combat begins
			* Ian drives Gravedigger on the back of one of the cars, one not containing captives I’ll add, and crushes the back half, causing it to spin off the road
				+ GRAVEDIGGER
			* Hazel cast slumber on her captors, causing the driver to fall asleep, and Hazel scrambled to free herself from the zip ties
			* A massive super mutant runs from the first car wreck and jumps on Gravedigger, ripping off part of the roof and slamming a bone blade from his wrist into the steering wheel
			* Addie drags Hazel’s car before it can slip too far past the guard rail, puts it back on the road, and drives up to the other vehicle ahead, slashing its tire
				+ I was stupid and it almost slammed into her but King got them out of the way
			* Ian shoots so many pullets at the super mutant on his car, sending the man flying off into the pavement
	+ Captives freed
		- Include Native Americans, they say there’s a massive ecological disaster looming here: people are gathering sacrifices for some kind of major manitou and the Road Orcs and Tarbabys are warring in the area
			* OPEC’s got their hooks in almost every Texas settlement
			* A man named Commander Nevil is apparently in charge of OPEC operations
			* There’s probably about 6 of Rackem’s scouts still captive with Red Fang

## Session 2 (9/24/2022)

* We begin where we left off in text rp: in a roadside hotel and eating Hazel’s poppin’ food
	+ King looked through Rat’s dataslug he’d given to Hazel: satellite pictures of roads, intricately labled, trade maps of OPEC, roads most traveled by OPEC mercs and Road Orcs working the slave trade
	+ Around 2am on Friday, November 16th, when they leave
* At around 10am, they find a sports car driving ahead of them, looks factory new, has cameras on the car looking all around the area
	+ Addie would recall a group of drivers that had new looking cars with tinted windows, back on the way to the Summit
	+ As Addie tries to get around them, they get unsettlingly close, King sets a barrier on the car, and as they try to keep on our tail, King activates the barrier and flips the car
	+ Addie tries to check some radio channels for any activity for a clue of what’s going on, gets Rat instead
		- He tells her he’s near San Antonio, was near Nacogdoches a while ago
			* He was chased out by Road Orcs, and when he was about to be spotted, a coyote led him out unspotted
			* The coyote stuck with him
			* They’ll meet him out there
	+ King taps the Net
		- Hears on the radio: someone calling themselves Hanharr is saying Noah Tarbaby is there and slated to die, called for Road Orc backup to meet with him in Nacogdoches
		- The group drives back near Nacogdoches, hearing fighting
			* The scene: guys entrenched in higher buildings shooting down near the ground, a bus modified with several gun placements pocking those buildings
			* Large, bulky super mutant man has a heavy machine gun
		- The party sneaks into a building not yet being shot at, finding a man with a stick summoning sludge to overtake some of the Road Orcs below (a Tarbaby shaman)
			* Hazel casts slumber on him and knocks him out
		- The large green supermutant yells for Noah to come out and face him, sounds like the voice on the radio: Hanharr
		- King goes to set a trap at the back of the bus, slaps it loudly, alerting the Road Orcs inside, and they shoot at him
			* Addie martyrdoms the hit
		- The Road Orcs on the field continue to fight the Tarbaby forces
		- As some attention turns to the bus, Hanharr shoots at Addie, she tanks the shots with her armor, she runs to him and hamstrings him with her sword, downing him
		- As the other supermutant charges Addie, she sidesteps, King taps a barrier trap on him, and as he turns to hit him, activates the barrier and is forced into a slits
		- Noah tries to run away and we nab him
* Addie interrogates Hanharr and Noah, keeping them and a 3 of their allies alive
* In text rp: Addie offers Hanharr amnesty if he doesn’t move against them, which he accepts, and gets the antimagic cuffs on Noah

## Session 3 (10/22/2022)

* Starting at 2am, the group drives for the next 18 hours without breaks
	+ As we’re driving, we hear a military chopper overhead
	+ Ian takes out his binoculars, sees a few people inside, in military and SWAT gear
		- OPEC
	+ They don’t seem interested in us, appear to be looking for something
	+ We avoid conflict for now
* A small ways outside the San Antonio maelstrom, head to a motel called the Night Autumn Inn
	+ 8pm
	+ We meet Rat inside
		- He says a coyote saved his life, arrived with a fog bank when he was captured by Road Orcs, and helped guide him to this motel
		- The coyote sits on a chair, King gives it a pat, and it transforms into a man
			* Around 5’9’’, brown skin brown hair, wears a stetson
			* The man says his name is Coyote
				+ Ian asks if he’s the Coyote from Native myth, the man sidesteps the question
	+ Coyote talks to us
		- He knows we’re looking for Mercedes
		- He tells us the Tarbaby’s plan: trying to raise a toxic totem—an elemental, a powerful embodiment of elemental nature
			* The only way to summon on is through rituals: they’ve been sending human sacrifices into the tar fields to be engulfed
		- Mercedes is in Gas Town
			* Under OPEC guard
			* The main draw of Gas Town is the S-Mart, which carries most things anyone would want
				+ Including slaves, if you find the right person to ask
					- Littlefoot
		- Red Fang is somewhere in the Northern Plains, waiting for an opening to take on Gas Town
	+ 12 hours ago
		- One of the Sioux Scouts gave us a radio frequency, saying he and his group will help freed captives get to Sioux territory
* The group parts off from Rat, promising to meet near Gas Town
	+ Head to a small settlement outside Gas Town: Athens
		- Ian walks into a convenience store, finding a store of snack foods not often seen in the apocalypse
			* He buys too many Funions and makes conversation with the teenager behind the counter
				+ The teen says his dad told him the products come from a factory, but he thinks they get them from storage
				+ Every 2 weeks there’s a shipment from Gas Town to the store
				+ Commander Nevel’s been asking for more rifle ammo, so they’re out of that
					- That’s one of Ian’s targets
					- Nevel is apparently a security manager in Gas Town, friend of Grissom in town
				+ Apparently one of his friends bought a girlfriend at the S-Smart, she’s been helping at their home
					- If someone wants to buy one, he says you have to talk to the manager, costs $500 just to get in
				+ His Uncle Rudy can help with the hookup though: go the saloon called Saloon, around 11 when Rudy gets off, get the Johnny Walker, the most expensive drink
		- King goes to talk to an older man and a young kid on a porch
			* The older man’s name is Grissom, his grandson is Greg
			* The man tells king Gas Town is run by General Myers, his two underlings (including Commander Nevel), and his public relations: Littlefoot
			* If we mention Grissom’s name, might get through the entrance gate without paying the fee
			* The kid mentions he doesn’t want to see Uncle Rudy because his friends are loud
		- Addie talks to Hanharr
			* She asks him how he was made into a supermutant
				+ He tells her Red Fang deals with the Cult of Doom, his direct underlings are changed, given power as a favor
			* Hanharr is a warchief, we looking for spoils from the Tarbabys: in his case, a map of the slave trading drop-offs from Noah
			* Littlefoot is a mutant, even if he doesn’t quite look it
				+ Appears strong, has a commanding presence, but no clue what his mutation is
			* Addie entertains getting Red Fang to move on Gas Town in an attempt to create confusion with OPEC and the Tarbabys so they can get the slaves freed
			* Red Fang’s biggest target is the S-Mart: if we could radio him from there, let him know he had a way inside, it would go a long way to tempting him to move
				+ Addie asks if Littlefoot would be a good target to take hostage and convince Red Fang to attack, and Hanharr agrees that would likely do it
			* Addie asks Hanharr if he’s willing to help them bait Red Fang
				+ If Hanharr goes back to Red Fang with Noah’s map, tells him Gas Town is weakened and he has allies in the town/the S-Mart, he can push him to attack
				+ Addie once again reiterates her offer for amnesty, and Hanharr agrees
		- The group meets back up around an hourish later
			* Ian tells the others Nevel was the former commander of his unit
			* Noah: Hank wants the Elemental to fight with him; the Union is making a lot of shitheads nervous, and Hank is looking for something bigger to watch his back
			* The ritual is taking place on an oil rig off the coast from Houston
				+ Why can’t we ever get a good beach episode
			* Hanharr is sent back to Red Fang, Hazel watches over the other captives
			* We have to go after the Tarbabys before they can kill more captives, will meet back up in gastown later
* The group drives to Houston, an 8 hour straight trip
	+ We arrive there around 6am?
	+ Looking out to the waters: pillar of ghost green light stretching across the waves, a metal structure looming in the distance

## Session 4 (11/05/2022)

* It’s around 5-6am Sunday morning, November 18th
	+ We stop in front of abandoned docks, looks like a small ghost town
		- Ominous green green clouds roil in the distance
		- Addie looks for a boat
			* Heads into a boathouse office
				+ 5 zombies awaken, scramble out to attack her, Ian, and King
				+ Ian ignores them, brooding intensely as he stares into the distance
				+ Addie decapitates most with a sweep, King spears one with a bolt trap
		- During his brooding session, Ian looks out into the water with his sniper scope
			* He sees some people running on the water, some old, some young, all tired
			* Nearby is people in boats brandishing weapons, hooting and hollering: Tarbabys
			* Ian would recall bogs in Alaska where mud and water mixed, places that were thick enough to walk on if you knew how
			* Several machine gun placements on the rig, aimed toward the sky
			* Sees something explode from the muck and drag someone under
		- King finds some scrap metal in the water, and Addie leads them into the boathouse for more
		- King makes a makeshift airboat while Ian relays what he saw
	+ We set out onto open water, trying to ‘stealth’ up to the rig
		- Ian drives, Addie takes out her bow to try and snipe some of the guard
			* King tries to trap some of Addie’s arrows to give them a bit more oomph, and it goes real bad
				+ King gets error messages over their eyes, the swarm moves over their body and starts eating the boat
				+ Addie panics, almost going overboard before King catches her
				+ Ian takes this time to get a shot at the Tarbabys, sniping one with a very unsilenced shot, sending them into the bog
					- Guess we killed Jared
		- Shit hits the fan, time to kill
			* King navigates us to the rig, to other boats hanging off, and we all rush to climb in, trading shots with the Tarbabys
			* As we start moving up, our old boat sinks, and a creature leaps from the water to snap at us
				+ Looks like something long and sinuous made of green goo, ending in a shark-like mouth with no eyes
				+ It bites at King, grappling them, and gets pulled up with us
				+ Addie slices the creature, sending it overboard, and we board the rig
			* Hank comes out, telling his people to target the techie (AKA King)
				+ We take out a few Tarbabys, making our way to Hank
				+ One of the Tarbabys running for backup takes out a grenade, botches, and drops it, shaking everyone around him
				+ Addie and Ian down Hank
		- Hank, bleeding out, gets interrogated
			* He says Littlefoot tricked him out of slaves, man tried to overcharge him
			* They’d summoned about 2 dozen of those checked up goo spirit creatures
			* He’d gotten the recipe for the ritual from Reinhardt
				+ Some of the man’s acolytes had talked to Charity, they’d contacted them over the Net, out of the blue, over palmcorder
					- They met them in El Passo
				+ Hank gave Reinhardt people for experiments—the weakest links in the family, those with shaman blood, a bit of magic talent, that he wanted to get rid of
				+ In turn, Hank got the spellbook, which disintegrated the moment he learned the ritual
			* He’d also supplied OPEC with mining locations
			* Nevel’s basically a head in a jar stuck in the middle of plating and armor; a real souped up cyborg
		- Addie, torn about directly killing him as he bleeds out, leaves to go help the Tarbaby captives still out on the water
			* Ian grabs him, drags him over to a boat winch, and lowers him into the water to be eaten by the goo spirits
		- With Hank gone and the captives freed, the group agrees to head to Gas Town and carry out their plan against OPEC

## Session 5 (11/19/2022)

* We open on Addie, King, and Ian entering GasTown
	+ Addie drops Grissom’s name, and they’re in easy
	+ Gregg and Anya are in the town’s Gasmart, a fully stocked station store
		- Gregg, who has never seen the wonders of an old world gas station, is in awe
		- Gregg had Anya accompany her to follow Addie to Texas against her wishes
	+ A man in a skull mask, cowboy hat, tactical vest, and blue jacket sits near a woman with a chihuahua
		- He goes by Ghost, he’s a Damocles agent
		- Discusses knowledge of armory locations
* Addie heads into the saloon in town, King following close behind
	+ She settles at the empty bar next to an older man, presumably Uncle Rudy, and buys the Johnny Walker
	+ She mentions Grissom told her he knew where to get special goods in town, and somehow manages to convince him she’s a buyer looking to take a peek at Gas Town’s slaves
		- He takes it hook-line-and sinker even though she’s and idiot and uses her real name
	+ He agrees to meet them later that morning at the S-mart
* On her way out of the saloon, Addie runs into Gregg and Anya
	+ She immediately questions why they’re there, expressing her concern for Gregg’s safety
	+ Met with Gregg’s insistence she can help, Addie accepts it, asking Gregg to stay out of danger with Anya, and brings the group together to debrief
* Ghost catches sight of the interesting group and goes to eavesdrop
	+ Addie radios Rat, asks him to get the Sioux into position near Gas Town to help them get out the freed slaves
	+ She then radios Hanharr, asking him to get Red Fang into position
		- He tells her Red Fang’s already moving in, he has order his scouts to mortar the town
		- Their time frame is moved up, have to move on Littlefoot faster
	+ Addie tells Gregg and Anya what’s going on, asks Gregg to stay outside the S-mart with Anya, to stay away from the main conflict and stay safe, to think on it
	+ Ghost catches Addie when she’s alone, eyeing the walls of town
		- He sneaks up on her, lets it drop that he heard them talking about their plans, and is wondering if she wants help
			* Hits a lot of the most trustworthy checks for an introduction
		- After resisting her confession miracle, she rebuffs his offer of help, citing mistrust, and asks Ian to keep an eye on him while the rest of the group heads into the S-mart
	+ King is able to find blueprints on the Net to the S-mart, showing tunnels beneath town
		- There’s a tunnel that leads from the basement of the S-mart to outside the walls
* Addie, King, Gregg, and Anya meet with Uncle Rudy at the S-mart
	+ They’re led past the main store, past groups of shoppers and S-mart workers down into the lower hallways
		- They’re taken into a butcher’s freezer, with the cold turned off
		- Littlefoot, a white man in his late 50s, no facial hair, has a ballcap with ‘Make S-Mart Great Again’ on it, meets with them
		- Within the room are 8 cages, each with an individual inside
			* Some bear fit the description of Rackem’s scouts, one woman on the end, Ms. Thomas, fits Mercy’s (AKA Mercedes’s) description
			* Rudy says most of them got stolen, this is all they have
	+ Addie talks with Littlefoot while the others get into position
		- She can tell he has some cyberware, some threading his eyelids to his cheeks, some motor in his arm
			* He tells her Mr. Thomas has been trouble, made it out into the storm before they dragged her back
			* They’d found her in a national guard warehouse, where a few people were caught in traps
		- King uses their nanites to eat at the locks of the cells and unlock them, motions for the prisoners to wait
		- Anya waits for Addie’s signal
		- Gregg helps block the guards’ view of King
		- Addie gives the signal for the group to move, for King to open up the line with Red Fang, and grapples Littlefoot
			* Addie yells into King’s radio that they have Littlefoot, and it’s time to move on Gas Town
* Above ground
	+ Cars speed toward Gas Town
		- One main car leads, guns attached to it, shooting at the main gate and blowing it up
		- A few cars are slammed by motors defending the town, overturned, but the lead one plows through the broken gate
		- A massive mutant with a webbed mohawk and scaly skin steps out from the car
			* Ghost takes a shot at him and it bounces off
		- More OPEC soldiers start opening fire on him, and most seem to simply ping off his scales
	+ Addie tells her people to lead the captives out, make sure OPEC doesn’t follow, and rushes above ground to confront Red Fang
		- She gets into a duel with him, her fatigue slowing her down
		- Takes a few hits from his gun without much trouble, surprising him, but is soon overwhelmed
		- Gregg distracts Red Fang and helps pull Addie out, Addie deciding on a retreat after Red Fang shows he can’t be killed conventionally
			* He’s a servitor
* The group flees Gas Town with the freed slaves, including Ghost
	+ They meet a blockade of Native scouts, who take care of any pursuit, and lead them up to Montana for rest and safety
	+ Addie hands off Littlefoot and Noah Tarbaby to the Sioux, to punish as they deem fit for their people being taken as slaves
* It’s after these events that they find out the Mercy they freed wasn’t actually Mercy
	+ The woman with the Chihuahua had followed them, and reveals the Chihuahua as Mercy in disguise
	+ The fake Mercy was a member from her pack, as well as the woman who was with her in town
	+ They’re all Damocles agents
	+ Mercy agrees to go back with them and see Bran