Blood of the Earth - News January 2073

Synopsis of Session 3

The group took a job in Poland to take out a known arms dealer. It paid very well. While there were some initial complications, they were able to tail him when he left his compound to conduct his business. They were able to take on his caravan en route and finish the deed. They were promptly paid and then went to a small town in the middle of nowhere. At first, there was nothing unusual but a lot of teams began showing up, none of which seemed to notice the group until the day the book predicted, after which all hell broke loose. The group went down into a well and found a book of darkness, which they took with them back to the states.

Stuff happening in the world - January 2073

The number of cyber psychosis cases has gone up world wide. So far, it is primarily those who are extremely heavily cybered but it appears that the 'threshold' for the essence point that is considered 'human' is slowly going down. Scientists are baffled as to what may be causing the phenomena. This is not instant death but rather random fits of madness at times of extreme stress.

A New Great Mandarin has been chosen. The gangs of China have stood down and the chaos that was reining during their war has slowly ended. This was not in time to stop the new magically active volcano near the three Gorges from erupting, covering the entire area in molten lava and ash.

Two major factions are now fighting in Tir Taingaire, at the same time while incursions at their borders are taking place with the Salish and the Ute Nation. The city of Portland was saved from a massive battle at the last minute by intervention by the local corporations appealing to the two factions to move their fighting elsewhere. Saeder Krupp is now openly backing one of the two factions and supplying them with a wide variety of weaponry. Corp Employees have overrun the royal palace and are beginning to make their presence known throughout the area. However, this has been countered by an alliance between Tir Na Og and Tir Taingaire. They engaged in a powerful magical assault with some of the largesst spirits ever seen to manifest. The background count of the entire region has gone up slightly.

Open warfare has broken out between Aztechnology and the California Freestate. The California Freestate is losing. Badly.

Concern over another VITAS plague has caused a huge number of nations and corporations to donate as many people as they could spare. The result has been what promises to be a successful vaccine, eliminating all concern that it will break out in the Amazonia region.

The Great Dragon Hephaustus has killed the swarm of locusts in South Africa. The locals are extremely pleased and praised his actions.

*Explorers inadvertently set off a discarded nuclear weapon in Micronesia, causing a radioactive cloud to appear over the area. It is unknown where it will spread. People are concerned.

*There is a major ghoul infestation in Australia. Their numbers are increasing rapidly, and no one is sure why. People are concerned.

*A magical rift has opened up near the city of Birmingham Alabama. Scientists are studying it. An unknown corporation has bought up all of the land around the area.

*Scientists have discovered a new source of Orriculcum in Pakistan. A large number of private individuals are heading toward the area to begin mining it.

There is a major gang war in Poland right now due to the loss of a local arms dealer. Several corporations are expanding their territory as a result. Armed conflict has also broken out again between both Polish Factions and it is believed that the Russians may be sending in a major arms shipment soon.

Someone had indeed stolen the journal of one of the original journals in the Great Ghost Dance. He was last seen wandering around in the border lands between Salish Sidhe and Tir Taingaire, however he was intercepted by unknown assailants.

Lone Star continues penetrating deep into the shadows in Seattle. Life is becoming very hard for the runners there, thought the best can still find work if they work at it hard enough. No one has discovered much about the chaos that occurred a month ago however.

The Aztechnies have something new. Something powerful that lets them avoid being traced as easily with magic. This has been independently confirmed by several sources and it is slowly turning the balance of power with several of their more magical neighboors. They are winning the war in the Yucatan and tensions with Amazonia are increasing.

Rumor

Renraku has restarted the Seatle Archology research and testing in a new base in Samoa.

A new great hive has been established in Amazonia.

The Vory have started distributing a new drug that temporarily gives one access to the astral plane.

A number of European nations are in discussions about strengthening the EU.

A fungus has been discovered which makes life in outer space significantly easier by generating oxygen at a remarkably low rate.

Powerful Elven sorcerers from the Irish Tir na Noq have arrived in Tir Taimgiere.  A new treaty between the two Tirs have ended old fueds in the face of anti-elven attacks. 

Visitors from the Native American nations to Tir Tamgiere have begun to undergo more screening that in the past, and licenses for previously possible equipment are not supported as much for the non-elven.

The royal family of Tir Taingaire have all been made blood sacrifices.

Very large air/sky spirits have been seen working in conjuction with UCAS military train manuvers in Seattle.  Similar large water spirits in the harbor have many convinced the UCAS has considerable underwater assets nearby as well.

Evo is developing a line of cheap, biodroid bodies that will allow AI's to interact with and pretend to be human with relatively low cost.

The Vitas IV-like outbreake in Caracus is an Azlan test of a blood magic enhanced weapon, and one more provocation from Azlan to Amazonia.

A titanic shedim has been spotted beneath the London Sewers.

UCAS and California Free State are negotiating California's return to UCAS.

The CAS and the UCAS are also talking about a merger.

The number of Wyrms are on the rise and significantly increasing.

Status and Stuff:
Dennis: 0 Stored DP
Anarch: 3 Stored DP
Brooks: 7 Stored DP
James: 9 Stored DP

Group Edge: 0. Cost to Increase: 5 DP

Accelerated Karma: 2 Per Session. Cost to Increase: 15 DP

Darkness Index: 2.2/4 (Effect/Countdown)

Magic Index: 2

Tech Index: 1

Group Assets: $10,000 Vehicle Harbor in Seattle
GMC Bulldog step van with $15000 in improvements including Chameleon Coating, Shielded Components and A Hard Point.
Base outside of Atlanta. This is a major facility, stealthed and quite nice.  It has repair gear and a moderate medical bay. Has a Virtual Programming Environment
Corporate Patronage: Renraku – Level 1. By spending 1 DTP the group can pay up to 100,000 NY to get up to 1 Avail 16 item per character. This represents using the Book of Life to benefit Renraku.

A E D G T F S

+1 +1 +4 +2 +2 0 +3

The book informs the group that the next 'location of significance' on January 9th, 2072 will be Mexico City.

Starting Character: 415 BP.

Blood of the Earth - News December 2072

For a brief moment on December 1, 2072, all of the water on earth had a brief oily texture to it. The effect only lasted for 1.4 seconds, but many researchers are concerned because it seemed to affect even otherwise secure locations. Some are saying it is a symptom of a larger problem, others are saying that it is a symptom but not directly related to anything. Most of the world doesn't pay attention to it one way or other other.

Damage has largely been repaired from the storms that hit South America and South Africa. A massive effort of good will on the part of multiple nations has managed to get things to improve. The cause of the freak weather is not known but people are glad it is gone.

The Great Mandarin has died. Massive combat has begun to erupt all across Asia with the largest amount of gang violence seen in the last 20 years. Various warlords roam the countryside ravaging resources and various corps are feeling the hit the most. A rare exception to this are the Kilasu enclaves, whose automated weaponry are proving highly successful against the rabble.

Details of the Naraxin Conference have finally leaked out, and there are reports that a new discovery has been made, potentially explaining magic within the field of physics. It is not known for sure if the theory is correct, but if it is, it may prove possible to allow FTL travel at some distant point in the future.

All hell has broken lose in Tir Taingaire. What started as minor factional fighting has erupted into total chaos. It is not known for sure who started it, but the news feeds report at least seven different proxy battles between various factions and fronts. Right now a four nation war is going on in the borders between Tir Taingaire, Salish Sidhe, the California Free State and the Ute.

A viral plague has been unleashed in Caracas. Sources are still unclear but it is believed to potentially be VITAS IV. It has scientists all over the globe scrambling to determine what is causing it and what they can do to counter act it. Some mages also believe it may be magically active.

While the power loss might have been fixed in South Africa, the damage has been done. Several special agricultural chemicals were spoiled due to lack of refrigeration so a swarm of locusts has begun to eat much of the food crop. The government is attempting to buy food abroad for now.

A new volcano has appeared near the Three Gorges. Geologists think it is probably fine, but it is not known at this time if it represents a larger problem. They are studying and requesting more funds in their research.

Rumors

Someone has stolen journal of one of the original journals in the Great Ghost Dance. He was last seen wandering around in the border lands between Salish Sidhe and Tir Taingaire.

The shadows are still burning hot in Seatle. Lone Star is taking advantage of the fact to begin setting up a lot more deep cover agents to nose in on everyone's business.

Deus has been seen in Atlanta, “alive” and well.

Lone Star is instituting a new program in Seattle with drones that are not wired into the maxtrix, but instead record all they see, and plug into a location to upload images every few hours.

The Aztechnies have something new. Something powerful that lets them avoid being traced as easily with magic.

Aztechnoligy has perfected weather control through blood magic and they are causing the electrical storms to extort concessions from Amazonia.

The Yakuza have moved into the chaos of China to take territory from the Triads.  The Triads have resorted to hiring shadowrunners to attack interests of the Yakuza outside of China in addition to normal responses.

UCAS is planning to invade Tir; squadrons of black helicopters were seen landing in the Redmond district.

Saeder Krupp is helping the elves by proxy and is directly behind the chaos that is going on in North West America.

The Fae are growing increasingly active in Europe. More and more abductions are taking place ona regular basis.

A member of Mitsuhama upper management was kidnapped off the streets in downtown Seattle and Lone Star was unable to prevent it. The businessman turned up dead later, and even though there were witnesses, Lone Star denies this happened.

Dark shapes have been seen in the skies of Australia by the awakened community. Many think that this is an omen of some kind, but no one knows for sure.

The police corp in New Orleans has greatly enhanced their magical enforcement assets which was revealed for the first time by how they stopped a well planned bank robbery  The organization has declined to provide the officers names who valiantly fought because confidential the best protection for them

Dennis: 0 Stored DP
Anarch: 0 Stored DP
Brooks: 4 Stored DP
James: 6 Stored DP


Group Edge: 0. Cost to Increase: 5 DP

Accelerated Karma: 1 Per Session. Cost to Increase: 10 DP

Darkness Index: 1.6/2 (Effect/Countdown)

Magic Index: 1

Tech Index: 1

Group Assets: $10,000 Vehicle Harbor in Seattle
GMC Bulldog step van with $15000 in improvements including Chameleon Coating, Shielded Components and A Hard Point.
Base outside of Atlanta. This is a major facility, stealthed and quite nice.  It has repair gear and a moderate medical bay.

A E D G T F S

+3 +1 +3 +2 +2 0 +1

The group gets 300,000 from selling the documents of the images to the Atlantean Foundation. For each of the PC's that is technically 60,000 apiece.

The book informs the group that the next 'location of significance' on December 12th, 2072 will be in Poland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%81obudzice,_Zdu%C5%84ska_Wola_County

Blood of the Earth - Session 2 Synopsis

Nov 2072

The cast –

Silver and Steel (played by Brian)

Rain and Mustang (played by Dennis)

Shadow (played by Brooks)

The headed home to Seattle . This also coincided with the direction the dagger was pointing them. Upon arrival, Steel got a call from one of his contacts asking him to do a simple recovery job for 5000 nuyen apiece for the group. The details were extremely vague, almost annoyingly so, but it was from a trusted contact and Steel was assured that more details would be forthcoming upon completion. Meanwhile, Shadow, a tiger shifter physical adept with amnesia who had been trying to find out about his past (all while avoiding people who have been trying to kill him) got a call from a trusted contact of HIS asking him to do exactly the same job. They all headed downtown.

While they were on their way, Rain saw that Shadow was connected to the dagger, but because of Mary Sue, wasn’t sure if it was a good connection or a bad connection. Both groups headed towards the drop off, but Shadow saw that they were both headed there first. Using his superior knowledge of the terrain, Shadow beat them and picked up the package. When he called his contact, his contact did not answer. Meanwhile, Rain saw him driving off and followed in Astral Form.

Confusion reigned as Shadow went first to his house and then to the location of his contact, only to find a smoking crater in the ground. Steel’s contact did not answer his phone as well. Rain and a team of watchers kept track of Shadow as he moved from place to place, but eventually the two groups met up. Rain explained how they were united by the dagger, whereas Steel was more concerned with the package. Shadow feigned ignorance of the package, and didn’t know what to make of the dagger. He agreed to call them tomorrow and then went home.

While the main group rallied, Shadow tried to figure out what to do. Silver did some research into Shadow and found out a bit about his past. Shadow called the group the next day, but while they were on their way to meet each other, they all got phone calls from their highest and most trusted contact telling them that there was a 210,000 NY bounty on Shadow’s head and to let them know if they had any information. Huge amounts of lone star, elementals and other groups began gathering together, both looking for Shadow and to find the package.

The group united near the Spindle and once Rain told Shadow about the dagger, the massive manhunt vanished almost as soon as it had appeared. They had strong reason to believe that the same group that Mary Sue had belonged to was somehow using the dagger against Shadow, but once he was made ‘part of the group’ he was protected by the nastier effects. Not knowing what else to do, they broke the seal of the package and found three items. A transmitter which (had they not prepared) would have notified someone that it had been breached, a data chip with images of a scanned ancient mayan book and a key.

The book spoke about an ancient cycle of doom and rebirth. The first part was a prophesy. The second part was a chronicle of the last segment of the great cycle. The third part spoke about the doom to come and the lessening of magic. The fourth part spoke about tactical advice for the Shards. It spoke of Shards and Threads, all linked to the Dagger of Fate which had been crafted by the ancients as a weapon against the doom that continually threatened metahumanity. They also noticed that there was a section of the book that was missing.

They decided to go to New Orleans to investigate. The first place they checked was the bank that belonged to the key. After several elaborate preparations for disguises, they found that the bank’s security had been more elaborate and saw them on the astral plane. Rain simply went in as herself to open an account and learned that by presenting the key they could potentially gain access to the box that was linked to it. Just as they were about to return to the bank a second time and do so, however, there was a titanic explosion. They found a group of Shedim and accompanying mercs breaking into the bank to try and steal the actual physical book. There was a massive fight, but all of them were killed. But not before the SUV was mangled quite a bit and before Aztechnology showed up to cause problems. At one point the Shedim summoned a nasty of spirit of some unknown origin, perhaps a toxic spirit, but Shadow made short work of it. Rain channeled massive spell power risking physical damage each time she did so. Steel and Silver unleashed massive amounts of gun fire, while Mustang ran over the Shedim with the SUV, trying to stop them from getting out of the hole that they had made. He also took a few shots from the window while it was moving. Towards the end, Rain was also casting enhanced reflexes on the rest of the group until they just simply moved faster than anyone else.

After defeating the bad guys, the group took the book and got the hell out of dodge. It looked like the book had a missing fifth section, which they now had thanks to having it in their possession. It seemed to work as a predictor, doing the same thing as the dagger but up to a month in advance, allowing the group to predict where they were going next. Though learning to use it would require a bit of research. There was also a lot of discussion about whether or not to sell the images of the book to someone, since the group had expenses and hadn’t gotten paid by anyone for all of this saving the world crap thus far.

Karma Earned: 21

New Starting BP Total: 410

NY Earned: Bumpkiss

Shadowrun - Blood of the Earth - News November 2072

Freak Weather storms caused power to fluctuate in large portions of the southern hemisphere today. The lightning hit both South America and South Africa fairly hard. While the power loss was not bad by itself, the damage that it did to the grid infrastructure in those areas will take some time to repair. People believe that it will get better relatively quickly as long as the weather does not return.

Gang warfare has erupted all across China in anticipation of the death of the Great Mandarin, one of the larger organized crime figures in that region. He is famous for having carved out a criminal empire almost unrivaled in the world and rumors of his impending death are causing long hidden rivalries to burst to the surface.

An upstart company, Kilasu, has begun to acquire factories in South East Asia and Southern China , taking advantage of the chaos to obtain them at cut rate prices. Company blogs have hinted that newly automated weapons will be released in the near future which will revolutionize drone warfare.

The Naraxin Conference was held by several major powers on board one of the Red Line cruises. It is unknown precisely what the conference was about, but according to the shadownet a runners stole something of immense value from the ship. The incident was leaked by Aztechnology, who provided the magical security for portions of the conference along with Tir Taingaire. Aztechnology is pointing the finger directly at the Atlantean Foundation. According to commentators, this level public commentary by a AAA corp about something done by shadowrunners is almost unheard of, and it is believed that they are doing so in attempt to shift the blame for losing the artifact. Rumors from sources inside the company indicate that Aztechnology was actually guarding the artifact for someone else.

Tensions between Tir Taingire and the Salish-Sidhe have increased dramatically. Tir accuses the SS of hiring shadowrunner teams to disrupt their financial sector, which they have been somewhat successful at. Worse, there is substantial evidence that they have been doing this for some time and have compromised the relatives of several senior government officials. There are also reports of border skirmishes between the SS and Tir at Tir’s South-Eastern border.

Dennis: 0 Stored DP
Anarch: 5 Stored DP
Brooks: 3 Stored DP
James: 3 Stored DP


Group Edge: 0. Cost to Increase: 5 DP

Accelerated Karma: 1 Per Session. Cost to Increase: 10 DP

Darkness Index: 0/1 (Effect/Countdown)

Magic Index: 0

Tech Index: 1



Group Assets: $10,000 Vehicle Harbor in Seattle



A E D G T F S

+1 -1 0 0 +1 0 0




The research on the Dagger of Archne is sketchy at best. You are able to obtain some fairly impressive sources (though cloaked through several layers of anonymity). Still despite all the effort and research, there is only so much out there about it.

Who Wants It

You know for sure that the Atlantean foundation wants it. Word on the shadow net is that there it is also wanted by the Druids (possibly in alliance with the Fey in Europe ), the Dragons and the Elves. There is strong reason to believe that there is a consortium of powerful corporate interests, possibly directed by the Corporate Court and at least two other organizations. Speculation as to who those are ranges from AI’s, Technomancers, Boogiemen, Shedim, Old Nation States, Insect Spirits or even aliens.



What it Does

There are all kinds of rumors, but broadly speaking it is generally agreed that the dagger holds physical ties to metaplanes that no one has ever seen on anything else. Legends speak of mages able to go to places that others could not; sometimes finely parsed versions of meta planes that others already knew about. It also has a habit of not staying very long with one owner. Those who own it often have good luck or bad luck. There are other powers attributed to it; control of spiders, attachment to the spider totem, attachment to other totems, storms and the like but the accounts become more and more shady as time go on. It must be pretty powerful though, because its effects on the astral are almost impossible to detect. Generally speaking it is believed that there are probably only 4-5 metahuman adepts capable of it, and a small handful of dragons. But then again that’s a rumor.



What is its History

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of lore before the awakening, at least as far as legendary Earth stuff goes. Arachne was a greek woman, according to myth, who thought she was a better weaver than the fates and changed into a spider as punishment. But there is nothing in versions of her myth that indicate anything about a dagger. It mainly appeared shortly around the beginning of the sixth world. One reliable account had it with one of main casters of the Great Ghost dance. Beyond that there are all kinds of theories about it being around thousands of years in the past, being some kind of herald of the doom of the Fifth World or its salvation.

Shadowrun - Blood of the Earth - Initial GM Notes

OK. First things first.

1) Say hello to James Todd, our prospective Fourth player. Let me summarize.

Right now, character generation is set at 405 build points, with up to 35 additional points from disadvantages. That number will go up by 5 every session to ensure that a starting character doesn't fall too far behind the rest of the group, without automatically making everyone equal either.

All books are applicable but standard chargen rules apply.

No dark paths. "Weird stuff" from the SR companion is allowable but I want to pay attention to it. Be aware that Forbidden gear can be problematic sometimes because you'll be traveling a lot, at least until you guys get a vehicle with smuggling capacity.

Each of you is encouraged to make up to two characters. A 'main character' and a 'support character'. When we have at least four people at the table, you will only play the main character with the support character NPC'd by me with your input. However I will always run a session as long as we have at least two players so this lets us have a core team if people can't make it.

You don't NEED to make the second character though.

2) Here is a summary of the first session.

http://letmetellyouaboutmycharacter.blogspot.com/2009/10/blood-of-earth-session-1-synopsis.html

3) Downtime points.

OK. A main theme of the game is that your characters are linked to the "Dagger of Arachne" which controls fate on a massive metaplanar level. What that translates into is that you can, to a limited degree, as players affect the world between game sessions.

First, you get downtime points, actual time and special actions. I'll explain those each.

Actual time is actual between session time, ie generally 4 weeks game time which you can use to do stuff just as outlined in the rules and in the book.

Special actions come from abilities chosen by you.

Your characters have potent dreams, in which they are offered three choices. (You as player will choose only one. Your characters choose the same if you have two)

They are in a deep and long tunnel wherein they are offered a choice of a door. They may choose one door. There are ten doors, with the following symbols upon them:

A roman helmet.

A jade jaguar.

An icy claw.

A rising sun.

A blue diamond.

A sun at zenith.

A splatter of blood.

A ruby dragon.

An emerald set in agate.

A ruby lotus.

The second dream involves them being in a deep chamber. Within the chamber they are able to choose an object from a table. They may only choose one object.

A bear tooth.
A cat collar.
An onyx crown.
A dog leash.
A sword.
An eagle talon.
A lighter.
A moon rock.
Mountain climbing gear.
A rat tail.
A raven feather.
A glass of water.
A tube of lipstick
A shark tooth.
A baby rattle.
A car key.
A pair of dice.
A book titled "Sun Tsu, The Art of War."
A wolf skin coat.
A frowny face button.
A hammer
A stock market portfolio.
A pair of crocodile skin boots.
A dagger
A gold coin.
A baby bottle
A severed bird beak.
A deer horn
A saddle
A lion's tooth.
An acorn.
A stuffed owl.
A book marked, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
A bible
A piece of paper marked, "I.O.U."
And a box of Raisin Bran Cereal.

In the third dream they find themselves on a tall mountain, and the wind is howling. Which way do they go to climb down?

Downtime Points
------------------

Getting them: You automatically get three for free each month. Period.

You can also get them by doing the following:

A) Puppet Factions. Keeping track of ALL the factions in a game this hard is difficult.

I will allow you to puppet one country, one corporation and one miscleneous minor group like policlubs. Basically this can be detailed in terms of what they are planning that month or it can be as little as a paragraph. You can earn two DP's this way. One very detailed plan or three high level ones will earn two. A single paragraph can earn 1.

B) Flesh out NPCs. Up to 2. At least one must be one I can use in an encounter against the party. You can earn up to 2 this way.

C) Rumors. Plot seeds and rumors sent to me to make the game more interesting, and that I might use to speed things up. You can earn up to 3 this way.

D) Increase Darkness. I have will have a hidden timeline. Certain events will happen around the world including the ultimate destruction of the world as the 'darkness meter' increases. You can earn up to 2 this way.

E) Increase Regional Chaos. Every major region (North America, South America, Central America, East Europe, West Europe, North Africa, South Africa, Pacific Islands, China, South East Asia, Middle East, Other (Space/Antartica/Deep Sea Islands) has a chaos rating. As it increases, worse and worse things happen. You can earn up to three this way.

I am potentially open to suggestions of other ways to earn DP, but they should be along this vein.

You can never have more than 10 DP's per month. Unspent DP's only carry over 1 month, so you can never have more than 20 saved up.

Ways you can spend them.

Individually

1)Acquire Contact: Contacts are extremely useful because within their sphere of influence, they can achieve any of the other things that a DP can do for you at no cost to yourself. The downside of this, of course, is that if you use a contact, there is an increasing chance they will ask you to do something for them in return.

2)Upgrade Contact: You can increase either the loyalty or connection rating of an existing contact for each DP spent.

3)Research: Pretty flexible. You can spend a DP to research anything from a new spell, combat technique, item, technology etc. Vastly increased if you have the resources of your own lab or a university at your disposal. Each DP spent represents a month of your or someone else's time spent. You can thus accomplish several months of research at a much faster pace than normal.

4) Gather Information: You can gain a great deal of information on a wide range of topics. Naturally, if you have skills that are more suited for a particular topic, you will be more successful in this regard.

5) Craft Item: This involves making something, either commissioning it or having someone else do it, or making it yourself. This can be anything from your own journal to a play to a magic item. Unique items (besides magic items) will almost always have a beneficial result. Each DP spent represents a month of in character crafting time on your or someone else's part. You can thus accomplish several months of crafting at a much faster pace than normal.

6) Personal Mission: You can undertake your own micro quest. Establish a plan, and I will make rolls for you to determine the result. This can be quite flexible, but this also involves risk to your person; almost never death, but you could, for example, theoretically start the game with damage or loss of an item. Then again, the gains can potentially be quite exceptional as well.

7) Acquire a Knowledge Skill. 1 point for each DP spent. You should never have to waste Karma on knowledge skills.

Group

Everyone can contribute DP towards these.

1) Increase the stakes. For 5 DP's, everyone earns an additional 1 Karma per session. Then it goes to 10, 15, 20 etc etc. It increases the speed at which everyone earns Karma but also the toughness of the bad guys you face.

2) Vehicles. Each DP spent represents up to 10,000NY towards group modification, customization or acquisition of specific vehicles.

3) Bases and Resources. Each DP spent represents up to 10,000NY towards group modification, customization or acquisition of specific bases and group resources.

4) Group Edge Pool. For 5 DP spent, you get one group Edge pool which can be used to solve problems by majority vote at the table during the session. The cost of this goes up 5 for each one acquired 10, 15 etc).

5) Increase the group public rep. Also at a 5 DP increase cost for each spent. 5/10/15 etc.

Metaplot

1)Advocate Organization: All organizations are starting out with an effective 'matrix' in political strength of a certain strength. I will publish that in the first news post. I will track Corps, the 5-6 strongest nations, and other organizations I deem relevant for you to now about. For the first month you won't know what these faction ratings are.

2) Weaken Organization. The reverse of the first.

3) Lower the darkness rating .5. Thus it costs 2 DP's to lower it 1, wherein you can gain 1 DP by raising it one.

4) Lower regional chaos.

5) Advance the Tech track. I will also be creating a hidden tech timeline with technological innovation occurring.

6) Advance the Magic track. I will also be creating a hidden tech timeline with magical innovation occurring.

7) Advance the Reckoning track. There are a lot of scores to be settled and issues that need to be resolved. This will be a hidden track.

Important Note:

Reading this far was wise, because when you reply to me the first time AND when you send in your spent DP's each time I want it to be emailed to me only. If you send it to everyone in the group, you will be penalized 1 DP. This is an increasing penalty so if you accidentally do it twice in a row you will be penalized 2 DP's etc etc.

Bottom line: Send me your responses privately. You can discuss how to spend it amongst each other as much as you want, but when you actually decide how to spend it, I want "Official" somewhere in your subject line.

I hope you enjoy it. :)

Blood of the Earth - Interim

The guy on the boat welcomed them all aboard and paid them the amount that he had been agreed. He looked at them oddly a moment but took the device they had obtained without asking questions. He almost seemed reluctant to do so. The submarine pulled into a hidden harbor just outside of New Orleans . The owner of the boat, Captain Harbor , said to them just as they got out, “Here is some contact info for the Atlantean Foundation. If you guys come across any information on the dagger, let us know. I’ve also been told that you do phenomenal work, and that our Mr. Johnson may have future work for you.”

In the Shadow of Gods: Session 6

Gehn and Mirv tested their bonds repeatedly. Everyone continually kept a look out for an opportunity to escape. Meanwhile Hanst and Marla were following behind, but not so close behind that the party in front could hear. The sounds of drums continually thumped in the background. Eventually Gehn, Mirv and The Professor were introduced to Texaqualtl, head of the Neo Atz Incan empire. The group saw him sacrificing people from cages. There were four tall ritual wooden structures and their corresponding ley lines; the Hexagon in Washington D.C., Stone Henge in Britain, The Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Great Pyramids in Egypt.

Meanwhile, Hanst and Marla managed to find a group of Nazi’s hidden behind a blind with a machine gun in case the natives betrayed them. They over powered the guards and sat in wait for an opportunity to free the others. At the same time, Hanst began using his chemistry set to make tiny little inflatable balloons that would rain down acid on the crowd as a distraction.

Gehn, Mirv and The Professor were all put into wicker wooden cages. The Professor immediately began working to get out with his multitool. Meanwhile, Texaquatle turned on the Nazi Colonel, commanding the crowd of AtzIncans to turn on them to help add to the sacrifice. All hell broke loose and the Col tried to shoot Texaquatle. Texaquatl laughed stating that he was stealing the mana, or “destiny” from the other nations of the earth for the benefit of his own. The bullets missed him harmlessly.

Taking advantage, The Professor continued to work his way out. Mirv grabbed one of the guard’s arm and then broke it inside of the cage. Gehn tried to get the door loose. The guards noticed this and began to use long thin spears inside of the cage. They went for Mirv first because of what he had done to the other guards. Mirv took a lot of hits but kept on going. Eventually, after distracting the guards, he helped The Professor get out of the hole he’d made. The Professor made a bee line for the groups equipment to get Gehn his rifle. Gehn was all set to start shooting people, but he lost one of the quarters that told him whether someone would live or die. He couldn’t shoot without the quarter!

Mirv finally broke off the door and began to attack the remaining two guards, while The Professor snuck out the back towards the Hexagon. Joe burned the Hexagon while The Professor stole one of the ritual plates that diverted mana from the statues to Texaquatl. Hanst showed up just in the nick of time and gave Mirv a healing shot of potent chemical elixir. Mirv got up and grabbed both of them by the neck, dragging them along towards the top of the Pyramid. Marla opened up on the crowd with the machine gun, slaughtering hundreds and kept the group safe. Hanst began using a censor filled with sleep gas to keep the bad guys at bay. Mirv dropped the two guards when they were unconscious.

Gehn eventually used a new coin for the emperor, but rather than trust skill like the Col. did, he trusted luck, and put the coin between him and Texaquat and fired. His first shot shattered the ceremonial head dress and he began to reload. Hanst gave Mirv his sub machine gun and told him to mow down all the priests on the pyramid. Slowly but surely they made their way up, while thousands of people chased after The Professor for having initially disrupted the ceremony. The Professor ran in the field of fire with Marla, who managed to get most of the crowd off his back. The Professor also shot a few of them.

Finally, Gehn shot a third time (his second shot having only caused a flesh wound) shooting T. right between the eyes at exactly the moment Mirv charged him and when The Professor managed to destroy the fourth model. Mirv beheaded the man just to make sure he wouldn’t rise from the dead. Doc was able to find rich treasure in the back of the pyramid and the group returned to become rich men!

The end.

In the Shadow Of Gods: Session 5

(Summary written by Jeff as GM)

At our last meeting, the Nazi's were chasing the intrepid team through the jungles of south America. You had been approaching the capital city of the dangerous ruler of the jungle-covered plateaus of northwestern south America. His diabolical plan seems to be related to some ancient mysticism regarding ley lines and geometrically perfect structures, but all you know for certain is that the rebels who you befriended are terrified of the power that he will obtain if he succeeds. Those rebels were leading you toward the capital, braving numerous natural and unnatural dangers, but you were waylaid by nazi's who managed to capture everyone except the doctor and his "assistant". As we left off, the Nazi Colonel said that he hoped that you would make a nice gift for "their new friends."

Blood of the Earth - Session 1 Synopsis

Dramatis Persona

Rain - An elven cat shaman.
Mustang - A doc from Denver. (Human)
Steel - An elven street samurai. Brother of Silver.
Silver - An elven physical adept. Brother of Steel.

Our heroes were in terrible shape. They all found themselves locked up in the local drunk tank in Aruba due to trumped up charges. They were all pretty screwed, with no gear and no hope, when during the court the beautiful and intelligent Mary Sue burst them out for a special job that she had in mind. She took them to her magnificent mansion where she fed them some of the best food that they had ever had in their lives.

She told them that they had two days to get on board a AAA corporate run ship and to obtain an item for her. The party had little choice because of how much they owed the beautiful and intelligent woman. She had even provided them a boat. After examining the boat, and warding it, our heroes were at a loss of what to do. If only they had asked Mary Sue! She knew everything and was so wise.

The heroes got attacked by a bunch of technomancers mad at the brothers for a crime they did not commit. They kept sending cars at them and at one point tried to destroy the car that they were in. The heroes detected this and royally screwed up the technomancer's day. Then they hung out in a bar trying to get him to see reason.

Eventually, they told Mary Sue about a dagger that they had received strange omens and portents about. In the middle of a night, a goblin that had been leaving them odd notes and cryptically annoying clues told them that their lives were in danger. Rather than flee, our heroes went deeper into the mansion to find ancient tunnels underneath. There, they found a powerful ritual with hundreds of insect spirits. Wisely, they choose to take the other path and found the dagger.

After the four of them managed to overcome the powerful fire spirit, their luck changed and Mary Sue was instantly killed. They took almost anything that wasn't nailed down in the mansion (that they could quickly carry) and got themselves some quick cash. On the way out, a man from the Atlantean foundation called them, and asked them if they would do the same job that Mary Sue asked them to do, but with enough tools to get the job done.

They ran out of gas and were picked up by the Red Line cruise ship security. They were allowed to be on the boat while it was being refueled. A short while later, they were able to infiltrate a powerful vault and retrieve the mysterious package that both the Atlantean Foundation and Mary Sue had been asking for. Our heroes left as soon as possible, only to be intercepted by an Atlantean Foundation along the way.

Shadowrun - Bill - Heading East

Bill didn't want to leave Denver. He had a lot of good memories there and for three generations, his family had maintained their small ranch at the foot of the rockies, but he remembered the stories about how their family had been driven from New York. And there was supposed to be an artifact of power there, something that called to him from across the plains.

He'd always been lucky. He'd been a lot luckier than most actually and in his career as a shadowrunner had survived things that should have killed anyone else. But he had always felt that his luck had a purpose. Now he knew what it was. The only trouble was, where to start?

He put his affairs in order, arranging for his face ID's to be transferred and then hitched a ride on the next passing truck. A lot of his professional gear was simply too hot to travel with, so he would have to have it shipped by his friends a little bit at a time. Still, he felt a little exposed without all of it.

In the Shadow of Gods, Session 4

The group came upon a white spear placed in the ground. The group was warned by Not Jake (who did, it appeared, speak English after all) that the territory coming up ahead was very dangerous. He explained that the spear was a warning and that if the group proceeded further that they would be ambushed and attacked.

The professor suggested that Hanst analyze the poison on the spear, which Hanst did. It turned out to be a potent neurotoxin that caused long term damage to the host. Hanst whipped up an antidote of sorts and kept some himself and gave a bit more to Gehn for safe keeping.

The group decided to rest, and Mirv used his chainsaw to set up a minor fort to provide cover and to protect the group from a massed charge. Hanst was not very appreciative and mumbled something about crazy people with chainsaws. Nothing happened over the course of the night.

The group continued forward, until at one point a spear thrown by an Atl-Atl, a kind of stick throwing stick that dramatically increased their power and range, nearly hit one of the party members. Gehn took cover and began to try to pick them off one by one, but it was dark and no one could see where they were coming from. At this point, Hanst got an idea, and gave Mirv a magnesium flare to shoot up in that direction with a slingshot.

Of course, Mirv shot the first one before Hanst had lit it. Then Hanst patiently explained that he had to wait until Hanst lit it, which they did. Mirv got lucky and hit one of their attackers directly with the magnesium flare, causing him to fall to the ground in a ball of flame.

Gehn got some successful shots off now that he had an idea where they were coming from. Mirv immediately ran for the cliff face and began to climb. Marla thought that this was a good idea, but used stealth to do it while all of this was going on. The professor shot once with his pistol and then gave up in disgust since the attackers were too far away.

The professor heard Jake and Not Jake trade insults with the attackers, and then went with Jake and Not Jake who just bypassed the attack and went out of range of the ambush point. Meanwhile, Mirv continued to climb up the cliff, causing the attackers to focus all of their spears on him. He had half a dozen spears coming out of him before he got to the top, but by then Marla had done so as well and dispatched one of the attackers. Turned out there were only three or four, as the last was shot in the head by Gehn. Mirv collapsed from the poison upon reaching the top but was made better by Hanst's elixir antidote.

The group left the unconcious attackers behind them.

As they traveled on, Jake explained that there were dinosaurs ahead. Hanst scoffed at this idea but Mirv lent the group his binocs so they could see one eating part of a herd of Llamas. Keeping a careful eye out, the group skirted the edge of the gash like canyon until they were ready to cross. Then a large bipedal predator about the size of a T-rex started attacking them. Mirv set a spear he'd been preparing, when at the last moment Gehr spotted a second lizard that had been flanking the party quietly in hopes of getting a pack attack.

The group immediately focused on attacking the smaller lizard which proved suprisingly resiliant. The professor shot at it with his pistol. Marla used her sword. Hanst used some cloroform which it shook off with annoyance. Mirv punched it, which just pissed it off. Gehn shot at it once, missed and then shot at it in the eye which exploded in a perfect shot.

The second continued to approach, but Mirv poured the remaining gasoline from his chainsaw in a line in the ground, setting it on fire. The larger one decided to go somewhere else. As the group crossed, they saw a gigantic statue (100 feet tall) carved into the cliff face in the style of the Mayas.

In the Shadow of Gods - Session 3

The group made arrangements to have their passports waiting for them when they arrived in Chile. After taking several short flights, they arrived in Santiago, at this time a small city of 100,000 people. It had nearly grown quite large, but mineral deposits that were expected to be mined were never found as all prospectors got eaten by various things in the jungle. Many suspect it was a renegade super trying to keep the city from growing.

When the plane arrived, the group met an agent that had been commissioned by the professor to act as a local guide and travel facilitor. After talking with the locals, ("Jake" and "Not Jake"), it was determined that driving was the best way to get there, and that it would take a week's time. The group began to set out in three jeeps provided by the agent.

Along the way, the group ran into a random army patrol that demanded to see the groups papers. Fortunately, the papers were in order. Someone hinted at a bribe, and negotiations commenced. Things almost went well until someone in the patrol offered to buy Marla. This led to a separate discussion about a barrel of Rum. Another of the patrol wanted Gehn's custom rifle which he was unwilling to give up.

Upon hearing that Gehn was an excellent shot, money was wagered. Gehn made all three shots. The patrol was not happy about this, and when one of them started to draw a rifle, all hell broke lose. The group pointed their rifles at the patrol and the patrol pointed their rifles at the group. Mirv slammed the guy who started point his gun at the group with a punch, but failed to get him in a headlock. The sargeant with the patrol managed to get everyone calmed down and the group went on its way.

A few hours later, a titanic and strangely intelligent snake dropped out of the trees and proceeded to try and devour Hanst. The snake's thick hide and dextrous movements proved remarkably resistant to the groups firepower, but its moral slowly faded. The snake managed to get Hanst to fall into unconciousness and started to drag him into the trees. The groups attack attempts became more urgent, but only barely slowed the snake down.

The final straw for the snake was when Mirv whipped out his chainsaw, remarkably starting it with the first pull, and let loose into the snake. Finally the snake had had enough and vanished deep into the jungle. Hanst was a bit bruised but otherwise fine.

The group traveled on.

In the Shadow of Gods - Session 2

A giant battle took place. Marla and Hanst began to try and round up several of the thugs that had been dropped off by the car. Hanst attempted to use a suffocating foam on one of them, but he quickly recovered. Marla used her superior martial skill to take out two.

Meanwhile, Mirv jumped on to the car as it passed by. The driver swerved around to try and shake him off, but then had to confront two well placed shots from the Professor, causing the car to roll around, throwing Mirv clear and messing up the driver severely.

Gehn traded fire with the thugs, locking them down in cross fire whilst Marla and Hanst attempted to cause them more problems. The Professor rounded up the driver and took up to the Architect's shack at the point of a gun, where he called in back up from the General. The driver did not initially answer many of the Professor's questions.

Mirv ran north to help Hanst and Marla, and ran into the two South American dressed like hollywood indians, bent on disrupting the leyline. They tried to attack him, but in the process, he grabbed one immediately and put him in a choke hold, knocking him unconcious. Mirv was just about to turn on the other one when the police showed up. He made a break for it, and Mirv followed.

Nobody got away.

After carefully questioning everyone, it looked like the thugs were Nazi agents sent to capture the South Americans. The nazi agents wouldn't say much more than that, so the Professor cleverly created a plan to follow them to where they worked. At least it seemed so at the time, until a follow up call to the FBI agents following the two germans revealed that they were taxing down the runway on a plane to south America. They got away!

The south american natives explained that their medicine man had sent them. If the Hexagon was completed, it would grant great power to their corrupt and tyranical king. After some discussion, it was decided that the group would travel down to Chile to stop them, and to find the Architect of the Hexagon.

In the Shadow of Gods - Session 1

Dramatis Personae:

Mirv (Tom) - A brawler mechanic who spent some time in the Army. He is a giant of a man who now works two jobs; one in the Elk Lodge as a bouncer, and the other as a bouncer at a bar at night.

Gehn Tillmass (Shawn) - A profound sniper who served with Mirv in the army. A man of solid character and few words.

Hanst Finklestein (Russel) - Pharmacist extraoirdinare.

"Doc" (Ken) - A master scholar on the subject of the occult arts.

The Action:

A general approaches Doc and Hanst in the Elk Lodge about an earth quake that has recently appeared in Washington D.C. where they are building the Hexagon. At the same time, the same general approaches Gehn Tillmas to deal with some saboturs who have been hampering the construction. Gehn recommends that Mirv can help with the job.

The four meet on a train to go down to Washington and arrive at the scene. After investigating the architects trailer, Doc postulates that the entire thing might have something to do with ley lines. Hanst runs an analysis of the chemicals on the scene and determines that a very primitive explosive was used. There are also bare foot prints all about the place as if someone had snuck up from the river.

An investigation at the library of congress turned up no significant details except that it was the architect himself who recommended the design. But the architects own notes signified that the natural ley line design might be five points instead. Was he deliberately sabotaging his own work?

An investigation of the Architects house showed that he had obviously left in a hurry, though someone was still taking out the trash. His mail showed a consirable amount of correspondence somewhere in Chile, at a 'site of significance.' However, the group was not able to determine where that site was.

Just in case, the group decided to camp out over night in shifts at the construction site at the Hexagon. This turned out to have been a good idea, because in the middle of the night, a car driving some potential neer do wells snuck up on the north side, while another group of potential saboturs snuck in by emerging from the river. The heroes spotted them and we left them about to clobber the bad guys!

Mutants and Master Minds Game - Live RPG - Mirv

March 1, 1931

Mirv looked around the room at the bar once his shift was done. Some people thought it was kind of creepy drinking at the same bar you worked at, but no one was going to say anything. At seven feet and four hundred pounds, he was built like a bouncer. And Fallen Gods was the kind of place where people wouldn't ask him if he'd ever been a Super.

No. He hadn't been. Never had any powers. Things had been easier when there had been Supers, then he could just blend into the crowd. What did being a freak matter when there were people who could fly or lift cars? Now? Now he was back to being a freak again.

Everyone in the bar had been a super at one time or another. Some were reformed criminals, others still were criminals, others still were heroes, but they usually got the crap kicked out of them. Why anyone would want to put on a costume and fight bad guys was something Mirv didn't entirely get. He could respect it, but he didn't get it.

Plenty of bad guys anywhere you looked anyway. Didn't need to find trouble. Trouble found you. He'd had to mangle a few guys for touching the ladies who worked at the bar. People didn't do that any more. This place was like family. At least all the family Mirv really had anyway.

He'd worked for a lot of guys over the years as muscle. Before the world turned upside down with the super's he'd had a reputation as a man in a tight spot. He'd gotten to know a few people here and there. He still did, but didn't hear from most of them. Life was what it was.

Still, something in his gut told him trouble was coming. He didn't go looking for trouble, but sometimes he could feel it looking over his shoulder as if it wanted to pick a fight. Mirv didn't look for the fights, be he made sure he'd win em.