If he's that desperate, have a free blood spirit overhear their conversation and offer to teach him blood metamagic. Have the blood spirit offer to pay the karma cost for learning it in exchange for...certain services. Invoking a bunch of blood spirits would win their fight, but would open up a whole new campaign of trouble.

[warning: I explain what's going on a bit more for the benefit of people who want to know. I try not to let this become a gaming story, but it toes the line. If you don't want to hear about my campaign, and I won't blame you, just skip to the end.]

Actually, the campaign started with the rival gang blowing up their headquarters and killing all members of the gang except for the PCs. So, the preemptive strike already happened, and the PCs were on the wrong end of it. The only reason they lasted this long is because the rival gang didn't know they were still alive. Now they've figured out who's been messing with them for the last few months and they're moving in to finish the job.
This campaign is sort of an underdog story.
The PCs have spent the last 10 sessions kicking the legs out from under the enemy gang, turning their allies against them, building allies of their own, taking out key figures, etc. I don't want to get into the details, 'cause gaming stories are annoying, but they're not standing alone in this. And they're not going to kill the rival gang with this fight, their goal is just to survive long enough for some corporate reinforcements to arrive.

Otherwise, I really like the corp angle, but since they're already dealing with the Azzies just to get those reinforcements I'd say their situation is truly desperate.

Lone Star is a good suggestion, but there's already some LS stuff going on that might not fit too well. Dealing with that is going to be their next major task.
They're already doing the enemy-of-my-enemy thing, although not without it's price.
They could make a deal with tanamous, but they've already promised all the bodies to a pack of ghouls who will be keeping an eye on the sewers for them.

He's not really a bastard of a mage, he's more of a friendly grandpa type, which really makes the soul-selling angle appeal to me.
The magic drug option is definitely one I hadn't considered.
And no one's sold their soul to organized crime yet, that could work.

The blood spirit thing is cool, but wouldn't he need Sacrifice, Invoking, and Invoking Blood Spirit metamagics to get a big scary blood spirit?

Just to let you know, the whole theme of the campaign has been the PCs trying to dismantle a group (the enemy gang) who is dramatically more powerful than them and will squash them in a direct confrontation. They will (dice gods willing) eventually succeed, but they're going to have to make a lot of deals and do a lot of favors for a lot of people to get there. If they're very smart about it, though, and play all the sides just right, they might well come out ahead.
This coming confrontation is marking a major turning point in the campaign where the PCs have turned the tides enough for the conflict to come out in the open and for them to have a tiny amount of defensible "turf" again, although the enemy will still have vastly more territory and members for a while. That said, there's still a lot of room for this to go poorly or well, and one PC is offering up a lot to make sure it goes well.


Some really good ideas, here. Thanks everybody. Please feel free to keep 'em coming, I've got some time before I have to settle this.

This is a good point.
This isn't the end of the campaign. Both the player and I want the price to be something that he has to deal with as an ongoing thing. Something like Edge loss is a good idea, but that's a price that he can pay and be done with. True, his stats are lower, but the deal is still basically over and resolved. We want something that he has to suffer with for a longer period.

There are 9 PCs (plus their NPC allies/deals/etc)
The enemy is roughly 400.
The PCs spend most of their time changing disguises. Like I said, they survived the first major chunk of the campaign by hiding and pretending to be dead. Eventually, though, the bad guys figure someone is picking on them and bust out the divination. I'm very interested to see how thing turns out for them.

Ouch! If I were the players I would try to infiltrate the big gang and take over Even their powerful leader(s) is as vulnerable as a child when asleep, especially if the PCs manage to get into position as guards (not likely).

Even so, a pissed off mage is a terrible enemy. He can find you anywhere, spy on you, and assassinate from a distance without most non-mages detecting them.

Unless the gang leader has more than one shaman in their group (unlikely but possible), the mage could concievably strike at the leader when the Shaman is otherwise engaged. A few spirits could go a long way to achieve that.

Basically the PCs need a heck of alot of legwork to pull this off more than a deal with a devil.

If all else fail, the Yakuza is probably possible to ally with - in return for them pretty much ruling the neighbourhood afterwards. Although why they would ally with the PCs and not "the 300" is beyond me... what do they really have to offer?

I'm not going to go into why they don't infiltrate the enemy, or why so-and-so is allying with someone else, 'cause it's hours and hours of backstory and explanation. That would become a gaming story, and nobody wants that. I've come too close already.

Suffice to say, my players trust that I have my reasons and logic, that there is consistency in the world, and that if and when they find it all out then why someone made a certain decision with the information they had at the time will make sense.

Believe me, getting other people in a position to help them in their stupid suicidal cause has been the biggest challenge, and no one has done it lightly or without serious incentive.

Thanks for all the suggestions.