Silicon & Sorcery: FREEDOM RADIO

[BetaB17]

♡Teal♡

She calmly approached the small table, taking the initiative

[The SheoDovah]

Xu Dráo

Xu looked at the young man with the cybernetic cat features and gave him what she believed to be a reassuring smile. "The DJ is right. Not every problem can be faced directly or indirectly with violence. Sometimes, all it needs is a bit of acting to get the job done and espionage requires a certain amount of guile to fool one's enemies. You are a skilled actor and your age plays into your favour. You can bluff your way with your words and people will believe it. You can play the role of a guard and they'll believe you are one of them." More to that but if he can find the confidence within himself, he can play to his strengths. "And your fame can be used to your advantage." She expected someone to cruelly shoot her words down and grind them into dust. The young girl grabbed the device. "Keep that safe and out of sight." She told Teal. Not the one I would have trusted to handle it. Still too young. Same with the boy. May pose an issue with getting into bars. "Eliminate the management via diplomatic or peaceful means and use as a fob." Sensible. Winged Terror could be used as an alternative but would draw too much attention. Lady Luck is defensible. Easy to attribute to gang violence if we have to use the violent methods. Less risk for myself with this.

[Kerr]

"Full access to our systems? That's a big ask Fade Out. Not to mention one hell of a risk to OpSec. You better be able to take care of yourself." said Atlas. Some ash fell from his cigarette, he stomped it out on the floor. "Hardly gonna hand over a bar because we asked. But if we explain things they might let us crash, being blown up's bad for business. May need to sort out riff raff to prove we're trustworthy or something but..." Atlas shrugged.

He rubbed his hands together and looked over the group. "I ready to head when you are."

[BetaB17]

♡Teal♡

She held the device in one hand looking at it, though her own thoughts were interrupted by Xu's nagging. She kindly responded by flipping the middle finger and giving her little more than a side glance

Then after a moment she called out "Atlas" holding up the device to get his attention first before tossing it to him once she was certain he knew her intentions

[Kerr]

Anton Atlas
Atlas held his hand up and grabbed the flash drive mid-air. "Thanks." He put the device safely into one of his pouches.

[Baloth-Kul]

Àlfvor

"Well, I'm ready. But, uh, let's avoid calling the 72 a gang, alright?" He crossed his arms, but the troll didn't seem too bothered. "Think what you will of us, but you're not going to gain trust by suggesting the 72's the same as the Black Dogs or those other psychos." Àlfvor eyed up Fade-Out, who had continually lumped the 72 in with 'the other' gangs of Ven-Lo.

"Hell, I'm pretty sure the Iron 'Angels' and Glow Nation would rather be called a 'movement' or something, rather than a gang, ja?"

[BetaB17]

♡Teal♡

"Ja?" She raised an eyebrow out of annoyance

"The lot of em are just degenerates an' scum" she said with a mode biting tone "I don't care what ya gotta say.. Some of em would've been better off dead when the bombs dropped" she looked at the Troll dead on with a glare, making it unmistaken who her next line was addressing "We can at least agree on that" By some extent showing she treated her bias with the 72 different than with other gangs or psychos

She shuffled a bit in her stance, relieving some of the pressure off her feet from standing "Anythin'else" addressing back at the group, and not at all in a voice she would towards Fade Out

[Dirty Spaceman]

Anduroth

A grave glare was what Teal's comments earned from Anduroth. "I know you do not have practice working in a team, but antagonizing your partners is a poor way to start," he told the girl. He knew the members of the 72 to be agreeable enough when yielded to. "We survive together or not at all. I am ready to leave if you all are."

[Unionhack]

Lady Luck

The group departed ground zero and made their way together to Lady Luck, luckily without incident. As Fade-Out described, it was a literal hole-in-the-wall, with the front door being a built into a concrete wall leading down into the underground complex that was the bar. Faint bass thumps could be heard from outside.

Near the entrance sat a male human, his form illuminated only by the bright neon lights decorating the exterior of the bar. He was clutching his side, and a pool of blood was slowly forming at his point of contact with the ground. Though he sat with his legs drawn back and one arm over his side, the group could tell he was quite large and athletic.

[BetaB17]

Teal approached, always being the bold on. Her travel attire back on since leaving the DJ's hideout. Noting the large man amd blood, she stood across from him, her hand already placed on her revolver from underneath her poncho "Bad night?" she said nodding from underneath her bandana towards the bar's entrance

[Baloth-Kul]

Àlfvor

Seemingly content with the girl taking the lead, Àlfvor simply stood back and watched.

[The SheoDovah]

Xu Dráo

Xu was used to the sight of people bleeding and as cold as it was, she elected to not help him. It would be a potential drain on her resources and it could raise questions. Or deep beneath her exterior was a cold hearted killer. Or both. "I'll find us a table." She knew that their presence would be hard to ignore. Maybe, posing as a group out for a drink will bypass any issues relating to our size and equipment. She began to walk up to the entrance whilst keeping an eye out for any signs of trouble.

[Kerr]

Anton Atlas
Walking into a bar which they were told had a less than friendly clientele, after seeing a man sitting outside bleeding out without so much as investigating was a terrible move. But it was the Faustian's terrible move, not his. Atlas didn't care enough to stop her. Let her go in. If she gets shot, we'll know they aren't friendly.

Atlas drew his .223 pistol but kept it by his side. He wanted it at the ready if a fight broke out but let Teal deal with the wounded man. "He even alive?" Atlas audibly pondered.

[Velvet LeChance]

Gramsci

She moved in swift motion, but maintained a pace behind the rest of the group. She always left enough space to bolt if something went wrong. The eye garbs had been restored as soon as they had left the safehouse. Her golden lenses peered through now, searching for danger, safety and paths from and towards. Her left hand maintained a nervous preoccupation with her right forearm, darting through the metropolis in a group like this wasn't something she was used to. Groups like this were asking to draw the wrong sort of attention to themselves.

Reaching the bar, she slowed. Her gaze darted to the wounded man, and she pronounced a step back. In her head, she rapidly charted all the possible spots of cover in near vicinity but didn't move for them.

This gaze slowly made it's way to Xu's figure, as she entered into the bar. It seemed like a terrible idea, but like Anton she didn't care enough to stop it.

[BetaB17]

"Don't know." She said with a lack of empathy "Fresh wound, moderate blood lose, clutched side. Could be alive.. Could just be unconscious"

She pointed off towards the entrance that Xu so blatantly strode to "Bout to find out why?" saying basically what everybody else thought: better her than me. Worse comes to worse, at least they'll know why someone is outside at death's door

[Unionhack]

Lady Luck Interior

Xu descended into the Lady Luck on her own. Almost immediately as she cleared the threshold into the bar, she was greeted by the sounds of guns swaying and being aimed, as well as an almost incomprehensible torrent of frantic shouts.

The scene was rather simple; two sides to a standoff, split between the two sides of the bar, centered among a most peculiar centerpiece. In the very middle of the bar's main room was a row of three slot machines, each of them repeatedly coming to a stop and then restarting the reel once again. The faction on the right side of the bar wore varied outfits of many different kinds and was composed of people from various races, seemingly lead by a leather-sporting human male in his 50s. The opposing group on the left side were mostly human, and their similar outfits of ragged sports jerseys and loose jeans indicated that they were members of the Black Dogs.

"What the [&@%!] is this, Grim? You got some friends coming to muscle in on us?" shouted the supposed leader of the Black Dogs, a human woman younger than leather-sporting man opposing her. "You've got one chance to fix this, and you know you can't do it without our help."

'Grim', the aforementioned human man from the right side of the standoff, leaned out of cover from an overturned table and spat a wad of chewing tobacco before giving a retort. "[&@%!] you, Medusa. You know as well as I do that if you don't get your toadies on the machines, we're either all [&@%!] or you're cheated out of your prize regardless. I don't know who this clown is, but she ain't here for me." he shouted, then looking over to Xu. "Bar's [&@%!] closed! Unless you happen to have a bomb squad behind you, you'd better turn the [&@%!] around real quick."

Of the twenty-two guns in the room, six of them were now trained on Xu's head.

Lady Luck, Exterior

The wounded man coughed, adding a bit more blood to the scene as he did so. Anyone with any modicum of medical experience could tell that he had blood in his lungs, and without advanced medical equipment he was too far gone to save. Finally he spoke, weakly lifting his head to look at Teal. "Black Dogs.. snuck bombs into the slots... days ago... tripped the detonator, now... now if it goes all sevens... whole bar goes up... in flames..."

Another cough, another spurt of blood. The dying man struggled to take in another breath, and tried to speak again as his eyes glazed over. "They want... want a surrender... or they... won't defuse... [&@%!] maniacs, gonna die with... the rest of us. Picked the wrong bar to... bounce for."

The man finally slumped over, dead. Lady Luck awaited the group, unless they wished to examine anything else before accompanying Xu.

[Baloth-Kul]

Àlfvor

"Damn. Well, I'm going to look for a backdoor. They might just start shooting as soon as they see me."

Àlfvor circled around the building to look for another entrance.

[BetaB17]

♡Teal♡

She moved her foot a bit, to avoid the spittle of blood he was coughing up. After he was done, she moved forward, going down to one knee as she pressed two fingers against his carotid artery on his neck checking if there was a pulse or not

Meanwhile she shifted the weight of her rifle on her shoulder. "Atlas, right." She nodded in his general direction "That .223 clips?" Noting in observation the cartridges around his waist, far too large for any pistol, and not as easy to hide "Take point with me?" She didn't wait for confirmation, making snap decisions one after the other "Someone follow the big guy"

[The SheoDovah]

Xu Drao

Upon entering the bar and walking into a standoff, Xu knew she would not be able to handle it. It would be quite hard to overcome the odds when six of them were pointing their guns at her head but she did gain some intel and knew that with the right tactics, they could kick out the black dogs. She remained silent as she slowly backed away from the rom whilst keeping her eyes and ears out for any signs of attack aimed at her.

[Velvet LeChance]

Gramsci

Her instinct screamed at her to roll back and find cover: she could make 100m in 13 seconds, 10 seconds to adopt to cover, 30 seconds to assemble her sniper rifle, 5 seconds to find her aim... She didn't like the way those numbers added up. Her left hand snapped against her right forearm, an upwards flex of her wrist prompted the compartment to pop open. The knife in her good, right-hand: 4 seconds. It was made of a black steel, about about 6 inches long, with a jagged flick at the tip, for tearing presumably. It was held first in her backgrip, and then in her foregrip--easier to throw, she decided.

She moved with Àlfvor, keeping sure to maintain the bulk of his mass between herself and the view from any corner they approached. The whole time she looked about for space she could set up in and fire from, to cover any entrance through the backdoor--or retreat, as it might have been required.

[Kerr]

Atlas
Atlas shook his head. He holstered his pistol and crouched down, taking his bag off his back to retrieve the .223 SMG. "Walking through that front door seems like a bad idea. If you aren't walking into bullets, you're walking into guns trained on us." said Atlas. With his SMG out he put the rucksack back on his back. Once Teal was done checking the man's pulse, Atlas would check the mans pockets, hoping to pilfer objects of value. Maybe he smokes.

"Now the smart play would be leave, find somewhere else to hold up. Somewhere that isn't going to explode any second. But none of you seem to want to do that and, I can't deal with the gangs alone so..." Atlas shrugged. "Hells. Any of you even have experience with explosives? I have some but doesn't mean I can disarm them."

[BetaB17]

Teal stood up, clearly not even objecting to Atlas's quick-to-loot from a still fresh body. Not even gonna mention it "He picked this location for a reason" she said, referring back to Fade Out "Wanna be the one to tell him why it's up in smoke?"

[Dirty Spaceman]

Anduroth

Damn it, I should have acted quicker, Anduroth thought as the bouncer drew his final breath. He might have been able to keep the poor man alive a bit longer with his medigel canister; he would have liked to hear more about the situation inside the bar. But then again, using your own medicine on someone else was a fool's move in Ven-Lo these days, no matter the reason.

"I do not know much about explosives," said Anduroth, "But I think we may not need to defuse the bombs... if we can defuse the situation. The Black Dogs will take care of the bombs if they either get their surrender, or are convinced to give up. If we can find a way to make the latter happen, or to snatch the bar from their hands if the former happens, then we do not need to be the bomb squad ourselves."

[BetaB17]

♡Teal♡

Teal brought up her comms and pinged after Xu, trying to get some feedback on the situation, but she didnt count on that, not entirely. Opening up a separate channel, she tried to reach DJ on the line he gave them, just in case

Problem with the Lady. Dogs got in and got rigged in a stalemate.

Any leads to our advantage. Backdoors. Bomb instructions. The works?

[Unionhack]

(( With the cancellation of Freedom Radio, I'm going ahead and posting my 'Design Document' detailing the plot I had in mind, copied from a Discord conversation... ))

Spoiler:

OKAY SO
Let's talk about Silicon & Sorcery: Freedom Radio
I'll post this all up together later but like
The basic concept was not unlike Great White North. The party was gonna visit each one of the gangs for whatever reason and either accomplish a task to earn their favor or straight up wipe them out
I had a lot of ideas for what each gang had for a task
But I decided on each of them with the remaining quests as potential alternates and sidequests
The Black Dogs were dealing with overdoses and supply problems and also struggling for control
The Top Dog, "Ace" Black, was actually Aiden Black, the son of the Mayor of New Quistis
He was feeding the Black Sun information about the inside workings on the quarantine and one of his lieutenants knew and would ask the party to assassinate him and take over

The 72 Collective was having trouble with a new member who went rogue
This rogue member was, to Beta's probable delight, actually Caius
His motivations were mostly up in the air, it was likely that he was merc'ing it out again and the 72 got outbid
The party was to apprehend Caius and either aid him in taking over the 72 or fight him 1v1 in an honor duel

The Iron Dragons and the Glow Collective had a joint quest involving a golem
*Glow Nation
The Golem was made of both metal and magical components and the Dragons / Nation wanted to run the golem using the respective methods of powering it
The party would be able to activate the golem either way and either deliver it to one of the gangs for their favor or claim it for themselves as a personal artillery siegebreaker thing
There was also a bit with Dr. Takemi who like was literally the doctor from Persona 5 pretty much, where she was in the employ/captivity of the Collective but was sought out by the Dragons because their only chrome doctor had been killed

Anyway the overarching plot behind the entire gang subplots was the conflict between the owner of the Lady Luck, Grim, and DJ Fade-Out himself
As the party progressed they would uncover more information about Black Sun's infiltration of Ven-Lo and their intentions for the neighborhood
So Grim was a huge fan of Fade-Out but disagreed with his intentions for the Black Sun problem
Whereas DJ Fade-Out desired violent and forceful resistance and making a show of it, Grim wanted to make a peaceful resolution with the Black Sun to get the quarantine lifted with as few casualties as possible
(Grim's son joined the Black Dogs and was killed in the first few months of the quarantine)
The party would eventually uncover a Black Sun plot called "Operation Cornucopia" (or, as my notes say, "Some other less obvious name")
Operation Cornucopia involves the Black Sun realizing that the quarantine was no longer worth the resources in comparison to the PR disaster involved with the potential purging of the residents so they decided to be sneaky about it

After shouting down and unassigning Lieutenant Brondar Don-Skull from the lockup, they initiate Operation Cornucopia
Which is a bombing run / mass poisoning in disguise as a normal food drop
With an organized resistance of the multiple gangs under the banner of Fade-Out, the players would be able to foil Operation Cornucopia, defeat the leader of the Black Sun contingency plan, and televise his confession to the world
The party would then make a choice, which I designed to literally tear the group apart and cause some PvP because I was really into the game A Way Out at the time
To execute the Black Sun lieutenant publicly to make an example of megacorp interference
Or to ransom him for a peaceful resolution
Each of these choices corresponding to Fade-Out's way of doing things and Grim's
There was also a thing of Fade-Out kinda getting radicalized with power as the group progressed and them having to either encourage it or dissuade it
And also making a GIANT hologram of himself at the conclusion
There were two endings planned with a third in place in the event that the party was NOT able to stop Cornucopia/Joined with Black Sun for whatever reason
Ending 1 was the "Fade-Out" Ending and was accompanied with the song Humility by the Gorillaz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5yFcdP ... l=Gorillaz
YouTube
Gorillaz
Gorillaz - Humility (Official Video)

In this ending, Local and even governmental support for Ven-Lo skyrockets.
The crimes of Black Sun were exposed and drew a ton of media attention and empathy for the quarantine victims
As the militias reform under Fade-Out's banner and pilgrims journeying to the place where Black Sun was dealt its first MAJOR public defeat in years, The newly opened Ven-Lo became a Mecca for those looking to live without the influence of the MegaCorps
Possibly with the help of Kergu/The Carthians
Black Sun, though always omnipresent, never set foot into the new city-state of the Free CIty of Ven-Lo ever again
Relations remain peaceful but tense with the rest of the civilized world and Freedom Radio evolves into the official state radio under the leadership of Fade-Out
The second ending was the "Grim" ending, accompanied by the song "Fireflies" by Gorillaz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCet4yr ... l=Gorillaz
YouTube
Gorillaz
Gorillaz - Fire Flies (Visualiser)

By refusing to execute the Black Sun leader on public television, Fade-Out loses his [&@%!] mind'
And starts to turn the automated defenses of the city on the players
The players would be forced to charge the underground compound and kill Fade-Out himself
With the death of DJ Fade-Out, Freedom Radio goes silent forever. The PCs are given pardons, while the gang leaders still alive are prosecuted and executed
Black Sun moves in to establish control, and reparation efforts begin under the warchful eye of the government
Some few remain loyal to the legend of DJ FadeOut, but die out over time. SOme say he lives on in cyberspace...
The third ending, kinda an 'extra' ending, was the "Black Sun" ending, set to "Empire Ants" by the Gorillaz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8566Uta ... rcurialize
YouTube
Mercurialize
Gorillaz - Empire Ants

Operation Cornucopia is carried out and Ven-Lo is reduced to rubble. Surviving PCs are promised clemency, but are then arrested as the perfect scapegoats for the Ven-Lo incident given that the Gang Leaders were killed in the bombings
Those of them who do escape live their lives on the run, those who don't spend the rest of their lives in Prison
They build a statue representing the "victims" of the bombing supposedly carried out by the PCs
Ven-Lo is left a smoldering graveyard, marked by a statue built upon lies and murder
The whole story with DJ Fade-Out is that he was a native of Ven-Lo who grew up and was raised to be proud of where he came from
He was an engineering prodigy and was hired to be a government contractor
Eventually he rose through the ranks and such and got to be allowed on more and more top-secret projects that began to raise his ire and disgust him
More and more of these projects involved exploiting small neighborhoods for experimental reasons and such
He began to siphon off his resources from his job in secret to his home of Ven-Lo after the horrible bombings during the great red war, feeling bitter over the government's handling of the situation and the events of the war entirely
He built his own private sanctum in the underground of the abandoned Apollo Theater and bided his time to initiate his takeover of the neighborhood he loved, the cultural capital of a people
Anyway... yeah. That's more or less what Freedom Radio was gonna be.