Given their many positive encounters with Outsiders over the years, the party determined they might be a good place to start when approaching the larger territories. As they traveled there, Losco was mysteriously pulled aside by ASCII, who warned him that she’d noticed they were pulling some BIG jobs that weren’t Internet jobs. And if SHE’d noticed, others had probably noticed as well.
Further on the party encountered a sewer rave where Chris got some drugs, and everybody wound up in a bad situation. Losco helped some folks bury a charred up burned body, and all they could drunkenly say was “Don’t Tell Janice.”
Getting a meeting with the highlander was going to take a bit of doing, since the party didn’t want to draw on their reputations as Internet operatives to do so. There was a long line which the party circumvented with some shenanigans including convincing a woman to light a fire while Chris slipped into the appointment office.
The party eventually got their meeting, and the Highlander was surprisingly amenable to joining their confederation. He’d been shaken by the realization that there was something as powerful as the Internet existing all around them, and this seemed like his best chance to wrest control of his territory’s destiny back. He insisted on being an equal partner in any dealings, and given the size of the territory he was bringing to the table the party agreed.
Also the woman who set the fire turned out to be Janice. Losco did what he could to set things right with her.
Of all the things I’ve forgotten, I really wish I remember more of how the whole ‘Janice’ thing went.
The party also revealed to the Highlander the source of the Outsider’s powerful abilities: the worms they’d discovered out in the craters of Mars. Umquat went out on an expedition to gather these.