Session 05 — Deals and Escape

Summary

In-game date: Wednesday, June 3, 2045 — continuing directly from Session 04’s morning, no time skip. Kenny Log-ins wakes up and successfully brews his first batch of synthcoke (rough, street-grade, but it works); he and Fix-it-Felix both take a hit before the crew heads back to Professor Jackson’s apartment to check on the overnight “cure” research.

What they find is a trap: Jackson has been assimilated into The Calling overnight, apparently through unsupervised contact with Misty — the collective claims to have “discovered some way to accelerate the process.” When Jackson refuses to cooperate, the crew corners him: give up nanomachine fabrication equipment, or drink Choo-Two, the nanite-killing coolant identified back in Session 04. Misty tries to flee through a window and is stunned down by Kenny and Mr. Zip; Jackson is forcibly dosed by mouth and nearly dies of organ failure before Golden Girl stabilizes him with an improvised blood transfusion straight from Kenny. Both Jackson and Misty end up “quieted” — the hive-mind voice weakened but not silenced.

Lacking fabrication equipment of their own, the crew hands Jackson and Misty over to Continental Brands for overnight treatment. At CB’s South Town facility, Mr. Continental pays out the crew’s retainer in full and is visibly impressed by the improvised cure — but Kenny, worried about the “accelerated” infection method now sitting in CB custody, warns him that containment is broken and reluctantly gives up one more name: Dr. Brightowski, found — to the crew’s horror — already assimilated when they swing by Kowalski Clinic to check on him. CB mercs arrive minutes after the crew leaves; gunfire, then a body bag. Dr. Brightowski’s fate is unconfirmed but grim, and Kenny quietly marks Mr. Continental as untrustworthy.

Back at Kenny’s workshop, Martin Gorsky shows up in person: Continental Brands is purging the sewer facility with guns, and The Calling is dying by the minute. Kenny refuses Mr. Zip’s grenade-the-elevator plan and instead brokers a deal through Broker: the crew will help defend the collective, in exchange for a binding promise never to assimilate anyone again without consent. Guided to a second sewer entrance, they find Shoa Ling — the Piranhas leader who sold them their first Vilify supply back in Session 01 — badly wounded and now part of The Calling himself. The crew patches him up, arms up on his grenades, disguises themselves (domino masks for Broker, EMP threading powered down for Zip), and heads for Continental Brands’ facility to confront the purge. The session ends there, mid-approach, before the shooting starts.

Key Events

Wednesday Morning — First Batch

• Kenny rolls to synthesize synthcoke overnight (basic tech, DV 9): rolls a 1, exploding to a total of 12 — succeeds, but it’s rough, first-attempt work; too embarrassing to show Don Swayze
• Kenny and Felix both take a hit before heading out: +1 REF for 4 hours, then a crash/penalty once it wears off; both pass their resist drugs and poison rolls, no addiction yet
• Broker declines (drinks an oat milk latte instead — the local goons have never heard of oat milk); Mr. Zip drinks with the Second Sons at the yard and fakes sobriety with a conceal/reveal roll after secretly throwing up in an alley
• The crew converges on Professor Jackson’s KCU-adjacent apartment: Kenny bikes there coked up (20 mph, weaving through traffic), Zip drives drunk but passes his roll, Golden Girl arrives separately and late

The Trap

• Jackson greets them warmly, offers Broker oat milk, and explains: no real cure exists — anything strong enough to kill the nanomachines would kill the host too
• Misty walks in, still fully connected — Jackson admits, unprompted, that “we’ve discovered some way to accelerate the process.” When directly challenged (“did you drink the vilify?”), he claims “I didn’t drink anything. She got the drop on me.” — implying Misty infected him herself, by some faster method than the multi-week Vilify buildup previously understood
• Jackson now answers as the collective (“we’re all part of the same creature”) but insists there’s no cure being withheld — “you’re talking about eliminating us”
• Kenny gives an ultimatum: hand over nanomachine fabrication equipment, or drink Choo-Two. Jackson refuses; Mr. Zip draws a gun on him, which doesn’t faze him at all
• Misty bolts for a window mid-standoff; Kenny and Zip stun-gun her down (11 + 12 = 23 damage) as she tries to climb out through broken glass; Zip physically pins her, and she stops resisting entirely
• Golden Girl rolls Medical Tech to determine the safest administration method: ingestion, since it enters the bloodstream slowly enough to allow a transfusion or emergency surgery if things go wrong
• Kenny force-feeds Jackson the Choo-Two by mouth; no immediate reaction, then a few minutes later he doubles over — stomach cramping, kidneys audibly hardening under Golden Girl’s hands, heading toward organ failure
• Golden Girl performs an improvised blood transfusion straight from Kenny (universal donor) to keep Jackson alive; it works, but costs Kenny for the rest of the day
• Jackson stabilizes, badly drained (“this feels like the worst hangover of my life… I need the rest of this voice gone”); the hive-mind presence is weaker but not gone
• Golden Girl heals Misty’s stun-gun and glass wounds with Speedheal first, confirms via a second Medical Tech roll that she can tolerate Choo-Two in her weakened state, and administers a smaller dose; Misty takes it silently — the light in her eyes dims but doesn’t go out

Fabrication and the Handoff to Continental Brands

• Kenny keeps Mr. Continental updated via internal agent throughout, radio-style (“over”); CB offers to send help, Kenny holds them off
• The crew has no way to fabricate the counter-nanomachines Jackson describes as the actual fix; Isabella checks the ruins of Nexus Mods on Broker’s behalf and finds nothing but scavenged ammo — the useful equipment didn’t survive Zip’s bombs
• Felix tries to source a fabricator through fixer contacts — technically possible, but days out and “Expensive” cost-category pricing
• CB offers to bring fabrication equipment overnight and take Jackson and Misty into custody for treatment; branded vans and the same mercs from the Nexus Mods raid arrive within ten minutes and collect both

Continental Brands’ Facility

• Kenny, Golden Girl, Felix, and Zip go along (Broker stays behind, unwilling to show his face to CB); a short drive to CB’s South Town facility
• Mr. Continental is impressed by the blood-transfusion-plus-synthcoke method; pays the crew’s 3,000 EB retainer in full (600 EB each)
• Kenny warns him containment is broken and that The Calling has found a faster assimilation method; under pressure, gives up Dr. Brightowski’s location at Kowalski Clinic as a “personal favor,” explicitly asking CB to treat him gently since he’s valuable
• Mr. Continental removes his sunglasses at Kenny’s request: cyber eyes, heavily modded, double-pupiled — but not purple. Not (yet) one of The Calling
• Broker’s in-character “LinkedIn Red” posting about the job is confirmed by the DM to have actually built him in-fiction reputation/followers — a new mechanic introduced this session

Dr. Brightowski

• The crew swings by Kowalski Clinic to update Dr. Brightowski — and finds him already changed, speaking as “we,” admitting the collective absorbed him but claims he’s fine with it
• Kenny still texts CB the clinic’s location as the breakout site, despite asking them to be careful with him
• Leaving the clinic, the crew sees CB vans and the same mercs pull up; three go inside. A burst of automatic gunfire follows, then silence, then the mercs come back out carrying something in a body bag
• Dr. Brightowski’s fate is unconfirmed but presumed dead; Kenny privately decides he has a new enemy in Mr. Continental

Martin Gorsky’s Plea

• Back at Kenny’s workshop, making a fresh batch of synthcoke for Felix (now in synthcoke withdrawal), Martin Gorsky knocks in person — alone, on foot. Betamax growls at him
• Martin: Continental Brands is actively purging the sewer facility with guns; The Calling is losing “parts of us” by the minute, and their own contingency plan (recovering Dr. Willie) isn’t ready
• Mr. Zip proposes luring them into an elevator and grenading them; Kenny refuses outright — “these are all people… I don’t like to kill people” — and instead proposes a deal
• Broker negotiates: the crew helps defend The Calling from CB’s purge, and in exchange the collective agrees, in writing, to never assimilate anyone again without express consent. The Calling insists on paying the crew’s full standard fee (3,000 EB, up from an initial discounted offer of 2,500) since money means nothing to them anymore

Shoa Ling and the Second Sewer Entrance

• Martin leads the crew to a different, more hidden sewer entrance than the one used in Session 04
• Inside: Shoa Ling, the Piranhas leader who originally sold the crew their Vilify supply — badly wounded, heavily cybered (twin arm-mounted pop-up grenade launchers, a retractable cybersnake tongue), and now speaking as part of the collective. He credits selling Broker the Vilify as “the best deal we ever made”
• Golden Girl heals him with Speedheal; Zip donates his last dose of Kenny’s synthcoke to steady him
• Shoa Ling arms the crew with spare grenades for the coming fight (two armor-piercing, with incendiary and flashbang held in reserve)
• Disguise prep: Broker gets domino masks from Isabella (again); Mr. Zip powers down his light-up EMP threading to stay less conspicuous; Kenny switches to his anti-smog mask and “business casual” attire
• The crew heads out toward Continental Brands’ facility to confront the purge — session ends here, before contact

Standout Quotes

“Why did you have to drink the vilify, you stupid old horn dog?” “I didn’t drink anything. She got the drop on me.” — Kenny Log-ins and Professor Jackson

“The two options are give us the gear or drink the choo-too.” “We will not drink it its poison willingly.” — Kenny Log-ins and The Calling (speaking through Jackson)

“We think we would make pretty good nomads actually. With a combined mind cluster — think of what we could accomplish.” — The Calling

“Express written consent.” — Fix-it-Felix, setting the terms of the crew’s deal with The Calling

“I mean, honestly, we’re all capitalist zombies in some way, right? At least they know it, with their beady purple eyes.” — Broker

“You have never looked more like Broker in your entire life than you look right now.” — Peyote Quixote (DM, on Broker’s domino-mask disguise roll)

“I don’t care what ails you, bro.” — Fix-it-Felix (offering Kenny’s synthcoke to a dying gang leader as a cure-all)

Open Threads

• The Continental Brands confrontation: The crew is en route to the facility, armed and disguised, when the session ends. Outcome unknown.
• Dr. Brightowski’s fate: Presumed killed by CB mercs at Kowalski Clinic, but never confirmed on-screen.
• Is Mr. Continental an enemy now? Kenny privately thinks so. The rest of the crew doesn’t know yet.
• Jackson and Misty in CB custody: Will Continental Brands actually cure them, or exploit them (and the “accelerated” infection method) for research?
• The Calling’s accelerated assimilation method: Demonstrated on Jackson overnight — faster than the multi-week Vilify buildup from Session 04. Not yet understood by the crew, and now known to Continental Brands as well.
• The consent contract with The Calling: Will it hold once the immediate crisis with CB passes?
• Martin Gorsky: Still functioning as the collective’s independent-seeming spokesperson — how much of him is actually driving these decisions?
• Golden Girl’s roommate (unnamed, potential story hook) — still open
• Kenny’s life path connections (corp exec enemy, imprisoned lover, childhood enemy) — still open

Meta / Errata

• In-game date: Wednesday, June 3, 2045, morning through mid-afternoon — continues directly from Session 04’s ending, no time skip
• IP: 100 per character, awarded at session’s end
• Kenny’s first synthcoke batch: Basic Tech, DV 9, rolled a 1 (exploding) for a total of 12 — succeeded but rough/street-grade quality
• Misty takedown: Two stun-gun hits (Kenny and Zip), 11 + 12 = 23 damage combined
• Payment (Continental Brands): Full 3,000 EB retainer paid out for the Jackson/Misty treatment work, 600 EB per crew member
• Payment (The Calling): Full 3,000 EB fee for the crew’s help against CB’s purge — up from an initially discounted 2,500 EB offer; funded from the collective’s scavenged “remnants”
• New mechanic: Broker’s LinkedIn Red posts now build actual in-fiction reputation/followers, confirmed by the DM this session
• Ammo pricing: Mr. Zip’s specialty heavy pistol rounds (Nova model 757, from the Cyberpunk RED gunslinger DLC) confirmed at “Expensive” cost category; Kenny can fabricate ammo one price category cheaper — to be worked out between sessions
• Session ended mid-approach to the Continental Brands confrontation for time — picks up there next session

Player Notes

• Dr. Brightowski’s likely death closes out a long-running friendly NPC and hands the crew (well, Kenny) a new grudge against Mr. Continental
• Kenny’s synthcoke is now a going concern, and Felix’s dependency on it is a new thread worth watching
• The Calling’s “faster” assimilation method is a serious escalation of the Vilify threat — and Continental Brands now has a captive source (Jackson) to study it
• Shoa Ling’s reappearance, heavily transformed and folded into The Calling, pays off a loose end flagged all the way back in Session 01
• The consent contract with The Calling turns them from a straightforward threat into an ongoing, uneasy relationship
• Session ran long — DM cut it before the Continental Brands confrontation rather than rush a firefight