Session 04 — The Vilify Hive Mind

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Session 04 — The Vilify Hive Mind

Summary

In-game date: evening of June 1 into the morning of June 3, 2045. Picking up right where Session 03 left off, Fix-it-Felix gets a message from a name out of his past: Ledger. Years ago, a smuggling job Felix arranged went bad — the cargo was hotter than advertised, the deal exploded, and Ledger did three years in prison for it while Felix’s crew quietly walked away. Ledger wants to meet, no hard feelings (he says), at Crystal Lily in the University District.

Ledger turns out to be looking for money, not revenge: Martin Gorsky owes him 500 EB, and he has a tracer on Martin’s location. He also recognizes Broker on sight, greeting him by his real name — Chad Van Patten — and naming Escalante as his employer, unprompted. In exchange for collecting the debt “however you have to,” he points the crew to an unmonitored sewage entrance a block from Nexus Mods.

What they find underground is not a hideout — it’s The Calling, a genuine hive mind formed by addicts who used Vilify so heavily and for so long that they began to actually share senses. Martin is one of them now, and the collective answers for him: “Martin is us.” Armed members guard the flooded facility and insist, with total sincerity, that there are no dogs in Night City. Starving for a supply that dried up a week ago, they cut a deal: 1,000 EB and three vials of Vilify (courtesy of Broker’s stash) buys Martin’s debt settled and a “test subject” — a KCU student the collective has fully absorbed, whom Golden Girl half-recognizes from class.

The crew names her Misty Cerulean for lack of anything better, blindfolds her, and puts her in headphones to dampen the connection. Dr. Brightowski identifies a nanite-killing coolant (Choo-Two) that could cure her — at the cost of likely organ failure — and the crew balks at that trade. Instead, at 2 AM, Broker leverages an uncomfortable discovery about Professor Jackson (Misty’s own professor, and the reason she stopped attending class) into reluctant cooperation: he’ll research a safer taper, and keep Misty overnight, without letting the hive mind know she’s being cured rather than “helping.”

The night wraps with debts closed all around: Felix pays off Ledger, and separately, closes out Zach the Hot Dog Maniac’s long-standing data cube offer for the full 3,000 EB, split with the crew (plus free hot dogs for everyone). The Escalante data cube’s ultimate fate remains genuinely murky — Kenny may or may not have modified what Zach’s employers actually received.

Key Events

Ledger’s Message

  • Felix receives contact from an old agent number under the name “Ledger” — recognized immediately
  • Years ago: Felix arranged a smuggling job (biological samples) that went south when the cargo proved hotter than advertised; Felix’s people backed out quietly, Ledger didn’t (or couldn’t)
  • The deal exploded, people died, and Ledger spent three years in prison — lost his contacts, wife, kids, and dog; had his cyberware forcibly stripped as an inmate
  • Ledger believes Felix knew about the danger and said nothing; this was never actually addressed when raised
  • Meeting arranged at Crystal Lily, University District — spiffier and more neon than the crew’s usual haunts, open till 4 AM
  • The two Duke Boys are there drinking with Ledger; still sore about losing the Session 02 street race
  • A masked streamer filming man-on-the-street segments for Gang Feud interviews Mr. Zip outside the bar
  • Ledger recognizes Broker on sight, addressing him by his real name — “Chad Van Patten” — and correctly naming Escalante as his employer (“your little outfit… Escalante? With all the weird letters”), unprompted; tells him “you have a bright future ahead of you… several people have their eyes on you.” How Ledger knows this is never explained
  • The pitch: Martin Gorsky owes him 500 EB; Ledger has a tracer on him and needs someone to collect — “no matter how you have to get it,” pound of flesh explicitly on the table
  • Directs the crew to an unmonitored sewage entrance a block from Nexus Mods / Enderman’s

Into the Sewers

  • Kenny offers Broker a bump of synthcoke before heading down; Broker declines (“I try to keep the junk food out of my system”). Felix takes him up on it instead — both pass their resistance rolls, no addiction, +1 REF for 4 hours
  • The facility: knee-deep water, electronically locked doors, a rooftop rack stocked with several inexplicable derelict kayaks (one disintegrates on a failed field-repair attempt)
  • A recurring “whoop whoop” echo is initially mistaken for Piranhas activity — it’s actually The Calling’s own tic
  • First contact: armed members in orange hats, guns already drawn, insisting the crew leave; when Kenny claims to be “looking for a man who abuses dogs,” they respond with genuine confusion — “there are no dogs in Night City”
  • The crew realizes these aren’t gang members but victims: a hive mind, sharing sight and hearing (and, they claim, taste) across however many bodies are connected
  • Broker shows a vial of Vilify to a guard as leverage; the collective’s demeanor shifts immediately once they realize the crew has supply

Negotiating With The Calling

  • The collective explains itself: heavy, sustained Vilify use “opened our eyes” over roughly two weeks per person, until “we all shared the same eyes”
  • They’ve been trapped in the sewers about a week since the supply dried up (Nexus Mods raid, Session 02–03) and describe themselves as starving: “when the light goes out in our eyes, we will perish”
  • Confirms Martin Gorsky is with them — “Martin is us” — and that his original interest in the Nonh chemical was genuine curiosity, rebuffed by every scientist and professor he approached before a fixer connected him to Dr. Willie
  • The deal: 1,000 EB (funded from members’ scavenged “remnants”) plus 3 Vilify vials, in exchange for Martin’s 500 EB debt considered paid and a “test subject” to help the crew reestablish supply — a KCU student Golden Girl half-recognizes
  • The collective can hear at a distance, faintly, when separated — full severance is untested

Extracting “Misty Cerulean”

  • The student is blindfolded and put in headphones (Kenny’s Pony Boy playlist, loud) to dampen the connection — it helps, but doesn’t fully cut it
  • Taken first to Kowalski Clinic: Dr. Brightowski identifies Choo-Two (automotive coolant) as capable of killing the nanomachines at high concentration, but warns of serious organ failure risk — “the worst hangover of your life,” if she survives it at all
  • The crew declines to risk killing her outright; Mr. Zip proposes titrating/tapering the connection down gradually instead, methadone-style
  • Golden Girl’s phone contact — Professor Jackson — comes up as the other lead

2 AM Shakedown of Professor Jackson

  • The crew wakes Jackson at his KCU-adjacent apartment; he assumes a shakedown and isn’t entirely wrong
  • Golden Girl vouches for the crew, but it’s Broker who closes the deal: piecing together that Jackson had been sleeping with the student in question for better grades, and that this “poster child for a bad time at your university” is already a liability — his own neck is on the line as much as anyone’s
  • Jackson reluctantly agrees to research a safe taper method, taking a vial of Vilify and the Choo-Two findings to work from overnight
  • The crew is explicit: Misty must not learn she’s being cured — The Calling still believes she’s out here helping secure more supply

Debts and Deals Closed

  • The crew returns to Crystal Lily; Felix pays Ledger the 500 EB owed (of the 1,000 EB collected from The Calling) — “I guess we’re square, Felix.” Ledger pays his tab by wrist-scan and leaves: “here’s hopin’ I see you never”
  • The next morning, Felix closes Zach the Hot Dog Maniac’s long-tabled data cube offer: hands over a cube, receives the full 3,000 EB, splits it with the crew (600 EB each, plus 95 EB to Broker for pizza expenses) — Zach throws in free hot dogs and sausages for the whole crew as a bonus
  • Kenny jokes about having “secretly modified the contents of the cube” beforehand — never confirmed or denied
  • Housekeeping: humanity/Borgware mechanics discussed at length; Mr. Zip’s Mecha Man Smart Glove gets its subdermal grip installed

Standout Quotes

“My name’s uh Kenny Loggins. Uh uh I because I log in, I log right in, you know.” — Kenny Log-ins (introducing himself to Ledger)

“Do you all see through each other’s eyes and hear through each other’s ears?” “Of course we are one.” — Mr. Zip and The Calling

“There are no dogs in Night City.” — The Calling (repeatedly, with total sincerity)

“Martin is us.” — The Calling (on Martin Gorsky’s status)

“That’s a funny story, ‘cause from what I’m seeing, one of your students whom you’ve had relations with turned to a life of drugs — and now she’s a poster child for a bad time at your university.” — Broker (shaking down Professor Jackson at 2 AM)

“That’s just fucking chocolate.” — Dr. Brightowski (after scanning choco kibble for nanites, at Mr. Zip’s request)

“It’d be pretty cool if you could pop your arm off and it could go do something for you.” / “No, gross.” — Kenny Log-ins and The Calling

“Here’s hopin’ I see you never.” — Ledger (parting ways, no hard feelings)

Open Threads

  • “Misty Cerulean”: Left with Professor Jackson overnight. Will he actually help her, or does self-preservation win once the crew isn’t watching? Can the hive-mind connection even be safely severed?
  • Martin Gorsky: Alive, but fully assimilated into The Calling. Is any of him left? Does he want out?
  • The Calling: Still down there, still starving, still believing the crew is working to resupply them rather than cure their “test subject.” What happens when they find out?
  • The Escalante data cube: Zach’s employers got paid off — but which cube (real, fake, or altered) did they actually receive? Kenny’s local encrypted copy is still decrypting.
  • Ledger: Debt settled, but he never got an answer about whether Felix knew the old job was dangerous. Loose end, or actually closed?
  • Broker’s real name: Ledger greeted Broker by name — Chad Van Patten — and knew his employer without being told. How?
  • Kenny’s custom alternate ammo project: DV finally established this session (21, hittable on a 9 or 10 thanks to his weapons deck levels) — but he rolled a 1 on the invention check and failed again. Still no custom rounds.
  • Golden Girl’s roommate (unnamed, potential story hook) — still open
  • Kenny’s life path connections (corp exec enemy, imprisoned lover, childhood enemy) — still open; Felix’s life path enemy (Ledger) resolved this session

Meta / Errata

  • In-game date: Evening of June 1 into the morning of June 3, 2045 (picks up directly from Session 03’s ending, no new time skip)
  • IP: 100 per character
  • Payment split: Zach’s 3,000 EB data cube payment — 600 EB per crew member, plus 95 EB to Broker for pizza expenses
  • Martin’s debt: Crew was sent to collect 500 EB from Martin on Ledger’s behalf; came back with 1,000 EB from The Calling — a 500 EB surplus beyond what Ledger was owed
  • Kenny’s invention roll: Rolled right at session open to get it “out of the way early” — DV 21 for the custom alternate ammo, hittable on a 9 or 10 given his weapons deck levels; rolled a 1, failed
  • Humanity/Borgware: Extended table discussion clarifying that Max Humanity = Empathy × 10, minus reductions from Borgware specifically (not all cyberware); Mr. Zip’s Max Humanity confirmed at 38
  • Mr. Zip’s Mecha Man Smart Glove: Subdermal grip component installed this session (previously an empty option slot); no additional humanity loss, since it was already priced into the glove’s original install
  • DM noted this was “one of the more cohesive sessions” despite starting scattered — the party’s path through the sewer investigation landed on the intended beats faster than expected

Player Notes

  • The Calling is a new recurring faction — Vilify’s endgame made literal. Likely relevant again once Misty’s treatment (or lack thereof) plays out
  • Kenny’s dog (adopted from Martin Gorsky’s apartment in Session 03) has a full name: Betamax
  • Zach the Hot Dog Maniac’s employers remain unidentified — the data cube’s true fate is genuinely unresolved at the table
  • Session picked up directly from Session 03’s cliffhanger (no new downtime week) — straight into Ledger’s message

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