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Digital Heroin
The following thread is meant as an information archive for key information surrounding the Low-Down in Loveland campaign to be run on this board. I would ask that players of the game not respond on this board, and only refer to it as a source of known information that characters can draw upon. What I post here is what you know, whether from the past, or new information that comes to light. The thread is meant to keep key info in an easy to locate place, as well as serve as a campaign info archive. Questions/comments/concerns and death threats can be PMed to me, or asked in the actual OOC thread (when it comes up), or for the time being in the Recruiting thread.
Digital Heroin
Setting and Backround Pre-Game

Low-Down is one of Loveland's oft ignored neighborhoods, perhaps due to the fact that it is almost ninety-percent commercial space that was only partially completed, or abandoned long ago. The small area that is actually inhabited and with power has the misfortune of sitting in the midst of a triangle between the territory of the Brothers of Metal and Southside Assassins gangs, and Puyallup's small Chinatown enclave, which falls under the protection of the Black Adder Society. Though there are frequent clashes in the abandoned commercial areas on the periphery of Low-Down between the various factions, the more established areas are left alone by virtue of a longstanding series of treaties.

The Low-Down neighborhood itself consists mainly of a run-down bar aptly named The Dive, and a large warehouse which houses a shop named Lou's. Both buildings are linked by a common 'no-tell motel' on their second floor. An automated laundromat and, of all things, a Stuffer Shack crouch in the shadow on the warehouse opposite the 'dress.' No one ever sees so much as a delivery drone, but the Shack always seems to be decently stocked.

The Loveland Dozen, as are regardless of their numbers at any given time, have been the power in Low-Down for six years. They were described often by their now incarcerated leader cum Alpha, Bruno Hawkins, not as a gang, but as watch keepers over an interstitial community. Bruno formed the gang to welcome refugees in the area, and those on the run from some element of their past, and he trained them to be something more. They became the guardians of the forgotten and the lost.

The gang's primary crashpad is a series of apartments that start in the upper portion of the warehouse that Lou's is based in, and merge with the old motel rooms above The Dive. Bruno kept the warehouse open, save for the working bays, for the gang to store gear and vehicles in, provided they did not mess with each others' stuff. The Dive provides for basic low necessities as far as food and other things go, and because of the presence of the Stuffer Shack, sometimes you can score something better every now and then. Matrix coverage is present, as Loveland is a developed city, but there are occasional outages.

While the gang was primarily formed as a neighborhood watch (over the Low-Down itself and the squatter communities in the outlying commercial blocks), they did maintain one primary revenue stream until recently. Lou's was the rather obvious front for a chop shop, with the primary customers being underworld figures looking to disappear vehicles after operations. Several of the original residents of the area work Lou's itself while also being initated gang members, and until Bruno's incarceration, the income was quite handy.

Despite the lack of customers, save locals, The Dive seems to do well enough to keep afloat, and charge rock bottom prices for food and beverages. The Auto-Wash Laundromat is not so viable as far as businesses go, serving usually to keep the gang from smelling horrible, but Whisper, the manager, does a brisk business dealing street drugs. His sources are his own, but he pays the Dozen a cut monthly for protection. The only problem is that he was, in the height of its popularity, dealing Tempo, and that is what ultimately got Bruno arrested, while Whisper disappeared for a month, and then returned. The last, and most legit, business on the block, the Stuffer Shack, hires the gang as protection in lieu of private security, and does quite a good bit of business with the local squatters.

Thanks to parts left over from their chop operations, the Dozen have a good relationship with the Brothers of Metal, who base themselves out of a junkyard turned fortress, and have a heavy hand in reclamation, budget demolitions, and parts smuggling. The Black Adder Society members rarely bother with Low-Down, though they are the most likely source of Whisper's narcotics. And the Southside Assassins, well, they are just a pain in the hoop.
Digital Heroin
The Brothers of Metal are a turf gang, controlling perhaps the largest plot of gang turf in all of Loveland. Their primary stronghold is a junkyard which borders the unclaimed commercial district surrounding Low-Down. The Brothers are a techno-anachronistic gang, favoring pseudo-medieval arms and armament, while still utilizing modern vehicles and electronics. The gang's primary source of income is reclamation, demolition, and parts sales, however they cover all of the traditional rackets as well. Estimates place the Brothers of metal at thirty core members, led by a red-haired slab of a man named Rufus. The gang's colors are slate gray and black, and they can be easily identified by the incorporation of chain mail and plates in even their casual clothing.

The Black Adder Society are both protectors of, and predators upon a small Chinatown enclave to the east of the Low-Down neighborhood. Pressed right against the edge of what could still be called Loveland, the enclave is scarcely twice as large as Low-Down's two blocks, but holds significantly more people, having been built up around two apartment towers. The Society are a Triad, though one which enjoys less exterior support, and exercises less formality upon its members. There are anywhere between twenty and forty members of the Society at any given time, however they often draw from Chinese youth eager to gain acceptance to bolster their numbers. The Society operates a profitable gambling den out of the storefronts at the base of one apartment building, as well as a brothel on the floors above it. The Society was heavily involved in the Tempo trade, but unlike their rivals, they seem to have weathered the crackdown with little damage done to their structure. Society foot soldiers can be identified by the Black Adder iconography upon their clothing, or often tattooed somewhere obvious about their person.

The Southside Assassins are a thrill gang originally founded by the teenage children of local factory workers. Most everyone considered the Assassins a joke for years, however the original crop of them has matured, and they have become business minded, and focused, while using newly canonized recruits as shock troops, letting them collect money while others act as shock troopers. The Assassins draw their money primarily from hijackings and from outright armed robbery, preying on the businesses of people on the periphery of their turf. The Assassins only have ten core members, but are constantly accepting and losing pledge members, and have thirty-or-so street level members at any given time. Of the gangs that claim turf around Low-Down they are the most violent, and push the longstanding treaties the most. The Assassins colors are a hideous combination of purple and green which would evoke flashbacks of a singing dinosaur in an older generation of people.
Digital Heroin
Dr. Richard Hawkins, better knowns as Bruno was once hailed as Loveland's `native son.` The first of his family to graduate from any institution outside of a correctional one, Bruno attended Brown University on a football scholarship, and he has since earned Doctorate in Philosophy, which, when asked, he will say has left him uniquely qualified to run a gang. After graduating from Brown, Bruno signed on with the UCAS Marines, and served ten years before retiring for undisclosed reasons into obscurity, eventually returning to Loveland only to find his childhood neighborhood firmly in the grips of a gang known as the 451s. Having lost his taste for blood, Bruno chose to move to the Low-Down, and quietly purchased Lou's.

The Dozen may never have been founded were it not for the imposition of the 451s on Low-Down, and the attempted firebombing of Lou's when Bruno refused to pay protection. Pushed to react, Bruno began a one man campaign of psychological and guerrilla warfare upon the 451s. As his success mounted, and word began to spread amongst the people of Loveland, a handful of emboldened residents of Low-Down and the adjacent squatter communities approached Bruno, and offered themselves unto his leadership. Knowing that they would form without him, and that he was better suited to leadership than any of the lot, Bruno accepted, and thus the Loveland Dozen were formed.

When the weakened 451s went to ground - pressed upon by the expansion-minded Southside Assassins and having their own people's morale eroded by Bruno's campaign - Bruno was quick to call a meeting with the heads of the Brothers of Metal, the Assassins, and the Black Adder Society. The call was to establish a set of treaties which would make the commercial district around Low-Down a sort of DMZ, buffering out the warring gangs.

Five years passed since the treaties were signed, and most of it passed in a form of gangland peace. Low-Down became home to the disenfranchised amongst the disenfranchised, and the Dozen expanded their operations to somewhat profitable realms, while taking on new and more colorful misfits and outcasts. For a time, Bruno had built something good.

And then along came Tempo.

Bruno did everything he could to keep Tempo out of Low-Down. He kept the people aware of the dangers of the drug, barred its sale in any Low-Down establishment, and punished transgession harshly. While other gangs greedily scrambled for their chunk of the profits, the Dozen maintained a distance, and focused on their traditional businesses, with few cases of Tempo use seeping into the local squatter communities. When the Tempo crackdown started, however, Lone Star swept in, and there was only one name on their warrants: Dr. Richard Hawkins.

Bruno has disappeared. For a month he has been missing. No arrest notice, no record of booking. He has simply vanished from the grid, and the Dozen have been left to fill in the void.

-----

Mumbles has lived in Low-Down for most of his life, and ever since he could talk he has been a grifter. His mother was the old owner of the Auto-Wash Laundromat, and through a long line of 'Uncles' to keep his words quiet and his feet quick. When his mother passed on, the Uncles stopped coming, and so did the nuyen. This left Mumbles looking for an alternate revenue stream, and street drugs were the natural fit.

Working as an intermediary for one of the last of his Uncles, Mumbles cut himself a nice little business selling low grade drugs to the squatters around Low-Down, and to some of the Loveland Dozen members. Naturally, he paid a cut to the Uncle, and paid tribute to the gang, and everything was tidy.

And then along came Tempo.

Tempo represented to Mumbles a chance to make big, and the Society had the hook-up. Rather than get the approval he knew would not come from Bruno, Mumbles began meeting on the sly with the Society reps, and setting up to supply the more adventurous of the squatters a new escape.

Something happened to Mumbles, though, and a few weeks before the crackdown he went missing. He only recently re-surfaced, and he has been more quiet than ever.

-----

The presence of a Stuffer Shack has always been something of a welcome enigma in Low-Down. Stranger still, however, is the lone man behind the counter, known to locals only as The Cambodian. Never seen beyond the immaculate front sidewalk or the loading area of the Shack, the Cambodian appears to be the only employee of the establishment, yet he never closes the store, and has never once been found sleeping on the job.

-----

Saul is a spry old gnome who lives on the third floor of the no-tell above The Dive, and is the proprietor of both establishments. Always accompanied in public by his silent elven companion Fatima, Saul is a wise and personable fellow, who acts as a de-facto grandfather for the members of the Dozen. He is quick with hospitality, and with advice, and he brokers only one cardinal rule: no violence in The Dive. The rule has not been broken in recent memory, but many whispers speak of just what happened to those who paid it no heed.
Saint Sithney
Heh, sorry, I had been awake for 36 hours and was kinda loopy. Forgot the rules.

Guess I'll put this here too, as it's a sort of reference. I'll update it as info comes to me.

"Feral" - Ork - Wolf Shaman
Miranda "Scratch" Wild - Human - larcenous Freerunner adept
Jacob "Grim" Graham - Human - Mobile Street Doc
Còsimo "Cozi" de'Ferrara - Ork - Gunner and Criminal Entrepreneur.
Micky "Cocktails" - Human - Social Infiltrator
Larenz Konrad "Matto" Marazski - Ork - Bruiser w/ bandages
"Bear" - Elf - Mystic street Detective
Alex Brooker - Elf - Courier
Lucky - Human - Techno-adept critterkiller

Jimmy Falcon - Dwarf - Mechanic and Hardware Hacker
Smush - Ogre - Brute
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