How would you run a Toxic vs Bug campaign in Chicago?

See I have this cabal of Toxic mages/adepts who specialize in draining Essence from spirits, mortals, dragons etc.. just to grow in power..

The Chicago Bug Siege was a godsend for my toxic cabal who suddenly found an unlimited supply of spirits to drain their essence from..

Gonna run it like a Predators vs Aliens campaign style..

So if you are the leaders of this toxic cabal, how would you set up in Chicago?

Start out with a not obvious location with a honking big ward and thick concrete walls for a base.

I sure as hell wouldn't advertise what I am.

Honestly, I'd probably set up a hospital. People die in hospitals all the time so if you drain some of the mortally ill of their essence no-ones going to know. People will talk to you, trust you, tell you if they're afraid their friend's been possessed by a bug. You have a ton of suffering and worry to give you a background count that's already tainted. You can do doc-wagon style runs into bug-infested areas which lets you drain bugs AND gives you good publicity.

You don't really need that much skill, just enough cash to keep it in supplies and keep the autodocs in working order. Wards around a hospital aren't going to attract any odd looks. You're going for a 'Villain with good publicity' vibe here, so the key is to appear to be doing this out of selflessness and goodwill to the community.

Ah, the stories of the Universal Brotherhood. The light of hope in the dark world.

The similarity between the ideas didn't escape me.

I'm sure they were inspiration.

Using bug spirits own tactics to hunt bug spirits? Yeah, I like my irony.

yep it is a war of toxic cult vs bug cult..

or in my case, Divine Brotherhood vs Universal Brotherhood..

did I mention possession and inhabitation are my toxic cult's fav tactics?

the irony indeed..

Oh. In that case, look into expanding into a homeless shelter after you're established. Plenty of SINless who won't be missed for you to possess and inhabit.

I'd probably use Pokemancy to get an out-of-faction Mantis or Spider (not sure if they have stats, but Spider Is Friend) spirit bound and in the cabal, and then long-term-bind it.

They eat bugs. Which means you have a hunting dog for the prey you want to leech power from.

One thing I would consider is a name change - Brotherhood is probably still a loaded term after the Universal one, epsecially if you're masqueading as a charitable institution.

How about the "Salvation of the Divine?" I wanted something with the word "Divine" in it.

Ha! My Dragon Spirits eat everything Mantis and Spider included.

Well my cult is more into hunting spirits rather than the homeless. Less attention that way.

I heartily recommend against that, at least officially. You want to appear as approachable as possible, so any religious or spiritual connotations to your organization may be seen as alienating or blasphemous regardless of whether it is or not. Some people are touchy about religion, and a very small section of those people are the type to do something stupid. Odds on nothing they do will harm you or your team and retribution will be swift, but it might scare people who don't want to be caught in the crossfire away. That's less people to drain and less dead bodies for your spirits to inhabit.

Keep away from either political or religious connotations in your front company, for the same reasons as you stay away from them on the internet. Salvation society is pushing it, but with organizations like the Salvation Army having paved the way for you it might be able to pull it off.

Having something like that as the password to get into the REAL section, on the other hand, works just fine.

Ahhh. that's where you got it wrong.. in desperate times.. any organization willing to send volunteers in with free food, free medicine and free protection for the poor and homeless will be seen as salvationists.. adding the name "salvation" will only add to the mystique.. god knows there are already hundreds if not thousands of such churches or cults existing in shadowrun..

as you mentioned some people are touchy about religion and a very small section will do something stupid but the numbers are comparatively small compared to the masses of hungry people who will willingly believe a lie as long as it feeds and shelters them..

why do you think the universal brotherhood was so successful? because there were too many homeless and hungry willing to obey a lie, even if the lie is right in front of their face.. humanity will do anything to preserve their illusion of security and peace even if it is to humanity's detriment.. too many examples in the real world and shadowrun..

Of course, seeing that my cult is more into hunting spirits rather than people.. it would make sense for my cult to remain hidden and/or low-profile rather than to take the "salvationist" approach..

one thing which irks me is why didn't any major groups in the bug city campaign set up their base in the core corporate towers.. maybe the basements or something.. afterall the hardware for creating a defensible system of drones is already in place..

yeah yeah.. some of you will say that wasps have made the top of towers into their homes and it would be dangerous to hand around in the bottom of the towers but this is the key point.. we want the bugs to come our way cos we eat bugs so why would we run away from the bugs? ;p

so say my toxic cult set up camp in one of the corp towers' basements, hijacked the drone systems and bind an army of mantis spirits as watch guards.. that might work .. hehe

EDIT: Spider spirits might be a better fit for my toxic cult rather than mantis as spiders eat even the mantis..

You want somewhere with an existing toxic background count. It empowers you and weakens your prey, making them easy pickings.

Not really that familiar with toxic mages so not sure what might generate that, but from the name maybe an old oil refinery or coal power plant? Worst comes to worst summon a spirit and tell it "find a toxic background count and report back", then set up camp there. Physical defenses be damned, on a powerful enough background count you're gods and your enemies are reduced to cowering shells of their former selves. Concrete isn't that hard to get if you want to fortify your position, and possessed labor isn't exactly going to start spouting union regulations at you.

i thought that background counts can be altered by geomancy rituals?

Don't know, not really that big on magic. If not, see above comment. If so, find the biggest stable background count you can and attune it to your needs.

Of course they do...

I must say your Toxics are badly lacking toxicity...first of all, their plans seem to involve little more than mugging people (or other entities) for Essence, which is really not that threatening. If they planned on bringing a global holocaust and use it as a sacrifice ritual, OK, but being better vampires? Nah, that is not Toxic magic. Then there is the cabal thing. These folks are completely incompatible with the rest of mankind, their fellow nutjobs included -- thank $DEITY, because several Toxics cooperating is really bad news. Achieving this cooperation was what turned Winternight from a fringe group into a global threat.

I agree with Sengir. You sound like a twisted group of dark magicians, but not a TOXIC group. Toxics are, at core, insane. Your group is merely ambitious and ruthless.

Also, regarding usung toxic background count: It's aspected like other types of magic BGC. If they want to set up in an existing toxic area for camoflage, power, and protection, they'd need to a BGC that is already related to what they do. So an oil spill, reactor accident, church, or maximum security prison wouldn't work.

2 words: Cermak Blast.

There's no reason a group couldn't set up shop on top of a nuclear ground zero. You could even use the guise of cleaning it up to get federal or corp funding. Also there's the fact that toxic spirits are modified and corrupted versions of other spirits...like bugs. I could be wrong but at least in theory you could make a toxic bug spirit like an irradiated mantis or spider… cue, spider-bug, spider-bug doing what a spider-bug does…

Isn't there a toxic blood mage insect shaman wendigo(no, i am not making this up) running around in chicago?

I think (in 4E anyway) that insect and blood are mutually exclusive as they're both traditions. However, given CGL writing that doen't make you wrong.

Two more words: Neutron Activation.

He is trying to put the toxic in this toxic cult. So, I'd recommend it. Also, there might even be some queens still in the blast zone stuck in torpor.

I also think the blast zone might be a mana warp, which could be very dangerous to astral things, and possibly have some astral rifts leading to toxic metaplanes.

Odds are any bugs that are left in the blast zone, that have adjusted to the mana warp, would probably have become toxic bugs as well. So maybe this toxic cult has been infiltrated by the toxic bugs and now there is a civil war within the cult between the toxic bugs and the normal toxic cult members.

Your going to have a limited time to cause problems if you take up residence inside of where an underground nuke when off. But at least you won't need to worry about lights.

Way back in the day when Mulvihill was still around, I had emailed him on the interactions of toxic and insect, IIRC he replied to the effect that it wasn't going to happen. Just something to consider.

That'd make sense. Since they're bad enough dealing with each one on their own, but to have a combined bug and toxic threat would be almost insurmountable for a PC Shadowrunner.

*Considers suggesting Flamethrower/Napalm/White Phosphorus, but realizes that the joke has become old*

It makes sense that it would never become canon, but for a home game I'd go for it.

I see a segment of Insects going Toxic, but it would also separate them from the rest of their kind as they would be an abomination to them, so you could have a weird situation of Bugs and Runners both gunning for the Toxic Bugs.

Mantis Spirits are probably considered Toxics by all other Insects . .
And where Spider falls, and technically Scorpion as well, nobody knows.