Bloom in Darkness

Bloom in Darkness
Date 2082-02-17 GM OrionsRequiem Location Bellevue, Seattle Metroplex Status Threat Level: Medium
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Informer	The Pantheon
Delphi Mara Tora Kokoro Lil' Boomer	Cerberus Hades

Summary

After a kidnapping in broad daylight Informer brings in runners to investigate an area that they cannot.

Background

A group of Olympian tradition awakened calling themselves The Pantheon arrived in Seattle, following the path of Oracle based on the readings of the future by their high priestess Pythia. The Pantheon is seeking more members in order to bolster their strength. They found a base nearby Seattle that had a place to hold council with Oracle, and found a potential "Persephone" in a young dryad woman named Bloom Antonis. Following the story of the abduction of Persephone, Hades emerges from the ground near Bloom and captures her.

Discovering the abduction, Bloom's mother, Demara, seeks out Informer as a private investigator. However due to the background count that appeared around the flower shop after the abduction, Informer cannot go into the count without being disrupted, and so seeks out a group of runners in order to help their investigation.

The Meet

The team gets messages from their fixers to meet at The Private Eye offices in Touristville, arriving one at a time, they are greeted by Informer's strange aura that turns the area around them monochrome and allows them to hear the detective's internal monologue. However, as Mara arrives, Informer's strange magical effect doesn't seem to touch the dryad, allowing her to keep the color in her life, though stopping her from hearing Informer's monologue.

Informer lets the team know that a young elf woman, Bloom Antonis has been kidnapped and that her mother Demara came to the spirit for assistance, but Informer couldn't do a proper investigation because there was a background count that made the spirit uncomfortable. They cannot pay the runners as they do not use nuyen and do not keep any amount of it on hand, however if the runners really need it, they will attempt to get a hold of some nuyen to pay them for their services.

Informer also tells the team that there is a strange background count around the flower shop that stops the spirit from approaching. They also provide a warning that something is hunting in the area.

The Investigation

The group load into their cars and head to the northern Bellevue area. They find the flower shop in an isolated section of the district, surrounded by a well-tended garden. The four magical shadowrunners use their ability to assense and view the area. While most of the area around them is unaffected in the astral, the team does see a background count around the whole garden. As Delphi steps into the garden, she uses her sensing metamagic in order to determine that the background count is aspected towards death. However it does not seem to be death relating to battle, as Lil' Boomer's mentor spirit of War does not protect him from the effects. While the rest of the team looks out around the area, curious as to why there is a lack of Knight Errant response to the AA zone of Bellevue, Delphi uses her psychometry ability to feel what happened in the spot. The seer's divination gave her a vision, the sight of a young dryad woman, Bloom, tending the flowers in the garden. The ground opens up and a shadowy figure in a blue-grey chariot emerges from the ground and grabs Bloom. The figure is cloaked in a shadowy mist and rushes off to the North. Before the vision ends however, Delphi sees a large dog-like creature with three heads emerge from the hole.

Delphi comes out of the vision and describes what she saw to the rest of the runners, while taking a moment to try and relax in the field of flowers, the rest of the team discuss what to do next. There are lingering traces of an astral signature and LB spends his time summoning a water spirit in order to trace it. However as they spend more time in the garden, they hear three howls that begin to merge into one, and the sound of the thumping running through the ground. The group tries to determine what's going on, and are quickly faced with an overly-large Cerberus rushing towards them.

Once they step out of the background count and the garden however, the cerberus does not appear to be hostile to the runners. Though through some tests they determine that this is only true so long as they stay out of the garden. Tora becomes fascinated with the 3-headed dog and begins petting it and giving it some affection. The runners also tell that the astral signature that's on the area is also connected to the Cerberus. LB sends the water spirit out to search for the astral signature while Tora tries to get more information from the dog. Eventually the enchanter finds that the dog can understand her and begins to try and get information from it through a series of motions from the dog that seem to indicate yes and no answers. Using a mastery of Greek mythology, Tora determines that Cerberus knows Hades and Artemis, and tries to convince the creature that she is working with Artemis, however the dog seems hesitant to let anyone near the garden, even with the deception, and growls aggressively whenever someone attempts to cross into the garden. The cerberus also refuses to move, having been told to guard this location.

The group pile back into their cards and take off towards the north where the astral signature leads. Though as they leave Bellevue and enter Snohomish, LB's water spirit returns, having found the source of the astral signature. While there are echoes of it headed to the north all the way up to Everett, the actual signature seems to go to downtown, at a club called Tartarus. Delphi does a quick search on the club and finds out that it was started by someone calling themselves Hades. Following up on that information, Delphi discovers that there's a whole group of individuals who have come to Seattle for some reason, all of whom bear the name of a Greek God and believe themselves to be descended from, or reincarnations of those same Gods. It's also rumored that they are here due to the guidance of Oracle, Delphi's selfsame mentor spirit who has been missing for a few hours. Mara leaves her car in a parking lot in Snohomish as it cannot run GridGuide, and the runners make their way to Tartarus.

The Confrontation

The team arrive at Tartarus and find a bouncer there, awakened and bored. Attempting to move into the club, they are stopped as the club is currently holding an "invitation only" night. Tora attempts to intimidating the bouncer into letting the runners past, he seems unfazed by the attempt, and refuses entry until Delphi hands him 800 nuyen as a bribe. They enter the club and see the writhing masses of dancers and those getting drunk in the club's atmosphere. They also see the centurion-dressed Hades, and Bloom, sitting on a raised dais nearby the dance floor. There is a small moat surrounding the dais that LB lets his water spirit take a dip in, but the spirit quickly leaves it, finding that the water itself seems to be a strong background count. LB speaks to Hades by playing to his pride, and tries to sweettalk him while getting Bloom away from the "god" and seeing if he could get an idea of what, if anything was done to her.

Bloom explains that the day has been overwhelming, but there doesn't appear to be any spells or effects on her from what the runners can see. The runners try to negotiate with Hades to let Bloom go, using their knowledge of the Greek myth that the magician seems to be emulating. However before allowing Bloom to leave, Hades attempts to put Bloom under a Geas requiring her to come back to him. Mara and LB give Bloom their magical defense dice and she is able to resist the Geas from the Olympian before leaving the club. Informer lets the team know that at the end of the trail leading to Everett ended in a grand manor that had strange material around it, such as actual chariots and Greek architecture. Inside, Informer found a marriage certificate in Greek, signed by both Hades and Bloom and officiated by someone named Zeus. The runners leave Tartarus and head back to Touristville and Informer's office.

Aftermath

Informer returns Bloom to Demara and pays the runners 4000 nuyen that Demara paid for their services, and lets the runners leave. LB returns back to his apartment, while Tora, Mara and Delphi go to Delphi's office where they play with the cats and begin preparations for a divination ritual.

Delphi starts burning Oneiro, allowing Tora and Mara to assist her in the divination and reach into the future. The seer begins to see a vision in the smoke, a dark cave with a hole in the ceiling where the sun can shine through, and the sight of Oracle, Delphi's mentor, tied with silver chains to a glowing rock. There is another figure that is performing some sort of divination ritual, that Delphi recognizes as the member of The Pantheon called Pythia. The oracle says that Bloom is not the Persephone that they seek, and that there is more left to find before their pantheon is at it's full power.

When they emerge from the trance, the Oracle that Delphi met at Tartarus is gone and a note is left on her desk. The note is in Greek, but thanks to Delphi's skilljack she is able to read it.

"Beware, False Prophet, it is the will of Oracle that we succeed"

Rewards

• 2 CDP
• 11 Karma (11 RVP)
• 4000 Nuyen from Bloom's mother (2 RVP)
• A bundle of flowers from Elysium Flower Shop
• May purchase Perceptive I at Chargen cost

Optional Contact:

• Informer: (2/1 Free Spirit of Man) Can be take at up to Loyalty 3 by spending RVP

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.