This is a collection of notes and other details from and about Neil's cyberpunk game:

• Cyberpunk Session 1
• Cyberpunk Session 2
• Cyberpunk Session 3a and 3b
• Cyberpunk Session 4a and 4b
• Cyberpunk Session 5
• Cyberpunk Session 6
• Cyberpunk Session 7a
• Cyberpunk Session 7b
• Cyberpunk Session 8
• Cyberpunk Session 9
• Cyberpunk Session 10
• Cyberpunk Session 11
• Cyberpunk Session 12
• Cyberpunk Session 13
• Cyberpunk Session 14
• Cyberpunk Session 15
• Cyberpunk Session 16
• Cyberpunk Session 17
• Cyberpunk Session 18
• Cyberpunk Session 19
• Cyberpunk Session 20
• Cyberpunk Session 21
• Cyberpunk Session 22
• Cyberpunk Session 23
• Cyberpunk Session 24
• Cyberpunk Session 25
• Cyberpunk Session 26

A View of Uragami

The following morning we check on Tharbin. His condition is improving although he is still out of it to a large degree.

Wakiya decides to explore the village while Shadow decides to head out down the track towards the sea. Nameraka, Spooky and Ricky, seeing a small fortification in the distance and on the hillside above the village decide to explore in that direction.

Tremen decides to remain at the hostel and gossip with the hostelkeeper. He reveals that the Gaijin are Portuguese and Tremen gets the impression that he (while being entirely proper and polite) doesn't like them. The hostelkeeper did mention the name of the prefecture which does exist in our original time and is not far from the location of what will be Kobe. The exit of the temple does seem to be in the exact same spot as the Warehouse (where we entered the temple).

Wakiya and Spooky wander down to the market. This is mainly occupied by the stalls of fisherman selling their catch of the day. However across a bridge there are rice farms and after buying a succulent looking fish they also buy some rice and seaweed. The only other stall is a small clothier's stall selling similar clothing to that we're already wearing. The overall mood of the villagers is that life is hard - but not uncomfortable - they are not starving for example. Again they are entirely proper and polite; but again the impression is gained that the Gaijin are annoying

Shadow heads down the track and, after ½ to ¾ of an hour he arrives at a bay. The only thing in the bay is the ship of the Gaijin. This is a two-masted vessel with sails furled and with a brown wooden hull¹. Shadow returns via a slightly circuitous route (to disguise the fact that he wanted to get eyes on that vessel). On that return he doesn't see anything unusual².

Ricky, Spooky and Nameraka head down the road and explore towards the fortification they can see on the hillside. They do get close enough after a mile or so to see some details before the trees surrounding the road encroach close enough to block the view. It's a small fortification with its site allowing it to overlook both the village of Uragami and the road leading away from the village. They can see that the fortification is occupied by at least a couple of people since they can spy those two in one of the corner watchtowers.

As it's getting late after all this exploration we regroup back at the hostel. Luckily there is a food preparation area out the back and we actually manage to have a half decent meal of sushi (Wakiya's preparation of the fish is excellent, the rice is boiled nicely by Spooky and the veg is, at least, somewhat cooked.

We all go to bed about an hour after sunset (the only light once the twilight is spent comes from a candle or two. However half way through the night the rest of us (apart from Ricky) are awoken by a loud male scream. In the male dormitory someone is thrashing around - Shadow is the first to react and finds that Ricky is the one causing the disturbance. Shadow tries to stop Ricky's convulsions and get a punch to the face as a reward. This does however wake up Ricky who denies having a nightmare or even a dream. Nameraka lights a candle so we can dimly see what is going on. Ricky is visibly shaking and sweating profusely despite his denials. His blanket is soaked with sweat and has a couple of big rips in it as if rent by some creature. Tremen calms Ricky down and Ricky now recalls that he felt as if he was being persued and there was something with hot breath around his neck - he doesn't have a good night's sleep!

The next morning Wakiya wakes up as fresh as a daisy having heard nothing during the night (Spooky did, but being in the ladies' dormitory was only disturbed by the noise). We check on Tharbin who also didn't hear anything overnight and is now well on the way to recovery.

The overseer we met when we left the temple visits us at the hostel to put our services on hold for at least today given that he needs those who dug out the tunnels to double check the stability of their work. He apologises but it could be a couple of days before those checks and fixes are completed. After we inquire he will allow us to visit the site if necessary - but would be much happier if we don't.

Reviewing our situation after he leaves we recall that Newport City is³ is in the Kansai region on the north side of Osaka Bay while the temple/warehouse is on the other side of the bay. Wakiya recounts that the carved mural was exactly where the portal was. The central area of the mural where the portal isn't carved and is painted red while the surrounding area is both carved and painted in different colours. Looking at the countryside we discern that the time of year matches up both here and in the future when we entered the portal (about august/september time).

We do notice a man armed with katana visit the temple - he looks like he may have come from the fortification. His visit also makes us pay more attention to the temple itself. It is more of a small shrine and doesn't have any monks in attendance. The carved Torii in front of the temple has the wooden effigy of a fox on its crossbeam indicating that the fox is the local spirit. We also recall that the word Kitsune (狐) means fox and can also refer to the fox spirit. We also note that (despite the construction of the underground complex) there is no visible sign of Christian activity within the village.

We continue our thoughts and discussions throughout that day⁴.

The crystal shattering started from the interior and then slowly spread to the surface. Once there it appeared to get sucked back into the centre and then appeared to warp and twist outwards again.

As we progress (on the train) down the tunnel strange cracks appeared in the tunnel walls in which creatures can be seen appearing and disappearing (staying inside the purple energy field effect). At their appearance Tharbin feels truely nauseous and sick. He is able to attempt to treat himself using his medical supplies but this has no effect (could he have forgotten to pack the anti-nausea pills?)

The fierce beast appearing from the strange cracks in the wall

The creatures are not affected by the purple energy field and begin to follow us as the energy field continues expanding and following us down the tunnel. As we reach the lift we all pile into it and press the up button. Both the purple energy field and the creatures follow up the lift shaft with the creatures climing the walls of the shaft with ease. The lift reaches the top of the shaft and we move into the corridor that led to the top of the lift shaft with some jostling to determine the party order.

We reach the living area and proceed towards the entrance area. Shadow closes the door between the living area and the corridor that we just left. However energy field flows through the door and the creatures follow it through the closed door. This leads Shadow to abandon his attempt to rescue those in the dorm rooms.

We get back to the portal well ahead of the energy field but by the time we help Tharbin to enter the portal the energy field is catching up with us. This time the trip through the portal is different to our earlier experiences - normally the trip is characterised by a sense of the colour of the portal (in this case red) as the short transistion is made. However this time the transistion feels to have taken longer than before and there is a brief sensation of purple in the middle of the transistion¹.

The room we arrive in looks the same - but different. We are all each confused by the six people around us - we're all now wearing simple linen clothes and with simple tools (stone mason tools for the men and artist brushes and paints for the ladies). The room is now lit by candles and the walls of the crypt are now just stone work (i.e., there are not lined as before). The portal has been replaced by a bas relief of a basilica on the wall which has been painted to show red doors.

We are, at least, all mutually comprehensible. We return back through the corridor to the large room. This room too is now lit by candles. Shadow is the most conscious of us in that he's very aware of losing his weapons. Taking the lead Tremen moves towards the corridor leading westwards. It seems that the layout of the underground complex is the same as before - even if the decor is both newer and older (newer in that there is less sign of wear and tear but older in style). Some of the cells that previously contained sarcophagi are now empty (but some of those nearly the entrance to the surface are not). Tremen hears voices ahead - european in sound but not english. It's a pair of male voices - one of whom seems to be expounding on some topic or other while his companion sounds more disinterested. After waiting quitely at the dogleg in the corridor two figures can be seen further down one of the corridors. They are wearing metal breastplates and have rapiers at their hips. They continue their journey through the complex - luckily taking a route which means we can continue to leave the complex without having to pass them.

The view arriving at the jetty

The exit is now up a flight of stairs (rather than the ladder and trapdoor we originally used to enter the complex). At top of the stairs the sun is shining and it's quite warm. We're clearly somewhere still under construction. The immediate area is surrounded by a wall and leads to a small jetty onto a lake. On the opposite side of the lake is a small asian-style village. There are three boats tied up to the jetty. Two of them look in place, matching the style of the village across the lake while the third looks out of place. As we board the two boats that look in place, the two figures arrive behind us. One of them asks, in halting Japanese, Are you finished for the day?. Tremen replies, bowing low, Yes sir but doesn't elborate. The two gentlemen board the third boat and start to row to the stream that exits the lake. Looking in that direction we can see a ship and smell the scent of seawater.

We row across the lake (Shadow doing an excellent job in one of the boats, while Namerake is less so in the other boat). Looking back at the construction site we see that there is a christian cross painted on the archway over the jetty. When the boats get to the village side of the lake we disembark. As we do so we get glances of a mixture of curiosity, attention and disapproval² for a few seconds before the onlookers look away. That said our style of dress does fit in with the locals.

A man in a slightly smarter looking set of linen clothes bustles up to us and asks (in Japanese) if we're stopping for the day and if so why. Shadow explains that Tharbin suffered an accident in the complex. The man³ hands Shadow a small pouch that chinks with the sound some coinage and says that he will speak with the gaijin⁴ about the need to prop up the dangerous piece of construction. He also says that he assumes we'll be in the hostel down the road. We agree!

At the hostel we are housed in two dormitory rooms (one for the men and another for the ladies). These are communal with other guests at the hostel. This does mean it is tricky to get a chance for the seven of us to have a discussion about the situation but, by discussing over the wall dividing the communal garden, we do make some tentative conclusions:

• We're probably in Japan's past - presumably several hundred years⁵
• Assuming Kitsune is immortal ⁶ perhaps our best hope is to figure out how to get in contact with her in this time - that's going to take thought!

Also on Tremen's mind:

• Is claiming that there's a dangerous part of the complex going to cause trouble with the european gentleman or the foreman we met?

(Follows on immediately from the previous session).

Shadow is the first to enter the new room. His reports to the rest of the team over our team's comms is distorted with the distortion being the worst for the team members furthest away from Shadow. Tharbin keeps the two monks updated with the situation as Wakiya and the rest of the team follow Shadow cautiously down the short corridor to the room with the red portal.

Shadow reports that while the room feels off to him he otherwise is feeling fine and the team all moves into the room (Tharbin asking one of the monks to report back to Kitsune. We examine the room and the portal in morte detail. The room has glowing green pillars and, although its colour is different, the portal itself looks similar to the previous ones we've seen (which were blue and black in colour). The portal is showing the watery effect that (presumably) indicates that it is active and after a brief hesitation Tremen, Shadow and Nameraka step through it.

The room on the other side is half the size of the room we've just left and has a set of sturdy looking double doors on the far side from the portal. There is a plate on the wall next to the double doors (and to the left of the double doors). As for the portal it is green on this side and vague shapes can be seen through it¹. Shadow touches the plate and the doors slide apart automatically. The doors are quite thick, about four inches or so of metal, then a seal of some sort and then anothere four inches of metal. Through the doors can be seen a corridor lined with some kind of red stone while the floor remains metal (the room with the portal is also metal lined).

After asking Nameraka to hold position in the room with the green portal, Shadow and Tremen cautiously enter the corridor. While they do so, the rest of the team go through the portal to join Nameraka.

One interpretation of the domitory room

As Shadow and Tremen move to the end of the corridor and the next set of double doors. As the rest of the team follows Ricky remarks that the floor is wrong and too smooth. There is a panel next to the doors at the next of the corridor. Shadow presses it and it opens to reveal a new room. This is quite large and seems to be some kind of common dormitory area with a kitchen (including a microwave and a chest freezer), tables and chairs, exercise equipment and six showers on one wall. The wall to the right is metal with five single doors leading of it, each door has a panel which is split into two, one half red (which is lit) and one half green (which is unlit). The wall opposite has another set of double doors as does the wall to the left. However the double doors on the left have slits in them through which light is shining. As we look into the room, Tharbin takes a closer examination of the door control panel and notes that it doesn't look like any technology he's seen before (unlike the equipment in the room which looks unremarkable).

Nameraka moves into the room and towards the middle of the five doors while Tharbin moves towards the double doors with the slits. Ricky observes that the room looks lived in while the rest of us moves into the room and take up positions in the hope of being able to react if anything should happen.

Through the slits in the doors Tharbin can, against the glare of the bright lights beyond, make out that there is another room beyond. Wakiya and Tharbin move through into the that room. It is a large room (at least eight metres by eight metres) with a large picture window which is overlooking a red landscape with mountains in the distance - brightly lit by the sun and with the room clearly built into a hillside. Meanwhile Ricky reports that the food in the fridge and freezer is regular stuff - ready meals for the microwave as a general rule. The date codes indicate that the food is no more than a month old with some of it with codes from yesterday.

A view of a landscape which could be Mars (note the shadow of the non-existent window frames clearly showing this is an AI generated image!)

After we discuss the situation we also conclude that the gravity is lower here, but enhanced by the floor in some way. Our best guess is that we are now on Mars!²

Wakiya and Tharbin return from the room with the picture room and with that room explored we now allow Nameraka to experiment with the set of five doors (which he has been eager to do for some time. His experimentation suggests that the red panel is some kind of lock with the green button being open and close. Each of the five doors reveals a small chamber with beds for six people. In four of the rooms all six are occupied by sleeping people but in one of them only five of them are occupied with the one remaining bed being empty.

This just leaves the double doors opposite the doors we used to enter this room. That is opened to reveal a new corridor which we proceed down with Wakiya covering the rear. At the end of the corridor (and behind another double door which Shadow opens using the now familiar adjacent panel) is a smallish room with two industrial elevators in two of the corners of the room. Each elevator can carry six people. In addition there is machinery in the room suggestive of a mining operation.

After some discussion we enter one of the elevators which descends through red rock into a cavern. The cavern has a mining train track which has a four carriage train. The carriages at each end seem to be a locomotive with a set of back to back seats and a set of simplistic controls (basically one green button and one red button). Wanting to continue the exploration we get on and Nameraka hits the green button and the train moves off down one of the tunnels.

The best the artist could do even after several attempts. Note that the crystal should be smaller and symmetrical and the shaft and scaffolding are missing

We travel for about fifteen minutes (once out of the initial cavern it's very dark) until the train reaches another lit cavern. The new cavern has a shaft piercing it (so that there is a shaft in both the floor and the ceiling. There is a scaffold structure that surrounds a large green crystal that is in the shaft. There are steps and ladders on the scaffold that lead to the top of crystal. There is a small power generator powering the lights (but nothing else - in particular it doesn't connect to the crystal). A rough estimate is that the tunnel getting is probably a couple of man centuries of work.

Looking down the shaft shows it going down out of sight seemingly forever while the crystal itself is several metres in overall length. While its diameter at its middle is about one metre it tapers off so that at its top and bottom it is quite narrow.

Nameraka climbs the scaffold to the top of the crystal. There he sees a angled piece of metal, funnel shaped³, pointing to the crystal. As Nameraka reports on his findings, Tharbin, Tremen and Wakiya feel that his voice is distorted and, in some sense, louder. Additionally our sense of time seems to be off in some way.

The crystal then starts glowing and pulsing⁴ and we feel our heartbeats and breathing start to get into synchronisation with the pulsing. We decide to leave and as we start the train the crystal then goes dark. The train (without any of us touching it) briefly stops and then restarts. There is a bright pulse of purple energy and the sound of breaking glass and we seem to be being chased by purple lighting effects.

Artist's impression of what the last room looks like. The artist did complain that the description given by Tremen wasn't terribly helpful!

Immediately following on from the previous session, Spooky, Nameraka and Shadow feel a warm sensation in their wounds as they are attended to by the three figures around them. They can see their wounds healing before their eyes but also see, once the healing is complete, that the figures now look wan and drained as they retreat back behind the figure of Kitsune.

After Tremen finishes his explanation¹ the Kitsune figure apologises but says that she needs us to head back downstairs through the trap door and complete the exploration.

As we head back down we pass the figure who had earlier gone down through the trap door - he (and another figure) will provide backup if we need it. They are wearing monk robes and, as far as we can tell, no other armour.

We continue exploring quickly discovering that the two corridors we explored earlier join up again on the east/west corridor where Spooky, Nameraka and Shadow encountered the fairy. Luckily there's no sign of it. However there's also only a blood pool where Shadow had shot a figure in red robes. The blood pool showed that it had pooled around a body (there is an outline of the body) but the blood had then flowed back towards the body². We also note that the previously closed barred doors are all now open and (after Tharbin checks for it) the loss of comms with the surface is still present.

Moving the east end of that east/west corridor reveals that it ends with a rubble-strewn blockage but that there is a side corridor heading north. Just inside that side corridor Wakiya can see a door to the left from which fluorescent light can be seen spilling.

As we cautiously explore that corridor Nameraka and Shadow check out the room. It is a room holding a power generator (running on low power) and associated equipment. A cable leads to a junction box on the north wall. Shadow pulls the big switch on the junction box and the lights in the room go out (the glow from the sconces in the corridors remains however). With no other obvious effect Shadow puts the switch back to its original position turning the lights back on.

Meanwhile Wakiya and Spooky move to the end of the side corridor and find it turns back to the east. This leads to a door that is locked with a keypad next to it. This end of the corridor is lit with a pinkish light. Spooky works her magic on the keypad, springing the door open. She reports that the keypad is weird - her hand appeared to sink into the keypad and her body quivered as she unlocked the door. Additionally the keypad has fifteen buttons all labelled with strange symbols that don't appear to be numbers and she is unable to decipher them despite having managed to open the door.

Behind the door is a short airlock-like corridor leading to another door and keypad (which Spooky is able to again open). Behind this second door is what appear to be two examination tables and a desk with two chairs that aren't designed for humans. No computers appear to be in the room - the room is odd... too clean and too pristine. There are also sealed containers on the north side of the examination room.

A door in the examination room leads to another room with what appear to be operating or dissection tables. There are also cylinders with something within and cold storage units. However as there appears to be no active threats we're more concerned with yet another corridor leading off to the south with a green sickly light. This leads to another, hopefully final room. At the far end of the new room is a red shimmering wall section that looks suspiciously like a new portal....

Artist's impression of the altar room visited by Tremen and Ricky. Where the artist got the idea for red cloth is unknown and the kneeling figure is also a figment of the artist's imagination!

We continue cautiously down the corridor, which is dimly lit with burning sconces scattered along its length. There is an pallet truck on the right hand side of the corridor with an old oil drum visible in the distance on the left hand of the corridor. About halfway between us and the oil drum a side corridor heading east can be seen and we head slowly to that junction checking the doors as we go (which continue to hold plain unadorned plinths and tombs. Despite a general request to not split the party we end up with half of the party continuing to explore the main corridor with the other half exploring the side corridor. This side corridor only goes a short distance to the east before turning south and running parallel to the main corridor.

While Tremen and Ricky explore a room to the north of the side corridor (and Nameraka keeps cover at the side corridor), Tharbin hangs back at the junction in order to be able to provide support to either side as required. Shadow, Wakiya and Spooky continue down the main corridor with Spooky reporting that while there doesn't seeem to any electronic surveillance down here there is a large power source somewhere off to the south.

The room to the north is a squarish room with a stone european-style altar with a crucifix on top of it. The sides of the room to the left and right have four wooden coffins each. These are moldering and decaying revealing the skeletons within and leaving only a narrow path. After inquiring of the rest of the team (over comms) if they have found anything he steps towards to the altar. As he does so he hears the sound of a gunshot from the south.

The sound was from a shot taken at Spooky as she rounded a corner in the main corridor - the shot missed her and Shadow, Wakiya and Nameraka move to cover Spooky. A second shot is taken at Spooky (also missing) and then a third which allows Shadow to locate the shooter (a figure in red robes) and return fire. Shadow is clearly more accurate than the cultist and mortally wounds the cultist after two shots.

Tremen discovers that the crucifix is not a separate item but is a part of the altar (the original sculptor clearly being willing to spent a lot of effort to make it this way). As this examination continues Tharbin checks the wall sconces in the corridor to see if they are perhaps triggers for a secret mechanism - they don't move!

Wakiya, Shadow, Spooky and Nameraka continue their exploration of the south of the complex hoping to find where the cultist came from. As they do this a pulse of blue energy passes silently by them and missing Shadow. Unsurprisingly this causes them pause.

Spooky and Nameraka then spot what Spooky described as a messed-up fairy which is so horrible and abnormal that both of them suffer an intense wave of nausea which incapitates them for a few seconds. As they struggle to recompose themselves the fairy fires another blue beam down the corridor striking Spooky and Nameraka while also catching Shadow. All three suffer broken bones from the impact (Spooky's arm, Nameraka's Leg and, worse of all, Shadow's ribs are broken).

Luckily it would seem that the fairy retreats further into the complex allowing the team to retreat towards the surface level of the temple (Tharbin doing an excellent job of treating Shadow's broken ribs to allow him to be moved).

On the surface we discover that the green cylinder is empty but, more importantly, several figures are in the room. The main one is a figure that reminds Tremen of Kitsune while he definitely recognises two of the other figures as being the gentlemen who work directly with Kitsune. There are other less distinctive figures behind these three. The lady explains they got here as quickly as they could when they got our earlier report. Tremen summarises the most recent events here at the warehouse complex. When he describes the intervention of a necromancer the lady gestures at one of the less distinctive figures which heads down the trap door to the lower complex like a breeze. Tremen then mentions how badly some of the party were wounded and she gestures to three more figures who move to the wounded....

Tremen hears a muffled voice from behind him¹: With this demon, I take your life, and with this word I command you to walk. Arise!. Almost immediately Spooky yells We've got zombies and she and Shadow start to deal with a body that has lurched back to unlife with some kind of green grunge dripping from it as it moves towards them. While the most of the rest of the team takes potshots at the remaining cultists² Tharbin moves round a corner, spots a Deep One³ and quickly dodges back around the corner.

Another one of the Deep One lookalikes then comes into view of Wakiya and Nameraka walking towards them and they both take shots at the Deep One with Wakiya hitting in an appendage. Tharbin's Deep One follows him round the corner and swipes him with a claw. Shadow and Spooky takes shots at the zombie that is lurching towards them and Spooky. Shadow's gun jams while Spooky's shot hits to apparently no effect. Spooky offers to try to fix Shadow's gun but Shadow is adamant that no one touches his gun except him. Ricky makes a call for backup while Tremen retreats northwards up his alleyway while trying to unjam his gun.

Ricky makes a second call for backup while the remaining gang members act. The zombie takes a swipe at Shadow while Spooky shots the zombie (again for little effect) and Shadow clubs the zombie with his rifle. Tharbin checks himself for damage - his armour is shredded but he is uninjured. Wakiya again shoots the Deep One threatening her and Namerake causing some damage and they hear: Mr. Nameraka get down (which he does) as a Tachikoma (from behind them) delivers a burst of automatic fire into the Deep One removing it from the action.

Nameraka moves out of the way of the Tachikoma and he and Wakiya start to move further into the warehouse complex. Tharbin retreats further down his alleyway away from the remaining Deep One causing it to comment: Prey run away and sees it retreat. Tremen finally realises that the voice he heard must have been from some kind of necromancer and starts to search for that necromancer (who must have been nearby). Shadow and Spooky continue to deal with the zombie (Shadow realising that hitting the zombie with his improvised club is much like hitting a sack of wet mud). The zombie responds by attempting to throw up at Shadow, fortunately only causing an acidic smell.

Artist's impression of the upper room

The tachikoma starts to work on dealing with the remaining gang members while Shadow decides that discretion is, in this case, the better part of valour and retreats away from the zombie - sadly tripping over as he does so. Tremen spots an ajar door and moves through the door into a room whose decor is is that old style japanese temple or practice room. At the far end of the room is a large green cylinder inside of which a tentacled creature of some form can be seen. Also in the room is a robed gentleman. Tremen shouts Eyes on Necromancer. Spooky says that Shadow is in trouble and asks for backup. Ricky spots a gang member sneaking up on Tremen and shoots (but misses). The zombie attempts to reach Shadow but collapses into a puddle of goo.

Artist's impression of the underground entryway

Spooky sees a pile of bits where once there was a zombie - there are some cybertech parts in the goo. Ricky moves to detain the gang member sneaking up on Tremen but overestimated the skill of the gang member and so his Aikido moves end up taking the gang member out of action. Tremen sees the necromancer jump down a trap door and Tremen moves to follow.

Below is a chamber with steel barred cells in a european style. Inside each cell is a tomb. Each cell is lit with sconces burning with incense. There are labels on each cells with two labels per cell. One label has Kanji characters while the other has european style lettering (but not in english). With Tachikoma having secured the rest of the scene above the rest of team join Tremen in the underground part of the complex with Tharbin thinking to let the Tachikoma know where we are going.

Artist's Impression from Tremen's garbled description of the Deep One he claims to have seen.

Ricky is the first of us to act and, using an impressive Aikido move downs one of the visual hostiles. As the rest of the team moves into better positions the hostiles loose off a couple of ineffectual shots while Tremen takes his own couple of shots wounding another of the hostiles. Wakita posits that maybe we've stumbled into a gang fight as there seems to be quite of lot of different groups of hostiles out there.

Ricky then downs that hostile with his pistol. As the rest of the team continues its moves, Shadow hears a voice. The voice sounds off. Shadow queries if others on the team hear the voice - turns out some did, some didn't. More shots are fired at the team.

We all then hear It's all in your head. Hahahahahahaha soon followed by a loud boom and what can only be described as a sucking sound as yet more shots are exchanged - even if Tharbin also hears a weapon malfunction, much cursing and the sound of retreating footsteps.

Again in our heads: He will be here soon - you should just give up and again more shots are exchanged, with Shadow downing another hostile.

As Tremen and Ricky move into and through a room with pumping equipment, Tremen opens the door opposite and immediately sees another hostile. He fires two shots in quick succession and downs that target. As Spooky confirms that the voice is not coming over our secure comms. Wakiya suggests that perhaps the voice is related to the bas reliefs on the Frozen World. However as Spooky was concentrating on checking our comms equipment she is oblivious allowing one of the hostiles to sidle up to her who takes a shot at point blank range. Unsurprisingly the shot hits, her body immediately goes rigid, shimmers and she falls to the ground.

Shadow, who was close by, attempts to return fire but his gun jams at this critical point and he leaps over Spooky's prone body wielding his rifle as a club. As this is happening Ricky spots something large outside of the pump room and shoots Tremen in his panic! Tremen moves through the door (both to engage the foes through the door and to avoid more shots from Ricky). In doing so he spots soemthing that he thinks he's seen before - the Lizard full body conversion. Meanwhile Tharbin shoots and downs his target. Spooky recovers somewhat and shoots (while remaining prone) and hits the hostile who shot her. As Nameraka moves towards Wakiya, he takes fire from an alleyway that he passes.

As Spooky takes another shot at her assailant, Shadow clubs him down. Several hostiles take shots at Wakiya who moves onto a rickety staircase. She takes a shot over Nameraka's head seriously wounding her target. Tharbin sees Tremen's creature as Tremen takes two shots at it (one hitting, the other missing). Tremen then moves to where he has cover from the creature. Unfortunately that location doesn't have cover from the alleyway next to the pump room - in which there are three more hostiles - including one that reminds him an awful lot like a Deep One.

The view inside the closet

The closet door opens to ... a narrow alleyway between buildings. As Wakiya steps through it is indeed afternoon on the far side and the cat stands and stretches. More outsiders it purrs. After a pause Wakiya says that we need to find someone called Robin. Once all the rest of us are through we notice that behind us is just an alleyway leading away - there is no sign of the closet or the Tokyo apartment we left.

Tharbin marks on the wall where the portal was while the cat looks on with distain. Once the mark is made the cat turns arounds 360 degrees, lies down and goes to sleep.

Nameraka moves to the end of the alleyway and onto the street. He can see the faint outline of a few people moving about the street. Nameraka turns right down the street.

Wakiya says that someone went to the left down the street and there is a solid figure 150 metres that way up the street. Tremen moves to the figure at a fast walk (but not a run) - and the rest of the party follow (with Tharbin calling Nameraka back to us). Spooky is shaken when the faint outline of an old style ground car passes straight through her and hears the faint sound of a cat sniggering¹. We do also perceive that there are a lot of solid cats in the village.

Tremen reaches the solid figure. It/She is a young girl with red hair and with a black dog by her side. She spoeaks in english but accented. She gives directions to a small shed down another alleyway saying that the person we're after is in that shed. Tremen, possibly rashly and trusting, follows the direction to the shed and enters.

Ricky engages the girl in conversation (Ricky, like Tremen, can speak english in addition to japanese and streetslang). She calls this place the village of cats and that it is old and will be here much longer than Ricky.

The rest of the party (including Ricky) follows Tremen into the shed and ... arrive outside a warehouse back in Newport City - it is back to nightime and rain. We're outside a warehouse next to a set of containers. We hear activity from within and we move to explore and investigate.

One part of the team enters a corner office where there is a computer running (showing some kind of spreadsheet) which Spooky can use to hack into the security cameras.

The other part of the team moves further also the edge of the warehouse and enters a small part of the warehouse set up as a bar. Tremen moves in to ascertain whether the bar is clear or not. He quickly determines that while the bar is empty there are windows which allow others to see into the bar. This determination is made quite easy when he sees a figure through one of the windows who takes a shot at Tremen. The shot misses and Tremen returns fire lightly wounding the shooter.

On hearing the shots Wakiya and Tharbin move deeper in the warehouse complex and, with help from Spooky, see that there are multiple figures there with whom they exchange shots. Wakiya is wounded.

Ricky moves into an alleyway alongside the bar that also leads deeper into the complex.

Nameraka and Spooky follow up behind Wakiya and Tharbin also providing fire support - though Nameraka could probably have done without being shot in the back by Wakiya

We all end up (in different ways) in the middle of the complex with eyes on at least four hostiles....

(Played on 9^th June 2024)

CCTV Image of Maria Estoban

From Tremen's Notes¹

Follow up on Hayato Kita's contact

As described in the second set of notes, Hayato Kita had a note in his appointment book for a meeting in Shinchuko station with a Maria at 12:30 tomorrow. Maria would apparently be wearing a pink carnation. Spooky examined the CCTV footage which showed there was indeed a lady waiting in Shinchuko station at the relevant. She stayed for about 15 minutes and then walked out with an annoyed and disgusted expression. Checking with facial recognition reveals she is Maria Estoban, the daughter of a Mexican businessman who is a executive for Pemex. She has since returned with her father to South America. Spooky then made a phone with Maria and confirmed that the meeting was set up for her to meet with Hayato Kita and to be shown a good time but was stood up.

Kuroi tsuki

The Underground braindance studio is actually not all that underground. It's actually well known in the right circles (Celebrities, Politicos etc). and I decided to pay the club a visit during the morning. The building is relatively small and somewhat more upbeat and presentable than the surrounding buildings. Ground floor has no windows with a door next to its car park (with about 15 parking spaces) and while the upper two floors do have windows, the first floor windows have been blocked off on the inside. The windows on the top floor are also blacked out. After using the intercom I'm ushered in and taken to the manager. Overall impression is of a business that is legitimate if sailing somewhat close to the wind. The club is being tidied up from the previous night's activities. The manager is somewhat relieved when the topic of conversation is revealed to be about Kendo Ita whereabouts². The manager and staff doesn't recognise him but are able to confirm that no bodies have been found at the club for a while.

Hoga Itami

Tharbinsan follows up on Hoga Itami's rap sheet which showed arrests for GBH and robbery for which he served some time in jail. His current whereabouts are unknown. Tharbinsan arranges for a facial recognition scan and alert to be made for Hoga - initially indications are that he is still in the city but no specific immediate trace of his location is available.

Kendo Ito

Wakiya looks for more information on Kendo Ita. He worked for an arms manufacturer as a programmer of emergency protocols for vehicle operation. The company's records show that he was staying at the Negoya Hotel (the hotel used by the company when staff are in the city).

The best image I could persuade the image generator to come up with.

Later in the evening

After taking a short rest we are alerted that there has been another body found with the MO of Sergeant Masher. The body is in the Dajima district and we head over there. As we cross the bridge into the district there is an emergency call from the team tracking Hoga. He has been seen in the company of two women and we are given the rough location (only a rough location as the CCTV coverage in that area is somewhat patchy). Hoga walks out of a bar with a woman on each arm. One of the woman's heads explodes and Hoga takes a couple of seconds to react, dropping the body of the dead woman. As he does so the stomach of the other woman explodes and Hoga dives into the shocked crowd and disappears into an alley after three more civilians are butchered. Several people are bumped as if by an invisible person and we head to the location of the alley.

On location, just beyond the alley, there are two ground cars (the nearest merely has a smoking engine, the further one is a wreck!).