Episode 5 – Lord Ruthven Looms Over a Brutal Cyberpunk RED Fight

Lord Ruthven remained just out of reach while the Cyberpunk RED crew fought to survive the Union Chapel ambush. The session opened in the middle of combat, with Nova nearly choked out, Bull missing a hand, ChoJo battered, and several armed attackers still holding the room. The crew had already discovered the corpse-filled chapel, the strange musical performance, and the unsettling evidence that Ruthven’s influence stretched deeper than the main floor.

His followers kept the pressure on with heavy pistols, armor, strange cyberware, poison darts, and enough violence to turn every tactical choice into a risk. Bull rescued Nova with a dangerous called shot. Iris picked enemies apart from cover. Defect kept darting in and out of the doorway. Thiago worked angles, cover, and scavenged weapons. Winter’s arrows carved through armor. Nova turned from victim to medic saving ChoJo.

By the end, the team won, but victory did not feel clean. The bodies in the room were not the missing women they came to find. The music still played. The stairs led down instead of up. Lord Ruthven’s name still hung over the building. Cyberpunk RED gave the crew a win, then immediately reminded them that the real horror was probably waiting below.

Key Events

1. Bull saved Nova with a risky called shot: Nova was trapped in a chokehold and close to passing out. Bull aimed for the attacker’s hand, fired with his remaining hand, and forced the enemy to release her.
2. Nova killed her captor after breaking free: Once she could breathe, Nova stepped back and used her last loaded shot to put down the Bozo who had been holding her.
3. The chapel fight spread across the bar: The crew used the doorway, bar, corpses, chairs, and tables for cover while enemies fired from multiple angles.
4. The eye-dart cyberware changed the threat: One attacker fired darts from his eye. A poison dart hit Bull, but he resisted the worst of the drug and stayed in the fight.
5. Nova stabilized ChoJo under fire: Nova burned her luck to reach him, beat the medical difficulty, and kept him from bleeding out while bullets kept hitting the area around her.
6. Winter crippled the armored clown: Winter’s armor-piercing arrow punched through the clown’s leg and left him with a critical injury that limited his movement.
7. The crew searched the chapel floor: They found bodies posed at tables, stitched into position, drained and altered, with skin and gang tattoos worked into the grotesque display.
8. Winter took the clown’s head: After examining the cyberware, Winter cut off the clown’s head and added it to her gear as a potential trophy or later lead.
9. The crew looted weapons and ammo: Thiago gathered pistols, shotguns, and ammunition from the fallen attackers so the crew could redistribute resources after the fight.

Standout Party Member Moments

• Thiago: Thiago used tactics, cover, and scavenged weapons after his smaller pistol struggled against heavy armor.
• Defect: Defect repeatedly stepped into danger, fired at the clown, then retreated outside before later investigating the bodies and guarding the basement stairs.
• Iris: Iris fought smart from cover, landed a clean headshot, and searched the chapel for IDs, agents, access points, and clues after combat ended.
• Winter: Winter delivered the arrow that crippled the clown, then calmly claimed the clown’s head after discovering the cyberware inside it.
• ChoJo: ChoJo spent big luck, damaged an enemy, botched a bar jump, got dropped in combat, and still somehow turned the aftermath into a performance.
• Bull: Bull saved Nova with a precise hand shot, resisted poison, kept fighting with a missing hand, and eventually dropped the heavily armored clown.
• Nova: Nova killed her captor, stabilized ChoJo while under fire, patched Bull’s stump, crafted speed heals, and finished the final enemy on camera.

Lord Ruthven

Lord Ruthven did not appear, but his absence made the session sharper. The chapel felt like a room built to announce him. Classical music echoed through posed corpses, stitched victims, gang-marked skin, armored followers, and cybernetic violence. Every detail pointed toward someone who wanted terror to feel carefully theatrical.

The crew survived the performance, although ChoJo nearly became part of the final act. They escaped with wounds, questions, and a clearer sense of the enemy’s cruelty. However, survival did not bring answers. The missing women remained lost, Ruthven stayed hidden, and the mastermind behind the chapel’s horrors still controlled the stage. Whatever came next would demand more than firepower. It would require patience, nerve, and a willingness to walk deeper into his nightmare.

Closing Statement

The biggest question is still below them, is Lord Ruthven there? The upstairs was ruined, the main floor was cleared, and the only meaningful path led down into the basement. The music was louder there, Ruthven was still missing, and the bodies upstairs suggested that the crew had only reached the outer layer of the operation.

Next time, the Cyberpunk RED crew heads toward the basement with fewer bullets, damaged armor, fresh trauma, and one clown head too many. Lord Ruthven has not shown his face yet. That is probably the worst sign. In Night City, the monster who waits below is rarely less dangerous than the one standing in the room.

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