Raising Hell

Raising Hell
Date 2082-06-08 GM OrionsRequiem Location Puyallup, Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven	The Explosive Special Reapers	Nuclear Warlocks of Salvation
Barracuda Cricket Runner3 Runner4	EX-Death Reaper Gangers Shrapnel	Squeezing Zombie Warlocks Gangers
Casualties and losses
	Shrapnel, 1x Reaper Ganger

Summary

In which Barracuda starts a gang war and meets another old friend

Background

Using the Iceberg Hotel as a base of operations to build up his new gang, The Hellraisers, Barracuda seeks to expand their territory and getting them to be a respected force within Puyallup by starting a fight in Loveland and making it seem as though they own the territory.

Another Day at the Iceberg Hotel

Spending some day looking over at a map of Loveland, Barracuda begins formulating a plan about how to get this gang war started. Finding two potential gangs to pit against each other, Barracuda and fellow ganger Cricket find The Explosive Special Reapers and the Nuclear Warlocks of Salvation, two small-time gangs that have been trying to claim territory within Loveland. The Reapers are a group of wared-up thugs that go around beating up anyone they can come across, and the Warlocks are a gang led by a Necro Mage who have been causing some terror, but mostly keeping to themselves. Their targets chosen, the two gangers head out to Loveland and find it beginning to bustle with activity.

Eventually finding an old ork woman peddling fruit across Loveland, the two gangers wait in their car and follow the old lady until she is stopped by a 'wared up ganger wearing synthleather and the colors of Explosive Special Reapers. While Cricket gets marks on the ganger's commlink and smartgun, Barracuda stops him from throwing an apple at the fruit seller by being hit by the fruit instead. While trying to intimidate the runner, Cricket hacks the ganger's Wired Reflexes and Barracuda cold clocks the ganger, knocking some teeth loose. Realizing that this wasn't a fight that the ganger could win, he drops a frag grenade and tries to run. Cricket manages to brick the grenade, stopping it from detonating, and Barracuda chases the ganger down, knocking him out and pulling him back to the car for the two runners to drag him back to the Iceberg.

While Cricket suppresses the commlink so that the link can't be traced back to the hotel, Barracuda drags the ganger to an interrogation chamber and begins to question him. The ganger admits to being fairly low-down in the Reapers, but explains that EX-Death has a bone to pick with the Awakened community for getting special treatment while the mundanes get nothing. The ganger also reveals that they've been getting their new high-end ware from someone named Shrapnel. Barracuda remembers Shrapnel from his times in one of the gangs of his youth as an older dwarf who made explosives.

After the interrogation is over, Barracudea and Cricket rest for the night.

Sparking the Fuse

After a morning spent ensuring that they were not followed or traced, and meeting up with a man in a well-pressed suit who was interested in staying in the Iceberg, the runners head back to Loveland and track down a group of low-tier Warlocks. Cricket fakes a message from the ganger to a higher-ranking member of the Warlocks claiming that Squeezing Zombie, leader of the Warlocks, has been challenged to a duel by EX-Death, leader of the Reapers at the Caldera of Mount Rainier. The Warlocks rush off, and the runners return to the Iceberg to send the same message through the commlink of the ganger that they had captured the day before, and sent the same message to EX-Death.

The two gang leaders, not really ones for destination trips or duels, decide to just turn all of Loveland into their battlefield, and begin to terrorize the streets of the mostly-civilized district, the Warlocks sending Corpse Spirits to flood the streets and the Reapers responding with explosives. The runners are a bit concerned by this, but Barracuda, prompted by his Mentor Spirit, goes to Mount Rainier and begins to climb, finding that the side of the mountain has been trapped with High-explosive mines, and Barracuda realizes that Shrapnel is behind it after setting off the first one.

Leviathan Fight Club: Round 2

Shrapnel awaits Barracuda at the top of the volcano, while Cricket realizes that the two gang leaders are still in the Loveland area and not at the volcano. Shrapnel explains to Barracuda that he saw what happened to Shiv and he would assume everyone who shared the Leviathan mentor spirit probably saw the same thing. Barracuda doesn't know why Leviathan's followers are fighting to the death at the head of a volcano, but soon both participant's thoughts were overwhelmed with the bloodthirsty chant of Leviathan.

Shrapnel throws a bandolier of grenades at Barracuda, who attempts to throw it back, and nearly misses, but Shrapnel does the same, tossing it back to Barracuda, who stops trying to spare his former friend, tossing the grenades right back at the demo expert, right in time for them to denotate, turning Shrapnel into a red mist, and filling Barracuda with a sense of blood-thirsty pride. Leviathan grants Barracuda another gift, a qi focus of a leviathan's body travelling over his knuckles, as the runner descends the mountain carefully, returning to the Iceberg Hotel.

Aftermath

No longer spurred on by the blood-rage of Leviathan, the two gangs stop their war and depart, though EX-Death and Squeezing Zombie both have scars to remember the time and fuel further conflict.

Barracuda and Cricket return to their plans, seeking even more ways to make the Hellraisers even greater.

Rewards

• IG2 Discount
• Rating 4 Qi Focus (Leviathan Tattoo across hand) (unbound) (3 RVP)
• Adrenaline Surge quality (12 RVP)
• 1 Karma

For Cricket:

• Better on the Net [Data Processing] (9 RVP)
• 7 karma

Game Quotes

"Barra "Cold Clock A Man In The Street" Cuda"

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Cricket

"Well that sucked. We fragged up the plan, caused a messy gang war with a bunch of collateral, and didn't get either of the guys we were targeting. Now that wiz gang got Cuda's signature, and they've been spending the last few days throwing zombies at the hotel. I need to get my head screwed on right, else I might be looking at one of the Reapers' flashbang dinners in my near future. Then there's that volcano spirit. I don't know what its deal is, but it's clearly messing with us. That SK spook too... why is it that everywhere I go there's just another boot waiting to step on my neck? I gotta get stronger, strong enough to tell 'em to all go to hell."