Murrey gently pulls apart the clothing from the area and begins patching up his teammate.

Barrens

The small sounds of drones and the oppressive weight of the silence fills the night. The few critically wounded squatters are soon patched up and no longer at risk from dying from their injuries. The area soon reverts to the distant sound of voices, gunfire and decay.

As the drone finishes, Bakatare tucks the tattered edge of the pierced armor back into place. It was going to cost at least a couple of hundred nuyen to get that replaced.

Nodding to the van, he turns to walk back towards the skating rink. Limping from the wound in his side, he grips the staff tightly. A steady flow of Latin interspersed with much more modern curses punctuates each step. As he gets closer and closer to the rink, the limp seems to ease, and then disappear altogether. As he reaches the doors he seems to be striding confidently along with no pain at all.

He turns once, a brow arched, to make sure he rest of the team as around him before he pushed through the doors and into the unlit interior, eyes already sliding sideways as he gazed into the astral.

Hiroto returned after his short patrol of the area.

"All clear this side."

Hiroto formed up quickly alongside Bakatare, his pace adjusting to him. Noticing Bakatare's tatted armor he offered, "I can assist in repairing that later if you wish," before returning to his alert silence.

The Roller Rink

The air hangs still in the air and very little light is present in the interior. You can see the majority of the space taken up by the actually rink. You can see a balcony running around the rink on the 2nd floor, allowing patrons to watch the action on the floor below. In the far right corner of the 2nd story a DJ booth hangs above the rink like a bloated corpse. You can make out the remaints of the light and sound system in the rafters.

He lets his eyes slide over the interior, alert for the least glimmer that would indicate living creatures.

Bakatare

As you open yourself once again to the currents of astral space, you feel the death and fear flooding you. The interior seems saturated with the impressions of hundreds of individuals and none of them seem to have passed from this life easily. Underneath all of this is a disturbing under current of sated need, a feeling of satisfaction. It is harder to detect since to seems to only come from perhaps a handful of different individuals.

Shiver

You feel more than hear the hum of your phone.

Withdrawing the phone from deep within his coat, Shiver looks at the identification information. He rises from the couch and moves down the hallway to a polite distance from the others who are sleeping and doing research.

"Good morning."

He wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his coat. He always hated those sensations. Those feeding impressions, the series of emotions left when one life consumed another. He murmurs quietly over the sub-vocal microphone.

"Probably ghouls, but less then a dozen. Stick together and try to keep a clear path to the door."

Barrens

"Well done but I would think meat as talented as yourself would be that sharp." The voice sounds soft and urban, you hear the faint trace of the streets in his voice. There is movement from all around you, the subtle sounds of shifting or muscles tensing. "Are you the seeking soul Jonathan mentioned might be stopping by?" The voice sounds nearer and you see a body detach from the shadows and nimbly land from the overhang above, his movements silent and efficient. His appears to be in his mid 20s, dressed like a street thug. Garish tattoos run along his face, highlighted his solid white eyes - a tell tale sign of his conversion to a ghoul.

Shiver

"It's Sully.." Her voice sounds wet and forced, you hear her spit as if clearing her mouth. "..I think there might be a problem. I am in a ritual space right now and there is a collection of little dolls and one of them looks like you. Any ideas?"

Focussing his senses, the world around Shiver melts away. All that exists is his pupil, her breathing, and the sounds from the other side of the phone.

"Where are you? What were you hunting? This may be an unrelated incident, if not we will need to destroy the dolls."

Aaron

You can hear the slight sound of bodies tensing and shifting. You feel your awareness stretch out around you, seeking and hunting for others in the abandoned rink. You sense 4 other bodies above you as the lone figure lands some distance away.

Shiver

As the room around you drops away and your senses shift to the sounds from the other end of the phone, Sully answers. "I'm in the Ork underground, somewhere along the edges. I was following up on some rumors of a magician using Blood magic to do local wetwork. Rayne had found some evidence to support the rumors so I decided to take a look around. I found a little more than I was anticipating." You hear her strained breathing, perhaps a broken rib and punctured lung, it would account for the wet quality to her voice. You make out the sounds of at least two others, their breathing is deep and long perhaps unconscious. You make out echoes of water and sound, perhaps a basement or boiler room.

"We are focussing on the same problem from different angles. Destroy the dolls. Do you need assistance?"

These were the tasks that he trained her to perform, and Shiver was proud of her ability to complete them. Though the others in Brimstone weren't as stoic about the Path as he was, each of them contributed to the whole.

Looking to his watch, the old teacher tries to gauge how long the other team has been gone and when they are likely to return. Hopefully their task is going smoothly. If it was not, they would hav contacted the group here.

Shiver

"I should be fine but I called because the magician was in the middle of some sort of ritual work. I'm not certain if it was completed or not though it sounds like you're alright. The collection of dolls includes a woman who appears to be singing, a Japanese looking man somewhat on the frail side, some human male and then in the actual ritual circle was a doll that looks like a tall human." You hear her moving around as she speaks, perhaps getting a closer "look" at the figurines. "There is one more doll that was unfinished.." You hear the sound of a limp body hitting concrete some distance from the phone followed by a feminine voice, Rayne's, saying "Raja Khan." You hear some more movement then silence. "Rayne has finished asking around and the person who hired this Blood magician was named Raja Khan, ring any bells?"

Hiroto

The astral space here seems corrupted and stained, you pick out individual threads of people who died while got in the grip of pain and fear. You are able to sense a low but ever present pull of hunger and need beneath. As you adjust to the sounds all around you, you are able to pick out four different creatures breathing around you, coming from above.

Bakatare steps foward, the shimmering blue field of force still glowing around him.

"Jonathan mentioned that you might be able to provide a bit more information on some items I've come into possession of."

Barrens

The lone ghoul begins to stalk forward, deep in the primitive part of your brain you feel the warning of predator run through your body. He pauses a few feet from Bakatare and seems to slowly take in his scent. "Shame this is work, you smell sweet.." He seems lost for a moment in the sensation of scent and then comes back to himself. "I am going to assume you know exactly what I can do for you so what items do you need read?"

Aaron shifts around to try and keep and eye skyward, as well as elsewhere. He whispers quietly, in a voice intended to keep any without amplified hearing from noticing.

"Four bogies up top."

"A pity, of course, but I appreciate your focus on professionalism." The sarcasm was, of course, an easy front. He was fairly sure the ghoul would represent no real threat if he had time to prepare or saw the creature coming.

Unprepared or sleeping, however...

He reached into the inner pocket of the suit to withdraw the plastic baggie containing both the syringe and the scrap of rope.

"I need whatever information you can provide about the people that handled these items."

He doesn't quite extend the items, however. "I assume there will be some sort of payment required...how is it you want to be paid?'

Barrens

"I think we can call it even considering the ruckus outside. Me and mine could always use more food for the cold nights ahead." He seems to pause to make sure the agreement is reached.

Bakatare arches a brow and nods. He'd hoped it would be something like that, but you never know.

He held out the items, repressing the urge to sigh as he catches a faint whiff of the carrion smell.

It was never simple, or easy, and it always involved something aggressive or creepy...or both.

"I don't recognize the name, though I will follow up with some of my informants. Complete your assignment with the mage and destroy the links. What can you tell me about the unfinished doll? Gender, race?"

Shiver moves back towards the room where each of them had spent time dozing on sofas and the like. Extending his senses, he tries to pinpoint the locations of the other team members left in the apartment.

"The others are spread throughout town at the moment, though a large cluster of them are meeting with an informant in the Barrens. It appears that much of the influence behind these events is shrouded in the nascent politics of changelings. Be wary, a stone serpent and a former Prince of Tir move across the board."

Barrens

The ghoul closes the last few feet between hiimself and Bakatare to take the items in his hand. As he draws closer you can clearly see the teeth of a predator and catch a faint whiff of a carrion eater. He cups the items in his hand and his breathing begins to slow. Several minutes pass and he speaks, his voice sounding distant and strained.

"What do you want to know?"

Shiver

You hear Sully moving, perhaps running her hand over the unfinished doll. "It seems to me male I think but that's about all I can tell, sorry." As she speaks you begin to connect to your own enviornment. You soon pick out the sounds of Moira and your charge sleeping in the other rooms of the apartment. You soon realize that you do not hear any sounds or movement from Havoc. "When did wyrms start playing in the underground?"

"Recently I believe. There is something going on with the changelings. While it may be coincidence, the samurai is close as well. She is close with one of the individuals investigating this dilemma."

Shiver moves down the hallway to look into the room where he had left the trio. The old troll leans heavily upon his cane, the tip tapping against the floor as a third footstep.

"A group of magicians used a ritual to kill a group of people. The leader of that group used these items in the ritual, although perhaps not exclusively. He carries an item of power, a gift from his patron. I want to know what that item is and what it can do."

Barrens

The ghoul seems to go deeper within himself and you're struck with the impression of a hollow body in front of you. His voice comes from somewhere deep within himself and almost seems to echo from the shell of his form.

"The item is a small vial containing a single scale from the patron. He wears it on his forearm, strapped to the inside of his arm. It allows him to channel the strain from great magics to the ritual group bounded to him."

Shiver

As you make your way to the spare room where the street samurai had crashed out, you begin to hear the faint sound of liquid dripping against cloth, a wet and soft patter of drops.

Bakatare nods, resisting the urge to smile. Finally, useful information, and nobody's bleeding from their eyes this time.

He holds his hand out for the items, obviously intending to be on his way.

Bakatare

With a shudder the shell in front of you is reclaimed, the ghoul glides forward placing both items in your hands and bowing as if showing great respect. You are startled by the sudden warmth and moisture as he slides his tongue along your finger with the tenderness of a lover.

"Until we meet again then."

He releases your hand and turns to walk back into the darkness of the rink.

Shiver

As you draw nearer to the door of the room you begin to smell the sweet heavy copper of spilt blood.

He suppresses a shudder as his fingers twitch, barely biting back the rapid words in Latin that would have augmented the energy he almost cascaded into the ghoul.

He lets his gaze linger on the figures back just long enough to settle the mental impression of his aura in his mind. Never hurt to know who might be after you.

He turned, speaking both out loud and subvocally as he strode towards the door. "We're done."

Round up the calvary,Murrey, we're heading out and heading home.

"Follow up with me in two hours. Rayne's grand-father is calling on the other line."

Disconnecting the call to Sully, Shiver drops the cell phone quietly into his pocket, and pushes the door in slowly. He couldn't hear the force that had brought blood to the apartment, but that did not mean it wasn't here. Without entering the room, the old man tries to assess recent actions and Havoc's health or lack thereof. His duty was to defend his ward. To do that he must know what hunts them.

Barrens

The small group makes its way back to the van, trailing behind them at a good distance is a feral looking group of ghouls. Their attention seems focused on the dead in the group of squatters that had launched the unsuccessful assualt on the group earlier. You begin the drive out of the area, watching the broken urban landscape scrolling past. A series of scenes slide up, all tinged by desperation and hopelessness. The numbness of this life threatens to swallow you whole but you have all learned to cope in some way. You soon return to the city and its safe illusion of civilization.

Shiver

The door slides across the carpet revealing a modest bedroom tastefully appointed as the rest of the apartment. You see the signs of recent habitation, a small duffel bag tossed in one corner and the bed's rumpled appearance. You scan the room and soon see the prone form of Havoc on the ground near the small balcony off of the room. His body positioning suggests he was struck down while making his way to the bed. His clothes appear stained with his own blood but there does not appear to be any damage to his clothing. You see no signs of a struggle or evidence of an intruder forcing their way into the room.

He unwinds the spells one by one, body shaking from the release of magical energies. His responses always felt dull after the magical boost in reaction time, like his limbs weren't responding the way they should. Some people got addicted to the feeling, the hyper-tension, just like nova-coke or bliss.

The interior of the van dims a bit as the physical protections fall away, and he releases his grip on the staff, letting the energies in the foci fall dormant once again as he collapses the staff back down to the size of a small baton, tucking it into his belt under his coat.

He places a call to Shiver, letting the Connection....Waiting fill the visual display of his sunglasses as he was for the wized troll to answer.

"I hope the wheating meant well after the violence we purchased it with."

"Bakatare-sama. If your meetings are concluded, there has been trouble at home. Havoc has passed from the pages of Lord Potmos.

Shiver glides quietly into the room, showing reverence for the dead. Without touching the body, he looks over the crumpled form to ascertain if this was a mortal blow or a far reaching awakened one.

Necessity willing, there is one to stand vigil for this soul, as there will be for me.

The groan is faint, but unmistakable.

Great. Dead shadowrunner in my apartment. Of course there's a dead shadowrunner in my apartment. My deposit is probably shot.

"Any idea what happened? Try to contain the body. I'll incinerate it as soon as I get home."

Shiver

You examine the body and soon realize the damage is mostly internal. It looks to be the work a powerful flow of mana channeled directly into his body though how they bypassed wards still remains a mystery. The body position seems to suggest he was making his way to the balcony as you look over the sliding glass door you quickly see the way they reached him. The door is slightly ajar as if he was opening it when the magic struck.

Van

You quickly move through the streets of the city, once again the convulted route chosen by Murphy defies reason and logic and somehow you arrive back at the safe house in record time while avoiding any traffic.

"It appears that the wards were breached and his life was unmade. When you arrive we will have much to discuss."

Shiver moves with a careful pace, avoiding the body to look out onto the balcony.

Blood calls to blood, a doll unmade resembling a man. This is a precarious position we stand upon, striding the soul's edge of reason.

He returns to the living room at the sight of the van pulling in across the street. The sliding door untouched from its position. Bakatare would need to re-seal his wards, a task the old troll was in no position to assist with.

When the team arrives in the apartment, Shiver nods to their host.

My apologies Bakatare-sama for the violation of hospitality. I did not notice the attack in time to respond and protect the young boy left in my care.

:: The sounds of Bakatare's return reach into her subconscious and rouse her out of the deep sleep that had overtaken her. With a stretch, she stands and makes a futile attempt to straighten her sleep rumpled clothes. She joins the Troll and their host near the door in time to hear Shiver's comment about their teammate. Worry and emotion take over her face as she realizes she slept through yet another tragedy. ::

"What happened?"

Do not let it burden you. This is not the old land, ours are not the old ways. Each of us has their own demons. I am grateful that this seemed limited to only one of you.

For the benefit of the rest of the team, he switched back to English for the moment.

"It looks like ritual sorcery. Any single practitioner would have been hard pressed to punch through my wards. Not impossible, just very difficult. Did he give any indication of enemies or people that were hunting him? We know that it isn't our adversaries."

Bakatare

As you speak to the others, you open your senses to the astral hoping to examine the lingering traces of focused mana to back up your theories. You see the heavy glow of the wards still intact along the outer edges of the room. All across Havoc's body you see the remnants of mana woven into his fesh, you can see where the mana was forced in and ruptured the delicate flow of life once contained in his body. As you pick out the signature of the work, you quickly realize you have never seen this worker's magic before, in fact it looks to be a ritual work of some sort. As you probe deeper you detect a taint to the mana, it feels coppery and wet to your astral senses.

Downtown

The team is gathered around the door to the room. The sour smell of death wafts its way into the rest of apartment. You see several large duffels tucked out of the way under the bed and the noise drifts in from the baloncy of the city going on indifferent to the life and death of its occupants.

"Blood magic did this. Associates alerted me to the perpetrator, who had many of us targeted for later acts of murder fueled magics. The practitioner, wrought his deeds for money. Raja Khan was the source behind this death, though the hand who commited the deed will soon meet the same fate as Havoc."

"They do not seem to be linked to our target group.

I fear there is nothing more that can be done then to hope whoever commissioned these acts is satisfied with this single death. If the group that did this has perished, there is at least nothing more to fear from them.

In the meantime..."

Murrey, I do hesitate to ask, but we need to move Havok's body. Can we use your van?

"Wrap the body in the bedding, and I'll lower it down to the street from the balcony into Murrey's van. A simple illusion spell should keep people from seeing the body and causing an issue."

"Of course. Shere wall I drop him off?"

"If none knows of Raja Khan, I and my kind shall look into it."

Collecting up the items from the duffel bag near the bed, Shiver kneels down without touching the body.

"Once Havoc is moved, we must prepare for the party."

Downtown

Silence descends over the apartment as everyone moves to a task. The body of your former teammate is bundled up and placed out of the way until taken down to the van to be disposed of. The smell of blood that was once wet and coppery soon turns to a sickly sour taste in the back of your throat.

Supressing a shudder as his drones set about the grisly work, wanting desperately to have his attention focused elsewhere, but also wanting to honor the memory of his teammate he directly operates the MK-6 as it moves the body.

Once the body is wrapped, he wraps the flows and twists around the limp form, blocking it from normal vision as he lifts it up and drops it lightly out of the window. He keeps it as close to the building as possible to hide in from anyone viewing in the astral as well. He stops the rapid assent a few feet above the concrete, moving it over and inside the van as soon as Murrey opened the door.

It brought back to mind the retrieval of another teammates body. He can't help but smile, despite the grim situation, at the memory of whisking her body through the ruins in the Barren's, trying to keep the Hunt from catching her or them, and the little fox riding shotgun in her backpack.

Aaron looks around the room at the other runners.

"I know something of a person who goes by the name Raja Khan but I'm not certain its the same person. The guy and I have a history, he's a phys-ad who follows Tiger, an Ork. He runs with a gang and can be something a problem but I never figured him for being involved with blood magic. He's always been the kind that'd just dive in and start punching rather than plot and plan before a fight. If it's the same guy I know you can figure on him and maybe a few others from his gang being around. Street fighters one and all, but he makes sure they're better than your average ganger in a fight. He'll know me on sight."

He looked around the room at the others as he spoke, trying to convey the uncertainty he felt. He'd crossed pathes with Raja Khan, but never in a million years would he have figured the Ork warrior for being involved with something like blood magic. Khan was a fighter, top to bottom, and proud of his battle prowess.

"What reason would he have to kill you or others near you?"

Every shadowrunner is an individual, a person with Past and Future. Knowing that did not help Shiver feel sorry for the young boy, but he could not blame him. It was possible that the Ito clan had struck at him, as equally possible as they were hired for another. If the information lay upon his path, he would know it. Should such things not be part of his destiny, he would not.

Downtown

As the conversation unfolds the surreal image of a body floats down the side of the complex wrapped and hidden from view by the flows of mana. The body floats past and through the sluggish foot traffic of the city with no one the wiser as it settles into the rear of the van pulled off the main street in an access road runnning parallel to the condo complex.

Safe House

A small twisted cry pushes its way from Angelina's throat as her body shifts without warning to Desdemona. Her face is a mask of rage and frustration as she pushes her other self away and assumes control. "Useless twit...."

She shakes herself and her eyes lock onto Aaron and the heat is evident. Her voice is tight and bristling with hostility. "You mean to tell me that your shit has come to land on our faces? As for the rest of you, instead of giving that useless pile of dead meat a proper burial we should be putting this Raja on the dead list." Her scathing glare travels across the other runners before settling back on Aaron

At her change and outburst, Moira seems to recoil from the venom and implied insult. She seems to look to the others for support and decides to settle on Shiver on how to deal with her now that she seems able to assert her persona at will.