War Beneath Heaven S02 E08

• We began with some Office Drama. Merle has a falling out with Thomas. Cheng Dao has been riding the HSS hard and Thomas burned out left Speedy in charge. First day on the job, Speedy feels the pressure and is juggling a ton of tasks: fitting out the new underground network, talking to suppliers and clients, putting out fires and researching on the Devourers. Everyone else is busy with their own thing.  
• The guys had to do a counter attack. But they have so many problems and lacking manpower. They went with the vampire Sergie and Dimitri. They had to find the base of operations of the Devourers. They did after torturing the captured mage, many of the normal people had some residual trauma from the events that transpired: A mage with cockroaches moving around his body and that talks about unspeakable horrors and a crusading vampire Enforcer that spoke of god's purifying fires. Tasha did not like where HSS was headed, and told Speedy they better have a talk after this, as she brought a badly infected mage to one of their black market doctors for healing. 
• When they arrived they meet Eashu, who prevented them from tripping the alarms. A hunter who was aligned for their cause. They find a long way around into the base, using the Hunter whose been casing them for a while manage get in deep. They encounter a variety of obstacles, mountain-side hike, garbage and more garbage, darknessm 5cm mosquitos that cause really bad rashes. the place used to be an old school, but has been made a dump site. Old Banyan trees crawl and engulf all the structures and garbage is shaped by its inhabitants to create a labyrinth. 
• They settle on a stealthily going into the main passage way. They took out a couple of guards. They go in deeper shift their focus to go in underground. They avoid the wounded and the other logistical needs of the mages. There they detect the water reservoir, and head there as the smell of garbage and rot grows. They found the edge, a pier, filled with stacked pallets filled with an orgy of swarms. 
• Speedy's connection was gone, but before it petered out, he was coordinating with Fish about how to place the bombs. A frustrating alert came in, 10 missed calls and a garbled message of help from Jeni with a time stamp 10-20 minutes ago. He considers pulling out, but manages to arm the bombs and asks the vampire to place them. 
• They observe on the water mountains of garbage and condensation forming clouds within the massive hollow enclave. They eventually notice the occupants of the Pallets: people, who are tied down while the Swarms consume them. Sergei do not alert these barely living vessels as he wished their suffering to end with the satchels of god's wrath placed in the foundations. When the preparation was complete, Speedy decided to exit out stealthily. 
• Sergei and Eushu saw these signs, of something looking through these clouds and of voices speaking in the buzz of swarms and rumble of the earth. Dimitri collapses to his knees. Speedy is in a position where he has no leadership to rely on, no way to see the views of his team vs his own with more objectivity. Sergei summons his Nightmare steed and places Dimitri on it, he scales it and leads with a powerful example. 
• Swarms move to oppose them, but the 2,000 pound steed and lance break through. Speedy can keep up but Euahu cannot. Speedy has to make a call, and his hesitation and conscience closes the opportunity as Sergei plows and breaks through the swarms and their weakened defenses. Speedy and Eashu look for a way out, and find clues to what awaits Haven with the devourers's and their plans. They find the hovels of hundreds of families, quickly marched into what they saw as pallets for feeding the swarms. The find the sky and themselves near a cliffside. A sentinel is alerted, a huge creature surrounded by swarms. Sergei and Dimitri catch flashes of bright light in the darkness from the direction of the city. 
• Speedy is again reckless with the flashbangs and manages to knock them all out. The wake up, their vision returning with the good fortune that they woke up before the creature is in full strength and Eashu lashes out at it... with much futility. In desperation, Speedy activates the explosives.
• The mountainside falls into a depth they cannot see and the earth moves and buckles, and eventually throws them off their feet. They face the city, the Heights, and see fires and pillars of smoke in HSS locations. A dragon with great outstretched wings from kilometers away rains fire into the Heights. 

game is in the next two weeks, the 29. everyone gets 2cp +3cp to give to everyone else.

I had 4 new players ask to join, with only Fej committing and alerting me what time he will arrive. The others reinforce my very high fall out statistics.
I had to kick out players not part of the game anymore because it interfered with my calculating if I go overboard.