Episode 2 Report

General Summary

The session begins with Boris Sherman trying to stand up from his seat in @mild only to realize he had been poisoned. As he stumbles to his feet, the elderly, portly Barman, previously so cordial, now leaps over the bar, in a manner more agile than expected for his age, brandishing a vicious club, set with spikes, barbed wire and broken glass. "Everybody out, " the barman yells and instantly the heaving bar begins to empty. At that, the barman's equally elderly, and equally sprightly, wife rounds the bar too, she wielding a heavy chain. With a leering, menacing sneer Both miscreants begin to advance on Boris. Outside, by the edge of Gas-Slaughter Crater, Vanessa DeVour, Sister Matic, and the Reconstructed are surveying the subsidence-exposed lower-levels of the bar trying to make sense of the strange and sinister revelations from previous episode. Noticing the commotion of the punters pouring onto the street from the emptying bar, the Reconstructed launches skyward, amid a gout of smoke and steam, landing, an instant later by the bar's doors. Vanessa likewise begins a dash towards the commotion. Sister Matiic, performs a brief prayer, and then she leaps skyward too, she propelled by a flash of holy light rather than by the noise and bluster of mechanical jets. Inside Boris steadies himself waiting as the barman and woman advance. With immense speed the reconstructed launches himself through the bar doors, dragging the chain from the woman's hand and flying over the counter and down through the open cellar hatch. As Sister Matic takes a second to catch her breath Vanessa arrives and with an unleashing of infernal energy summons forth a web of chains and restraints from the diabolic House of Castigation, which, finding anchors in wall, floor and ceiling, entwine, pinion, suspend and blindfold the barwoman. Unphased by the attack on his companion, the barman swings the bat at Boris, but doesn't manage to land a blow. Down below the Reconstructed, in the darkness of the basement, switches on his active stealth system and descend down the stairs to the sub-basement, where he had previously identified living heat signatures. Undetected he enters the sub-basement, spotting a huge hall descending into the earth, and a crew of five goblins engaged in some nefarious mischief.

The Goblin Crew

There are three diminutive goblins:

One giant, mutant gobin:

Vinter Ambion

And one average-human sized female Goblin:

Illianux Ambion

Back up in the bar, Vanessa unleashes her infernal lash at the barman, flailing part of his back and sending a spray of anomalously green blood splattering from him. Sister Matic leaps across the bar, over the counter and down through the trapdoor, navigating the darkness more through luck that skill, land beside the invisible Reconstructed. Vanessa quickly follows the nun down into the dark, though her own passage is down with the grace of acrobatic aplomb. The Reconstructed fires a smart bullet through the door, targered on the giant Goblin, but somehow it misses. Fortunately the dumb brute believes it is just some insect flying past him as he swats at it. The Reconstructed ask for a distraction and Sister Matic fires a flash of heavenly light into the room. Using that as cover the Reconstructed sneaks up behind the goblin woman, who is unaware of him, but just before he can strike, she spins around and issues a mental command, telling him to stop his friends. Now visible, the Reconstructed orders everyone to stand down, but in a moment of divine inspiration and Sister Matic extends her diving grace onto the reconstructed, freeing him from malign mental influence. Alone upstairs Boris squares off and, punching the ground, sends out a kinetic shockwave that further batters the wounded barman. With his foe collapsed on his knees Boris delivers a coup de grace, punching down and collapsing the barman's head into his body. Downstairs Vanessa uses her infernal mind control powers on the giant goblin and comands him to gather up his friends. With that the goblin grabs his compatriot nearest the door and strides away towards the others. Illianux issues a command to Vinter that shatters the mind control, and he releases his grip on Rilish. It is too late though, Vanessa steps forward, and with the four goblins perfectly aligned breathes out a huge cone of flame that engulfs them all in immolating force. Blasted and smouldering, the four goblins scatter. Vrasha charges across the room towards the chained Goblin woman and starts to free her from her bonds. Vinter heads towards the door where Sister Matic and Vanessa are standing. Lisher falls back to the centre of the room but is quickly killed by an attack from the invisible Reconstructed, and Rilish collapses, unconscious. Seeing that the goblin Vrasha is trying to free the goblin woman, and has already managed to dismantle some on her chains, the reconstructed leaps into action, deploying his retractable claws and slashing Varsha in the back. A wounded Varsha swings his vicious goblin machete at the Reconstructed and misses, receiving another swipe of the claws in reply. Almost dead Varsha imbibes some goblin potion that seems to completely restore him, but his recovery is short lived as Sister Matic unleashe the wrath of her holy blade upon him before the Reconstructed delivers a final slice with his claws. Noticing that though now dead, Varsha has managed to lose some of the Goblin woman's chains Vanessa summons her own infernal restraints to bolster the failing divine wones. These restraints not only resecure and pinion her, but also cover Illianux's eyes, negating her mind control abilities. Descending from above, Borish joins Sister Matic and Boris in squaring-off against the last standing opponent, the towering Mutant Goblin known as Vinter. Boris trading punches with the beast while the Sister slices at it with her holy sword. Finally with a mighty punch Boris ends the creatures miserable existence. With that, the Goblins are defeated. Illianux is still bound in the exotically entwining divine and chains, Rilish is unconscious, and the rest are dead. The team send a runner to the station house, requesting a pick-up for the prisoners, bodies, and evidence. Soon they hear the clip-clop of the horse drawn Black Mariah... Following the defeat of the Goblins and the capture of Illianux and Rilish Ambion, the team surveys the sub-basement for evidence. The note the large pit descending into the earth. They also find remains, both human and animal, that has obviously been used as a food source. As well as the array of goblin equipment, salves, weapons and grapples, they also recover a large industrial-sized roll of cotton and a bunch of keys. Arranging for the evidence to be retrieved the team returns to Gas Slaughter 'Manor' Station House. Back in their S.I.E.L. Team offices they are greeted by Litchfield Lane who questions them about their progress on the case. After their report Lane informs them that the degree of Goblin organization and intelligence, not to mention the level of intrusion into Imperial territory, has been largely kept from the press and general public so as not to alarm them. Lane goes on to let the team know that he has arranged for the two Goblin prisoners have been secured here at the stationhouse, using specialized technology, in a cell block cleared of all other prisoners and guarded by his own Ministry personnel (rather than police) for secrecy and security purposes. Lane then instructs the team to continue their investigations, but to use the cover-story that they are 'mopping-up' some wild goblins and downplay any evidence of their more organized activities. After their meeting with Lane the team head up to the morgue to meet with Adaline Rowe to hear her preliminary reports on the Goblin corpses. Rowe informs the team that she had already been briefed by Lane and is aware of the true nature of the Goblin menace. She then details her initial findings about the goblins, which is that there are three types of goblin corpses, the standard goblin, one that seems to be wearing human skin suits, and the giant mutant goblin which seems to have been injected with some form of mutagen over a prolonged period, possibly since birth. When asked about detecting the Goblin's wearing skin suits, Rowe expounds on the course quality of the stitching and obvious scarring, not to mention smell that has to be concealed by heavy perfumes. It is her theory that while these goblins might pass a causal encounter, any form of strip-search or close inspection would likely reveal them. Rowe then revels the details of her investigation into the roll of cotton fabric, showing them the label, which has the name of 'Minten Cotton Mill' on an attached label. She informs them that she checked the fiels and it seems that Minten had reported a theft recently, and they believe this was an inside job as one of the yoing women working for them had stolen the factory keys and disappeared. Comparing the dates Rowe believes this may have been the latest mutilation victim, especially considering the evidence from the autopsy that the women worked in a mill. Finally, Rowe shows them her tests of the Goblin Healing salve. Using a Petra dish and pipette she shows them how the salve, when applied to Goblin flesh, seems to trigger rapid regenration, but that it has a toxic effect on human flesh. When Vanessa volunteers a sample of her blood, Rowe is astonished, and very interested, in the way the Wytchborne blood seems to rapidly consume the salve. Rowe notes that this is a phenomena that should be followed up with further study at a later date. With that, the Team leaves the morgue, unsure about how to next proceed with the investigation...

Campaign

Gas-Slaughter Green

Protagonists