Time remaining: 24:00

The party regrouped at Ratchet and Hank’s Depo after getting the information from Steig and the ultimatum from The Woman. Putting together a list of priorities, they headed back towards the Gatehouse to return to Newtown proper, but spotted one of The Black Band lurking nearby, scoping out the gatehouse traffic. Patch tried to sneak through the crowd and get the drop on him, but was rumbled when Rex came bounding over to say hello. The reptilian fled, but Ellis leapt into action, easily catching up with his quarry and slamming him into the ground, with Patch hot on his heels. North flanked through the shanty alleys, spying a heat signature in the building the reptilian had been heading for.

Just as North blew the building apart, the partial conversion mutant burst out to unleash plasma death at Ellis, who retaliated with his power sword while Patch took pot shots with his ion blasters. This gave North enough time to reacquire the target and put the borg down. Messily.

The party detoured through the Spatters while the Newtown Militia descended on the scene, and got the eerie feeling one of the Sirens was flitting around on the rooftops. Once things had calmed down, they headed through to Newtown, Patch heading for The Doghouse while North and Ellis went to scope out the elevator to the Sil’ess Arms Warehouse.

Patch caught up with Biggs, who he convinced to introduce him to Tark, one of the senior priests of The Striders. Tark confirmed that the Striders are well versed in magic and can move people and material through space, but they were still deliberating whether or not to get involved. He did mention that the Night Brethren may have more insight into the nature of Mouldstone.

Meanwhile North and Ellis made their way through the Boltons to where the elevator shaft for the warehouse emerged from the city interior and ran up the outside surface. With North hanging on, Ellis began climbing the skeletal metal framework of the lift shaft, concealed for the most part by the clouds of steam rising up the side of the city. Reaching the doorway, North cut through an exterior panel to reach the security camera controls and access the local network.

There was a moment of panic when birds flying around the lift shaft made them think the sirens were stalking them, but North soon had the run of the network, blinding the cameras and opening the doors, while Patch began climbing up to join them.

Inside the warehouse, they found a variety of Sil’ess firearms and melee weapons as promised, but the exploration was cut short when they awoke four Sil’ess automatons…