Blood of the Earth - Session 4 Synopsis

The group met in Atlanta trying to decide what to do. In the end, they decided to take a job with one of Rain's contacts in Renraku, currently in Amazonia. Mr. Tanakata offered the group 300,000 NY a piece for a job that was essentially suicidal. However, he knew (thanks to the images from the Book of Light that had been sold to him) that the group would be uniquely qualified to take on the assignment. The job was to take out a Great Hive in the middle of the jungle. Divination had told Mr. Tanakata that the Roach spirits were planning on spreading Vitas IV all over the world in Caracas on the night before the vaccine was going to be distributed.

Thus, the group only had 24 hours to prepare, which they used to buy a large quantity of insecticide and explosives. They were somewhat limited by the fact that they would be traveling through the jungle on foot. Still, they got the job done.

The group was flown to within 50 clicks of the hive via stealthed VTOL. The air was even more hot than usual due to the pending war with Aztechnology on their border. Much to their surprise, the group had to do a low altitude parachute jump. Remarkably, almost no one was injured. They then traipsed through paranormal critter infested jungle, but did so remarkably freely. They managed to make it to a river and made a raft, using an air elemental to pull them along.

Once the group got to the hive, they came up with a plan. They ringed themselves with explosives and tried to get the Roach spirits to come to them. The first two that were guarding were shot to bits before they even approached the group. A single weak Roach spirit was sent out as a probe which they shot to smitherines. A short while later, four more attacked them but were likewise blown to bits before the group was able to set off the explosives. They waited some time but none of the roach spirits were coming out. Fearing the worst, the group decided to enter the tunnels. They first placed a titanic explosive down a deep hole on top of the mound which didn't do anything except explode at the bottom. Then they entered one of the small cramped tunnels where two of the stronger remaining soldier spirits emerged and mortally wounded Silver and Steel, who were only saved with a great deal of luck and timely intervention from Mustang.

At this point, the group withdrew and simply planted explosives around the mound. Fortunately for them, they had killed the last two available soldier spirits, and destroyed it all just before the Queens finished their ritual. Unfortunately, they had spent so much time in the jungle, that there was almost no chance that they would make it to Mexico City in time for when the dagger would activate.

Furthermore, when the natural cloaking powers of the dagger deactivated, they were in a dangerous Amazonian DMZ and only barely managed to escape into the jungle. They rode a large spirit and Shadow through the jungle to a waiting stealthed VTOL. They got some much needed rest since they had been awake for almost two days with no sleep. Chartering the fastest jet they could find, the group found themselves in Mexico City but this time around kept a much lower profile than they had hithertonow done. They followed the dagger to an ancient spanish fort, with a well in the bottom. With a great deal of stealth, they managed to destroy 12 aztechnology mages trying to unleash and destroy the powerful Ally spirit bound to the Dagger of Arachne. The group barely managed to destroy the Aztechnology mages and escape Aztlan, vowing that they would take no more jobs before they had investigated where the dagger was sending them.