Nodaryc decides to prank Strata by materializing in front of him.

Strata (OC): "I see this, and I go to punch him"

*Strata Rolls Unarmed Combat, Nodaryc rolls reaction to dematerialize. Strata misses.*

Strata: "May you find gnomes in your cheerios...."

Nodaryc: "This was for the gnomes in the first place!"

The players need to meet their Johnson, and they get to their destination.

GM: "You guys pull up outside the fight club. They're probably just now getting into full swing!"

*The GM laughs at his own joke*

Nodaryc: "That's terrible"

Decrypt (OC): "I want another fight club named that."

Nodaryc is trying to figure out some distances.

Nodaryc (OC): "How far away is the Russian Mafia territory from here?"

GM: "You suspect it's about an hour away as the Mouse drives."

Mouse (OC): "I love it."

Strata and Nodaryc are driving to Nodaryc's Talismonger contact. Nodaryc forgot that his contact has garden gnomes out front, which always creep him out. He rolls his driving and gets a critical glitch. This is compounded by the fact that he's driving a truck with a manual transmission that should really be in a museum.

GM: "You attempt to stop the truck, but you can feel the gnomes staring at you. You know that they're watching you. You swerve to the right, which causes the car behind you to brake unexpectedly, causing a three car pileup. You forget to press the clutch, and your car lurches forward a few times, careening into the side of a building."

Strata: "What's happening?"

Nodaryc: "Gnomes..."

Strata: "Ah."

Nodaryc is currently in the Astral providing overwatch in case someone casts a spell. He sees the telltale signs of someone about to cast a spell on himself, and he jumps in to interrupt it.

GM: "Alright, just to make sure you know, you'll be taking the drain of whatever spell he's casting. You don't know what it is."

Nodaryc: "I'm gonna stop the spell."

*The GM rolls the guy's spellcasting, 5 hits. Nodaryc rolls dispelling, 3 hits. He rerolls with karma and gets two more hits. The GM starts laughing*

GM: "In the physical, Strata sees this guy make some funny motions with his hands and jump out the window. Immediately after, he shouts 'Oh shiiiii'! before you hear him hit the ground."

Nodaryc: "Did I just kill him by dispelling a spell?"

GM: "Yes, he had cast levitation."

Mouse has Morphine cornered. Strata and Nodaryc are holding him down. Mouse and Proto are each holding a BTL.

Mouse: "Now Morphine, since I never got MY refund, and we're LONG past the time where we can get one, we're going to do some !!SCIENCE!!."

Mouse and Proto hold up their chips with a smile

Morphine: "No. No! Nonononono!"

Mouse: "You got the left, I got the right?"

Mouse and Proto push chips in simultaneously to each of Morphine's chipjacks.

GM: "Morphine immediately goes catatonic."

Morphine has been running a scam on Strata for the past week. Thanks to Mouse and Nodaryc, his lies have come to to light.


Nodaryc: "How much did you spend?"

Strata: "...Just over 8000."

Nodaryc: "Why??"

Strata: "I was trying to make a magic molotov to keep us safe from the Ants!"

Nodaryc: "Why didn't you ask for help from the Magic guy you knew??"

Strata: "....You were busy?"


Mouse and Nodaryc just shake their heads.

Strata is talking to Patch, who has brought in a Nuke to be used on a budding ant infestation. She's pretty adamant that it be used.

GM (as Patch): "Hundreds could die. None of these can get out. This is the only way!"

Strata: "We'll take care of it mam."

Strata (OC): "I professionally escort the nuke to Mouse's truck"

Mouse is trying to determine the seating situation in his truck now that he has a tactical nuke to take care of. He has a question for Nodaryc.

Mouse: "How do you feel about sitting next to a nuke?"

Nodaryc: "Seeing as I'm trying to avoid it..."

Nodaryc: "I see... How about you Strata?"

Strata: "Can I sit in the front seat with it on my lap?"

Mouse and Nodaryc (Simultaneously): "No!"

Strata, Mouse, and Nodaryc are trying to determine who gets to push the button if they hypothetically get to use a tactical nuke.


Strata: "Can I be the one to press the button?"

Nodaryc: "What? Why you?!"

Mouse: "Yeah! It should be shortest person first!"

Strata wants to weaponize a blackberry cat, but he's having a bit of a hard time remembering what it was.


Strata: "That blackberry you saw..."

Nodaryc: "Yes?"

Strata: "Do you think we could weaponize it?"

Nodaryc: "A blackberry?"

Strata: "Yes."

Mouse: "You want to weaponize a piece of fruit?"

Strata: "Yes."

*Strata thinks about what was just said*

Strata: "Wait. No!"

Nodaryc and Strata are attempting to throw off any potential followers and wander all around town. They wander down an alley.

GM: "As you walk into the alley way, you feel a gun against your side."

GM (As Dude): "Credstick. Now. 5 seconds. 4. 3. 2..."

Strata: "I reach into my bag and pull out a bomb"

Nodaryc: "I punch him."


*After a brief fight*

Strata (OC): "I search the body"

GM: "You find several small amounts of nuyen on him. He was clearly doing this out of desperation."

Strata: "Now I feel a little bad..."

Strata and Nodaryc are talking. Strata is trying to figure out how to make some money (75¥) to buy a suit, and he's settled on the idea of "whacking a Humanis Policlub member".


Nodaryc: "Oh come on, I'll buy you a suit."

Strata: "Are you sure? I don't mind removing a Nazi from the world."

Nodaryc: "True, but you must do it in style!"

Strata: "Fair point... Let's go!"

*They both go off to buy a suit*

Strata is telling Nodaryc that he's not going to be around the Russian Mafia's territory for a while. He recommends that Nodaryc avoid the Russians for a while.

Nodaryc: "What have you done?"

Strata: "Nothing!"

Mouse: "Yet!"

Strata: "I'm helping! I've been asked to help!"

Nodaryc: "Sure, that's what they all say..."

Strata and Nodaryc walk into the Cthluhlu F'lagon (A bar with Cthluhlu statue in the middle of it). They've found several statues of Shamanic totems over the past day. Strata points at the statue.

Strata: "Oh look, another totem, just like the ant we found!"

Nodaryc (OC): "I smack him upside the head."

Strata is listening to Nodaryc on the phone and hears that Nodaryc's contact has mentioned telling Ares about a nest of Ant spirits since they might be interested. Strata has an idea.

Strata: "Would Aztechnology be a good one to contact?"

Nodaryc and Mouse Simultaneously: "No! Absolutely not!"

*Strata sounds baffled at this, Nodaryc goes in to explaination mode*

Nodaryc: "Aztechnology would take over the area and try to weaponize this. At least Ares would likely level the place."

Nodaryc and Strata are trying to figure out what to do with the tunnels they are currently in.

Nodaryc: "We might need to use some explosives to trap everything down here."

Strata (Immediately): "I have no objections."

Nodaryc, Strata, and Mouse have just had an encounter with an Ant spirit. It popped in and out of the Astral during the fight, which really freaked Strata out.

Strata: "What are we dealing with?? Phasing alien ghost ants? Is THIS what you have in the black forest?"

Nodaryc: "Do you see why I'm worried now!? No one takes the magician seriously."

Mouse: "I mean, when you say magician, something else comes to mind. Do you do any card tricks?"

Nodaryc is talking to his Talismonger contact about Shaman things (Neither he nor his contact are shamans).

GM (As Edward): "I was trying to figure out what he meant by Eagle. The eagle? An eagle? The platonic ideal of all Eagles?"

Nodaryc: "Yeah, I don't get it either. Do you have his contact information? I need to ask some more questions."

GM (As Edward): "No, I don't. He just came in, bought a garden gnome, left."

Nodaryc: "Gah, gnomes..."

Strata calls his Russian Mafia contact, Ivan, to update him on the job so far.

Strata: "We found that Mary is missing. It looks like she's been conducting Cthluhlu rituals in her basement, and she's apparently killed several people already."

Nodaryc (OC): "I groan and make a motion to indicate that he should hand the phone over to someone who understands magic."