Fault of Faith

Fault of Faith
Part of Search for the Sevenfold Staff
Date 2086-10-04 GM Breeze Location Salem, Masachuesetts Status Threat Level: Extreme
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven Wiccan Community Children of the Dragon Draco Foundation The Heart of the City	Ares	Atlantean Foundation Runner Team	Aleph Society	The Forces Beyond
Exodus Alkali Brunhilde Huntress Iron Delphi	Chief Frederick Bollivar PIs Various Patrols	Brick Erudite Flash	Seer Friar Lia Correra The Bound Spirit of the Vessel	The Old King The Key Guardian Spirits Spirits of Man
Casualties and losses
Exodus had to burn edge to survive an ambush by a blood mage, Brunhilde and Huntress nearly fell to 2 others later on	Having been led away and distracted from any of the actual conflicts, Ares did not suffer casualties	None, having been misled and too trusting of Alkali's information despite earlier suspicions.	The Vessel was disrupted, and all three Blood Magic users were captured and sent to the Draco Foundation	The Old King was put to rest in his castle, and The Key's power was sapped when it was separated from the Head of the Sevenfold Staff

Summary

The 6th world is built on opportunistic vultures picking at the rotting carcasses of the less fortunate. When a moment of action, for whatever reason, shows weakness they swoop in and begin to tear and feast. An accidental discovery, a curio that slipped into a museum curator's possession by happenstance, lead to a deeply tragic and unintended accident. And the ripple of that accident, the midst of that tragedy and the mourning that should have gone by unimpeded so those affected could process such an unfortunate moment and move on, deal with the fallout on their own, only drew the vultures nearer and nearer.

Some picked at old scars.

Others took it as an excuse for tighter control, a tragedy turned into justification for their weighty intervention.

Others still simply had a vested interest in taking part of it for their own sakes, pragmatic to a fault.

And the worst of them all set that tragedy into motion, waiting eagerly for the chance to once more have what they craved for so, so long. The cost to others did not matter, could not matter, in the pursuit of that totality and wholeness.

There were so, so many reasons why the night of October the 9th should have led to the deaths of countless people, a city under siege, and a powerful artifact in the wrong hands as good people died for nothing.

All in all? it could have been far worse. Maybe there's still some hope for us after all.

Background

On September 30th, a strange artifact ended up in the hands of the curator of the Salem Historical Museum, who called upon a notable and well regarded member of the Wiccan community in Salem - one Yelena Monroe - to give some insights since something felt...wrong, about the thing. An orb, something that could fit in the palm of your hand, with ruins on one side of a blueish tint that seemed like an eye amidst a rather ancient cut of stone that still remained rather smooth. Unnatural didn't cover it. So, Yelena gathered her coterie and some aspiring pupils for the investigation, and the following day made for the commons with the artifact - The Key - contained just in case. But something went wrong. Something interfered. And one Jacob Howard found himself touching the Key, and for a brief moment all Hell broke loose. For what was only a few minutes, the area just north of the commons in the residential district was a total Hellscape. Jacob did not survive the accident. Yelena, shaken and heartbroken at seeing one of her pupils dead to the artifact, politely took her position as an acting figure at the museum so the curator did not have to be involved and had the artifact sealed away until they found a means of destroying it. A task she felt wholly unprepared for, muddled by self doubt and grief after how powerless she felt during the incident. And so, she set up the museum to delay any interrogations from outside forces and holed up, trying to force herself to act despite her weakness.

Unfortunately, that weakness did not go unnoticed.

Ares, being situated in Boston for the majority of the restoration, took notice of the strange blip of astral activity, and suspecting something unnatural and possibly useful could be hidden within the magical communities of Salem. Taking the odd aehteric readings and the death of a student of the Wiccans as a pretense, patrols of KE forces ramped up dramatically, and they began mobilizing. With heavy surveillance, heavy firepower, and incoming thaumaturgy assistance coming their way, they planned to take whatever the Wiccans may have had and use it for their own profit.

The Atlanteans, having divined the possibility of a piece of the Staff being found in Salem in due time, sent a small team of local, competent runners to begin investigations into the matter. And once there was a solid incident to back those divinations, they began ramping up their investigations into the Wiccans. Their job and plan was simple: learn what they can, and take the Staff Piece when the opportunity presented itself. They didn't really care about the significance: a 50k nuyen per head paycheck was well worth it.

Alexis Glimmerscale, and the rest of the Children of the Dragon, were quite obviously aware of the incident given their proximity and their influence in the area. With her position on the board of the Draco Foundation, Glimmerscale did her best to give the DF the confirmation of a potential staff piece in Salem, however with the increase in Ares activities and rumors of shady characters amok she decided her best move for the moment was to wait for them to send contacts to her and stay hidden. An important ally in the coming days.

Most dangerous of the outsiders to come into Salem, the divinations of the Aleph Society pointed towards a possible confluence of magical influence and aspected mana that would be...utterly enthralling. The cause of this had to fall under their possession, and they would spare no effort in doing so. Though they did not want to create a massive stir and ruin their public image, they had a team of incredibly powerful operatives whom they could rely upon to retrieve the artifact in question and wreak havoc on Salem, sparing no expense to see their plans come to fruition. the Seer and the Friar, two relatively stable, if cold and pragmatic mages were joined by a far more hot headed and uncontrollable mystic adept by the name of Lia Correra. Lia had quite the personal grudge against Salem as a whole; an accident many years ago lead to her requiring cyberware in order to survive, which unfortunately burned her out. The dismissiveness of the Wiccans whom used to nurture her and make her feel at home caused her to grow bitter, most of all against the woman who was rising through the ranks at the time alongside her. This woman, one Yelena Monroe, would finally pay. With the gift of Gaf, Lia wanted nothing more3 than to kill Yelena as brutally as possible and destroy the community she worked so hard to build, stalking the woman at times and trying to find an opportune moment to shove her axe into that redhead's trachea. Her unprofessional attitude and vendetta sometimes jeopardized the mission, but after retrieving a near dead body and using it as the base for a devastating massive Great Form Blood Spirit and establishing a relatively well defended base of operations in a motel they turned into a zombified murder fort, they were eager to put their slaughtering efforts to good use in taking control of whatever brought them here.

The Draco Foundation found themselves scrambling for time and needing to get a proper retrieval team asap to get the Head. And they called on a team they hoped would be up to the task.

The Meet

"Adowa "Moria" Webster" represented the Draco Foundation when the group was assembled in a Downtown office: Iron, Alkali, Delphi, Exodus, Huntress, and Brunhilde. A mix of social, physical, magical, and matrix prowess that they hoped would keep a diverse enough skill set that was still capable of handling the possibly dangerous threats that loomed in the shadows. The foundation gave the limited information they had and a case, along with the objective: secure the head of the staff while avoiding being waylaid by the third parties that were most definitely in the area after the noticeable moment over in the city of magic. The initial offer was 24 thousand nuyen, which Iron found offensively appalling to even suggest. Alkali managed to sneak in a number of additional gear rewards (Magical goods, Foci, Augmentations, and Vehicles/Drones) for the runners and a chance for additional pay in case the job proved more complex and dangerous than initially predicted, though Iron was still displeased. The Foundation had arranged for a base in Boston and transportation for the crew as well to make travel as seamless as possible, as well as getting vehicles needed over to the location to ensure smooth operations. Iron swore that he would not be risking his life for a paltry 24 thousand, but the foundation did not care at this point due to his unbearable behavior. Regardless the meeting was about over, so the runners went home and began working on the plan.

The Plan

The team planned to stay discretionary in their loadouts (sans Iron) so as to not draw attention in what seemed to be a tense situation, in so far as their own knowledge and intel of command led them to believe. Using what little they had, they drew up a simple plan

They needed to contact the Children of the Dragon, to find out more of the situation on the ground They needed to investigate the Wiccans, who likely new far more about the incident itself And following the divination given by Alkali over the threats of the run, he saw the visage of the runner team and the representation of the singular, devoted entity of Gaf's followers.

Once more information was gathered, they needed to handle the threats and find a means of locating the artifact they *thought* they were looking for, and then make a break for it.

The Run

Touching down and establishing a base of operations was first; Iron stayed behind (for a majority of the run) to provide matrix support, partially because he did not wish to risk himself for what he saw as paltry pay. So instead the rest of the team made their ways to the city of Salem proper instead. Their first stop was, after searching for more information on the news of the city and other diggings, was to head to the Historical Museum. It was a well regarded institute, deeply connected to the Wiccans in the area they were told to investigate early on, and whom most likely knew where the orb was. Before heading out, Delphi arranged a meeting with Alexis that had to be delayed a day for the briefing so she could finalize finding a good hidey hole for these situations.

The museum was filled with polite Wiccans, though they were in fact quite heavily armed. They forbid entrance to any area save the east wing, but with careful social skills they distracted both guard and stand in curator Miss Monroe to find the vault they believed housed the artifact. With the Wiccans none the wiser, Delphi and Alkali worked to endear themselves to the headmistress, and during a ritual to calm the poor nervous wreck Delphi divined to sense more about the situation at handing, seeing the artifact and the danger it posed - it was a 4th world artifact. With that in mind, the pair managed to convince Yelena to help them help her, but only if they could sabotage Ares in some manner to prevent them from assaulting Wiccans and breaking into their vault, and hopefully within about 3 days to give Yelena time to prepare her people and herself mentally, and the team agreed. The wiccans also told of some of the stranger phenomenon: a group off odd people poking around downtown (possibly a runner team) whom matched prior divinations from Alkali the day prior and an odd presence that sometimes tailed Yelena. With that odd tidbit and some clues as to where to go next out of the way, the team continued their searching the following day.

Early the next morning, the team set off to search for this intruding, unknown force in the touristy area of the city on the advice of the Headmistress. Once more, most came in, but for the majority of the runners there the little barren location lacked much of interest at all, save for a number of looks from those not blending in quite as well. A part of that inability to blend in is why Exodus was approached by a white haired woman using the name Anna. She seemed concerned but was highly suspicious, and so Delphi tailed them on a drone and others who could assense auras discovered that she was under the effects of Khamsa. She and Exodus talked some, with her being friendly and offering to assist her in some magical studies to help connect to her friend and sharing about her little accident in vague details. They left on friendly enough terms, and as she was leaving the drone tailed her to a little villa on the northern side of Salem, good to know for later. Iron set about investigating her presence on the matrix, and soon came about the information that she is one Lia Correra, a member of the Aleph Society and a burnout who might be a much larger threat in a fight. The team was deeply worried, especially given their knowledge on the background source informed them of the tendency of the organization to target burnouts as a whole and how they seemingly make pacts with an incredibly strange spirit to gain Blood magic. That was an incredibly distressing thing to learn, but for the moment they did not know enough and did not want to engage with her, and so the team kept note of that and waited until later so that they could investigate the other threats first.

Delphi was off to meet up with Alexis Glimmerscale that day, and their meeting involved some repeat information and some newer bits of info as well. Alexis gave more of a complete rundown on the incident itself, touching upon the damage it did in a way Yelena couldn't do to her own misgivings about the event that she had not yet coped with. She spoke once more of the people who, presumably as a runner team, had been doing their own investigation Downtown for information, and her concerns over the Ares increase in the area with more detailed information on where they were making preparations. While not exactly rife with new information, re-establishing contact gave the team a bit more leverage against Yelena for persuading her not to act rashly over the artifact as she seemed to be planning and served as an important go-between for DF assistance as the days would progress.

With Iron's help searching the city for sightings of the troll and elf whom appeared in Alkali's vision and the testimonials of Wiccan and Draconic mage alike, Alkali was able to find a common meeting spot for the other team's stakeouts in Downtown Salem. Wanting to discreetly gather information, Alkali struck up casual conversation amongst both the troll (Street name: Brick) and the elf (Street name: Erudite) about the magical phenomenon occurring in Salem and his overall curiosities about it; this was a cover for Exodus to sneak a bug onto the big guy unseen, barely, and allowed them to monitor them as they made their way back out of Salem and up northwest in Peabody's general direction. They heard various conversations on the way there, concerns by the other runner team about their plan to try and swoop in and take the relic during the chaos of Ares assaulting the Wiccans, but before getting too many concrete details from the bug that was planted their decker (Flash) finally noticed the bug and immediately fried it on the matrix, about halfway to their home base. The cover was blown, but information was gathered.

The day began to wind down, but preparations had to be made to deal with Ares the following day and begin infiltration there. First, Alkali searched the areas that Alexis gave out for Ares power spots and found an intense number of heavily wared individuals and an overall heightened tension and awareness of the locations from those around it, like a bomb waiting to be detonated. Then, as the others began to rest for the night, Iron began work slipping in Delphi's private investigator persona 'Cassandra' into the hiring list Ares had set out for extra thaumaturgical aid in the investigation and capture of the artifact. A host break in went smoothly, the file was edited, and Iron was out quietly after investigating the names of other thaumaturges in those files. Just in case. The following day, 'Cassandra' set out with her bodyguard 'Ela' (Exodus) to the southernmost hotspot building activity where a great number of their technological advantage was situated at. Not quite as heavily fortified as the Peabody location nor as forward facing as the Downtown location, it was an ideal spot for them to worm their way in as reporting early birds to the thaumaturgy work. Delphi managed to get a meeting arranged with the Chief downtown and scoped out more of the building's interior in case they needed to do a break in later, and they were off to meet him in person, one Frederick Bollivar. After a quick background check from Iron going over his veterancy and tendency to take matters into his own hand in a stubborn sense of justice, the duo had their meeting and established, albeit a little shakily, a means of which they could earn the man's trust and possibly delude him and his coordination against the Wiccans: He wanted them to plant bugs in the Museum to spy on Monroe and her associates and for a full report the following day. The two agreed and rented out a 'base' to use Downtown to work from, careful not to say anything incriminating amidst the presence of bugs which were absolutely on already and recording them. Delphi projected, warned Ms. Monroe, and with her devised a means by which they could feed misinformation and give convincing enough cover to keep Ares off their backs by falsifying the plant of bugs tonight by an 'intrusion' into less important areas and having her people give the false impression that they were planning to move the artifact out again to the forests south of Salem proper to activate it again. Later that night the infiltrators - Exodus, Huntress, and Brunhilde - were sent off to do just that. They came from the top and down to plant the bugs in predictable locations where the Wiccans would be certain of and could plan to mislead from, avoiding the guards as best they can to help sell the illusion. Though there were some close calls, the team managed to pull off the trick just fine, and the following morning 'Cassandra' gave a call to inform the police chief of the successful plant and gave a brief report on suspected blood magic that seemed to worry him enough to garner his trust.

The third day upon them, the team attempted to try and tie up loose ends to clear the way for the activation of the artifact later that day - push one last trick against Ares, deal with whatever the Aleph society has in store, and mislead the runner team to keep them away from the site of the activation. They hoped to do so by turning them against one another, having Ares focused on one spot and the others tricked into heading there and being caught in the crossfire. Alkali ordained to go check the opposing runner team as Exodus tried to get an in with Lia to investigate her home, and once there was enough pieces in place Cassandra would give the final sell to get Bollivar's forces committed fully to the forest. However, an unexpectedly welcoming Lia would prove to be the most threatening force they had dealt with. Exodus was unaware of her suspicions against her and entered her home expecting a casual conversation. Huntress and Brunhilde were further away in case of an emergency and the former broke in afterwards to investigate the place, but neither suspected much trouble. The confirmation of blood magic in the air had Huntress in tension, but the real worrisome moment was when Lia politely asked Exodus to open the door for her as she was 'bringing drinks' into the study for them both to have a talk on magic and the assassin received an axe to the face for her troubles. Huntress rushed to join in, with Brunhilde joining shortly after and even Delphi and Alkali rushing to the fray as quickly as they could to stop this, but Exodus was still barely hanging onto her life and only doing so on a miracle when all was said and done. Lia was a burned out mystic adept, incredibly potent physically while somehow still retaining magical capabilities like summoning a blood spirit despite her injuries from before demanding extensive ware - not to mention commanding a devastating manabolt which ripped through Exodus. The team rushed their injured ally away and made for the marina at the southern edge, evading the KE forces attracted by the multiple gunshots in the area, and restrained Lia to render her helpless as they interrogated her.

From the miscreant, the team learned of the threats looming behind her - the 2 other mages that lingered behind in Boston awaiting their chance to strike, and a massive bound spirit which was awaiting the chaos to descend upon Salem to wreak havoc. They immediately informed Yelena to not go forward with the activation due to the threats and warned her of the grudge bared against her by the now captured mystic adept, whom Delphi arranged to be taken to the Draco Foundation with Glimmerscale's aid. Preliminary drone reconnaissance of the motel the two mages had been using revealed that a number of the occupants had been killed and turned into Corpse Cadavers, with only one (the motel manager) having been left alive in horrible condition and stuck in a closet. The drone was spotted, and the two mages (The Seer and the Friar) began preparations, awaiting the confrontation against whomever had been spying on them, and the team dreaded the violent excursion against them and the blood spirit bound in the sky. But before they could properly face off against the two mages, they needed to ascertain the level of threat the runner team still posed, and so Alkali and Huntress had to set out for the Downtown meet once more. The opposing team was suspicious as hell after the bug incident, having prepared Flash for sniping any threats as Alkali attempted diplomacy. Brick, thankfully, had a soft spot for the well spoken polyglot after their earlier discussion, and invited him to have proper negotiations at the train station to the Northwest. Cabbing over, the duo managed to convince the three enemy runners of the validity of a tip Alkali gave misleading them into going towards the forest where Ares would be waiting. With that settled, there was one last major obstacle before the way forward was clear.

Delphi actually made a deal with the Heart of the City of Salem for its assistance in dealing with the spirit, in exchange for dealing with the artifact swiftly and not allowing its corruption to spread further, as well as giving it a chance to see what the two responsible for the blood spirit had to say about the particular victim they had chosen - One Jacob Howard. Brunhilde and Huntress, along with assistance from Alkali and Iron from afar, snuck inside as Delphi prepared to engage with the blood spirit in the astral. The battle that ensued nearly took the lives of Huntress and Brunhilde, alongside disrupting the Heart of the City for good, but thankfully permanent casualties were avoided. The team was absolutely not in a position to activate the artifact that day. Reconvening with Yelena, they pushed for an early morning the next day to handle the problem instead, and with much more evidence gathered during this last day they were able to forge enough evidence and use Exodus's injuries in order to seal the deal with Bollivar. Though they were battered, the 5th day would be the last they needed. It was time to activate the Key.

Yelena brought them down to the basement of the museum, down through a secretive passage and into the massive room inside, where a sealed door kept the Key sealed away. Wiccans were already waiting on standby just in case, and when the seal was opened the immediate sensation of dread and anguish that overwhelmed the senses wafted in from the lone orb on a pedestal hit the team. Delphi worked on cleansing it, but even then it was climbing back up much faster than anticipated. Huntress, Exodus, Iron, and Alkali would be the ones to interact with the Key, with Delphi staying behind to keep the background count suppressed and Brunhilde staying back in case of an emergency or the Wiccans being discovered. The one who happened to touch the Key was Huntress, who heard it tease and negotiate with her, smug in the knowledge that they needed her to go forward. Unsettled but not actively being coerced, Huntress led the the team inside. And they found themselves on a hill, looking upon a castle at the top, dark and looming.

There were some oddities and issues throughout the expedition inside. The first oddity was that Iron, while disconnected from the Resonance, was able to sense magic as if it were the matrix, albeit in a far more limited scope. Gear and weaponry could be brought inside and functioned as normal. As they spent more time inside, the background count outside grew stronger and stronger. And most worryingly for the away team, the denizens and guardians of the castle seemed to become more and more aware of the presence of the orb, and something was actively seeking and looking for the orb. Which meant it was harder for the rest of them to stay hidden. But, thankfully, by working together the team was able to get past most of the guards. Slowly they worked past obstacle after obstacle. Slowly but surely, they ascended higher and higher up the castle as the Key directed Huntress, until eventually ending up inside of a throne room. At that point, the Key finally awoke something - the body who sat at the throne. It rose, turned to the group, and immediately engaged in combat. Even with an allied spirit and 4 of them working together against the singular opponent, the battle itself was rather hard fought, in no small part because the orb was actively assisting it and attempting to distract and undermine Huntress. But as they worn down the Old King and whittled it to its last bit of strength, Exodus executed it with one last masterful stroke to behead it. And with its destruction, what was left behind was the Crown - The head of the Sevenfold Staff. The Key attempted to now control Huntress to force her compliance in giving back what it saw as its own, but with Alkali's assistance Huntress resisted. They sealed the staff head away, and without its power to sustain its growing might the Key began to dwindle and dwindle in might. As they made their departure it attempted in vain to control Huntress twice more, but it was deteriorating quickly, and with Alkali's assistance Huntress was fine. The castle guards, once alert and hostile, were now fading and complacent, and they managed to escape out back into the real world, Staff in hand.

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.