The Blood War

The Blood War
Part of Festering Infestation
Date 2082-02-02 GM Asmodeus Location Redmond, Glow City Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Nameless	Black Mages
Skimmer Lil' Boomer Pell Witchblade	Cerberi, Black Mages, Fire Spirits & Houndmasters
Casualties and losses
None	None

Summary

A weird truce is made between Christians and wannabe satanists. Whaddya know.

Background

Nameless managed to migrate his ghoul horde into Glow City, but his troubles have only begun. He's been harassed even there, forcing him to rely on his shadowrunning friends for help.

The Meet

Skimmer agrees to show everyone how to get to Nameless' underground hideout. Lil' Boomer seems enthusiastic! Witchblade also has morons from Mana Academy tagging along, but seems like they realize this isn't quite the time. As Nameless guides them to some floor cushions and sits down to explain the situation, Lil' Boomer is enamored with another intelligent ghoul despite being a Made Tamanous Man, the type Nameless would kill with glee if he knew what the guy was. A cabal of black mages have been attacking his disciples when they've gone topside for scavenging and Nameless can't take them head-on by himself. While he wants to remain peaceful, he's at his rope's end and can't think of other approaches. He gives them little information, but can only offer his services as a reward. The team enthusiastically accepts -- and Witchblade might've found a place to take ganger students on a field trip!

The Plan

Looking at the various threats that might appear locally as well as possible peaceful options, Witchblade put her extensive academic knowledge and experience to use. Not only did she reason that black mages in these kinds of cabals only really formed for selfish reasons crossing paths and preferring offerings or gifts before engaging negotiations, she also looked at night hazards if they were to try and sneak to the mansion that the mages were at. Infected presence at night time and possible pollution spirits near bodies of water persuaded them to take the scenic route during the day to avoid environmental hazards and angry spirits. With a quick call, they got a few doses of intoxicating uppers and a few drams of reagents, assuming it'll be enough for the negotiations to take place.

The Run

Approaching goes without issue and the patrol guard even escorts the team in to meet the de facto leader of the cabal calling herself the Chaplain. She asks what they're doing on her doorstep and is offered the gifts of drugs and reagents, along with a request to leave the ghouls alone. Chaplain doesn't see much reason to do so at first, wanting to keep them as dumb animals and kill the sapient ones so she can direct the horde as a weapon of her own. After some tenacious back and forth, Skimmer contacts Nameless on whether he'd accept a truce if they were to provide Chaplain with steady payments of reagents in return for their cooperation. Nameless hesitates, then agrees to the deal, and not a moment too soon: Lil' Boomer, barely having the patience to deal with Chaplain's arrogant attitude, almost blew a gasket five or six times during the peace talks.

Aftermath

With the uneasy truce sealed, Chaplain offers the team a secondary job for bringing her some of Renraku's decontamination specialists from a nearby refuelling checkpoint. The team vehemently refuses due to not wanting to get in deep shit with Renraku and instead returns to Nameless, who even accepts Witchblade's offer to help Mana Academy's teaching on occasion.

Rewards

• 14 Karma
• 2 CDP
• Optional Contact: Nameless, 5/1 Ghoul Priest
• For Skimmer: +1 to Nameless' Connection

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Pell

Another excursion into Glow City. Nameless had some trouble with some black mages that have set up in there as well. We managed to talk the ages into an arrangement that they'll hopefully keep to, when all's said and done.

Skimmer

Nameless is having some trouble with some black mages, and he wants ME to go talk to them? Scary. Witchblade tells us that black mages like gifts, and are more likely to talk than blast if we show up bearing them. Seems like a great idea so we pool our resources and make up a goody bag. The gift bag goes off without a hitch, and we manage to gain audience with the head mistress, who is creepy and dark as one would expect. After some rejected offers, it finally comes to the point where if Nameless provides tribute, the mages will leave them alone. Nameless agrees to the lesser of evils and a deal is struck. Not the knockdown drag out fight we were expecting, but hey social rules rule. Nobody is particularly happy with the outcome, but a tentative truce has been reached, at least for now...

LB

Look, Imma be honest, I thought we were gonna bust some heads. I was ready to bust some heads. We didn't.

It was cool to see an underground ghoul city, but like--mostly ferals, which was a disappointment. Can't exactly swap stories with those fraggers. Nameless was cool, though. Wore someone's face--I can dig it.

We coulda set the building on fire. We coulda grenaded some stuff, but it didn't turn out that way. The good news is, those silly black mage types never seem to keep their noses clean, even when they should, so I figure I'll get a chance to blow 'em the frag up later.