Game report from 4/4
So, we started out with the PCs helping put down the riots resulting from the mass data shutdown caused by their actions last game. The riots are actually complex to deal with due to the lack of digital tools (the AI shut down most internet functions and several "secure" servers it got access to over the 4 days it spent planning) so they weren't flash mob college kid riots; these were old school rage riots boiling with anger.
On one level it's simply angry citizens but it's also criminals looking to loot and low level Talents who actually understand what's happening. The police call in AEGIS to assist with defending major urban areas. The PCs assisted as well (since no one knows they are acting as Overwatch accept the other hero groups) and noticed several individuals moving against the crowd and entering an office building near the museum.
They investigated and found Armand, the first demon they met and helped out of a magical trap, barring their path forward. He explains the Arcane Underground is freeing entities forcely bound by magicians and that a stone with a bound entity inside of it is here in the building were the museum keeps some of it's pieces for storage. He and his allies intend to take it so they can free the entity. The PCs say he doesn't have a right to take other people's property and Armand counters that he isn't because no one can own another sentient being. They go around a little bit with the PCs demanding he justify his actions and Armand repeating he is justified in freeing a slave. He blocks them when they try to go past but one of the PCs manages to blind him and the other two run by.
They find another demon, an ogre, and an animated scarecrow. The ogre has ripped the vault door open. A brief scuffle takes place but neither side wants to actually hurt the other. The demon tries to use it's illusion powers but gets stopped. The ogre tries to put the vault door between the sides, like a wall, but gets shot in the hand and drops the door backwards (which was the shooter's goal). The scarecrow manages to use it's hyper-Coordination to zip into the vault and pick the locks on everything inside until it finds the stone. Upstairs the team magician continues to keep Armand busy and actually takes time to consider what Armand is, determining he isn't a possessed humans but a sort of hybrid spirit in which the demon and human both reside willingly. Armand finally gets free of the blinding spell and runs down to join the others, destablizing the building with one of his own powers and then teleporting the Underground agents away with the stone (one PC managed to get a lasso onto the stone but didn't pull it free of the scarecrow's grasp).
This lead into a huge arguement between two of the PCs about their relationship with the Arcane Underground. One is convinced the whole group is out to free demons and that that is a bad thing. The other thinks, yes, more demons is probably bad but that isn't all that they do and, farthermore, they might be willing to work with the PCs if they tried diplomacy. So this becomes a big deal with one side convinced they have to try and at least open communications with the Underground and the other convinced if they do then the Underground will think they are too weak to act as Overwatch (which is totally true).
In the end one PC goes alone to the bar were they know Underground agents drink and finds Armand. Armand explains things are tense with the Arcane Underground since the murder of a respected demon and the attempted murder of a major angel which resulted in that same angel being badly traumatized. The other factions smell blood in the water and it looks like they might close ranks to cut off the demons and angels (both fairly recent additions to the Underground movement). He also assures the PC that he and his allies are still planning to push forward the Neo-Hell plan, just as the angels are pushing their own Earthly beach head.
To try and make a connection, the PC does to meet with the "leader" of the Arcane Underground, an avatar of the Personification of Death. Death explains that demons and angels are freshly returning to the world now that Overwatch isn't barring the gates anymore and are getting their first real taste of freedom. He explains that Hell and Heaven are both top down states ruled by individuals with absolute power: the King of Hell and the High Angel, and that these individuals have kept their people suppressed and locked into a single mindset for as long as any of them can remember. But when they come to Earth and experience a lesser rule, like humans have, they quickly become enamored with the concept. That's why demons and angels have joined the Underground and why they both are planning methods to make Earth a new home for themselves.
The last PC, who had to make a new character this game since he'd died last time, spent the game trying to make contact with the other PCs in game. He also managed to track down and discover the identity of one of the group's oldest "villains", a super-martial artist who has been killing scientists. His secret identity is a lawyer and the PC will be using him to try and get his powers legally recognised by the city. That side-story is going to be interesting.
This week they'll be dealing with the reactions of the minor Talents across the world as well as the major nations response to having their citizens and property ransacked by an outside force.
