Detective Denouncement
| Detective Denouncement | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Factions Involved | |||||||||
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ShadowHaven Draco Foundation Hestaby Informer | The Pantheon | ||||||||
| Delphi |
Poseidon Toxic Cultists Toxic Spirits | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Poseidon, Toxic Spirits x3 | |||||||||
| This was an initiation run; Delphi's Latent Dracomorphosis also activated. | |||||||||
Summary
In which Delphi has a harrowing job interview with the Draco Foundation, and undergoes a personal transformation.
The Invitation
With her detective's office finally finished being fumigated, Delphi is setting things back up alongside Informer, who she has invited to cooperate on a partnership. While the two are settling in there is a knock at the door, and upon opening it they find a package but no sign of whoever delivered it. After checking to make sure it isn't a bomb, Delphi opens it up and finds that it contains a vial of what she quickly determines to be mercury; performing psychometry on it, she sees an impression of it being prepared and packaged for transport by a gloved individual, but no other identifying information is present and the item seems to have been cleansed of any other impressions it has picked up.
Perplexed by this, she looks to her mentor spirit Oracle, who simply tilts his head quizzically in reply. Struck by a sudden thought, she mutters "it can't be that simple..." before dialing Ryan Mercury. Somewhat sheepishly, she asks the famous shadowrunner if he sent the vial as a sort of calling card, and he cheerfully confirms this is the case before inviting her to a meeting at the Draco Foundation headquarters the next day; she nervously accepts the proposition.
The Interview
The next morning, Delphi arrives Downtown at the Foundation HQ dressed in her best suit, and is met by Quicksilver in the lobby. He explains that they wish to offer her a job (as in, an actual non-shadowrunner job), and while she is flattered the seer remains somewhat curious about what they might see in her as a potential candidate. The drake remains tight-lipped on the subject, saying simply that they've been impressed with her and wish to take measure of her capabilities - to that end, after a short sit-down meeting, they have planned a series of trials to test her skills:
Divination
For the first test, the seer is taken to a neutral room with a panel of one-way glass and a table with a series of divination tools placed on it; she is asked to use the provided sympathetic link in order to divine the current status of its owner, using whatever methods she wishes to employ. After examining the provided paraphernalia, she determines that each has been subtly tampered with to provide skewed outcomes, and thus chooses to beseech Oracle through the use of her individualized power focus for a direct vision.
Using the provided link, she inquires about the owner's immediate future and witnesses a rather harrowing scene of a drake being brutally beaten by an unknown figure with a necklace made of multi-coloured scales. The figure asks for information, and the victim simply tells him to ask Quicksilver; later, when Delphi asks for clarification, she is told that the person with the necklace is a drake hunter they've been tracking and that the context clues from the simsense recording she provided should help with locating them.
Astral Combat
The second test is much more straightforward - Delphi is brought into a room containing a box that she is told holds a pair of moderately-powerful shadow spirits and told to fight them until they are disrupted. While he will jump in to save her if she is about to be killed, Mercury otherwise does not interfere with the proceedings. The seer uses her weapon focus sword cane and fights defensively, managing to avoid being hit in the ensuing rocket tag, and is able to successfully disrupt both a wraith and a shade while resisting their compulsive effects; while a bit exhausted, she beams with pride when praised for her skillful performance.
Psychometry
The last of the tests requires the seer to use her psychometry to pick up impressions on an item - specifically a piece of cloth baring a sunburst symbol on it which she is able to recognize as that of the Cult of Apollo which occupies the temple of Delphi in Greece - that is more than two decades old; while time has caused them to fade, the vivid emotions (including violent deaths) have imprinted deeply into the fabric. Suspecting she may know who the originator of the impressions was, Delphi's suspicions are confirmed when she witnesses (from a first-person perspective) the brutal massacre of nearly the entire cult by a squad of Shiawase operatives.
Taking a moment to collect herself, she realizes she's seen her nemesis Pythia's origin story, suddenly feeling a good deal more compassion and empathy for the woman; she leaves another simsense recording of the impression for the Foundation, and privately asks Quicksilver why they are looking into Pythia when her own organization - The Pantheon - was decimated nearly two years before by Aztechnology. He tells her that they have been tracking the members (a group of high-powered Awakened individuals with an anti-establishment bent can either be useful assets or troublesome opposition) and wished to have more insight into their origins.
The Field Test
Once the practical assessments are complete, the Foundation tells Delphi they have a field test in mind for her in Chicago. While the Astral Space Preservation Society is currently being run by Wuxing, they still have a few contacts within the organization, and wish for her to work with them in order to find and cleanse the source of a toxic power site in the city. She accepts the task, inviting Informer - who was "born" there shortly before the Bug City crisis - to come along as a guide. Told to head to the airport for a flight the next day, she returns to her office to rest.
The Dragon's Offer
However, returning to her office Delphi finds someone waiting for her - sitting in her chair is none other than Hestaby (in her metahuman form, naturally), who she has encountered before. Doing her best not to show her extreme anxiety at addressing the great dragon, Delphi greets her cordially and asks to what she owes the pleasure. Hestaby prevaricates a bit before explaining that she is aware that the Draco Foundation has offered her a position, and says that she would like to offer her additional compensation in exchange for passing along any interesting information she comes across in the course of her work with them.
Realizing she's being asked to spy, Delphi openly states her hesitation at the implied "offer she can't refuse" due to the power dynamics at play, but the dragon insists that she is free to say no (though she doesn't elaborate on what might happen to the seer afterwords). Delphi plays cautiously, telling her that it's a generous offer, but that she needs to carefully consider it, and the dragon offers her 48 hours to do so.
The Investigation
The next day, Delphi takes a private flight from SeaTac to Chicago and meets with Informer there. After settling up at the hotel, the two head to Elemental Hall to speak with the ASPS about the astral situation in the city. After making nice with Wong Fang, the Wuxing rep (and defacing an AR corporate advertisement that blocks one of the museum exhibits informational plaque), she is shown a map of the cities ley lines and taken to a securely-warded room with valkyree module-equipped pods suitable for prolonged astral projection. Not wanting to leave her body in Wuxing's care for too long, she opts for a shorter out-of-body excursion to get the lay of the land and figure out where the source of the contamination lies.
While projecting around the city with Informer acting as an astral guide, Delphi spots a suspicious-looking spirit acting unusually surreptitiously as it makes its way towards the old aquarium in the bad (read: nuked) part of the former containment zone. Informer speculates that it could be a disguised bug, so the two of them mask their auras and follow as stealthfully as they are able. Fluxing past the ward around the building, Delphi finds that it actually serves as a headquarters for one of the Pantheon's offshoot groups headed up by Possideon. Feeling unusually confident, the seer decides to openly confront the Aquaman poser, who recalls her from her meddling in his group's efforts; he attempts a show of magniminity by "sparing" her for her transgressions, but her semi-incorporial state makes her bold enough to laugh openly at just how far he and his followers have fallen from grace. She demands to know if Pythia is behind his group, but he just laughs in turn and tells her that he has no more need of seers, and that he is doing what she never could.
Taking her leave of the olympian, Delphi takes note of a strangely familiar green haze hanging outside the building. Following it to its source, she arrives at the lakeside cliffs outside the city to find the trail leads to a cave there; thinking it might be the source of the issue she has been sent to investigate, she enters only to find Pythia herself deep in an oracular trance. At first she takes the seer to be the source of the issues, but an examination of her aura shows that it does not appear to bare the taint of toxic influence. Still, her mentor spirit remains deeply distrustful of of the woman who once stole his eye.
Cautiously approching, Delphi wakes Pythia from her trance and attempts to speak to her cordially, having not seen the other woman in nearly over a year since she rescued her from Aztechnology's clutches. Pythia remains as haughty as ever, and denies accusations of trying to put her old band back together or drawing upon toxic ley lines for power; instead, she claims she is looking for the source of the corruption as well, and not only that but she has plans to cleanse it. Pressing her on the matter, Delphi discovers that Phythia has evidently found someone to act as her Persephone - as the last one was a brainwashed woman.
The reunion is interupted by the sound of an explosion coming from the direction of Downtown; Delphi zips away to investigate and finds that a chemical tanker seems to have exploded, with the source of the issue seeming to be a barely-readable astral signature corrisponding to the accident power employed by some spirits. Tracing it back to its source, Delphi and Informer manage to locate a toxic spirit fleeing the scene, and proceed to beat it up a bit before allowing it to "escape" back to where it was running to - the aquarium. Grinding her teeth, Delphi flies back to Pythia and demands an explination, suspecting that her earlier claims of innocence were false. Pythia however remains adament about her lack of involvement, claiming that Possideon and his group have taken to the usual methods of stochiastic terrorism employed by toxic cults and that she has had nothing to do with them since they split from her own organization. Delphi is suspisious of this claim, but acquesses when Pythia offers to introduce her to the new Persephone and asuage her concerns; when asked about the root cause of the toxic taint, Pythia says there is a nearby former dump site where the toxic energy has coalesced and now leaks out into the surrounding ley line.
The Cleansing
Returning to her body, Delphi leaves Elemental Hall with Informer and heads to the designated meeting location later that evening, which proves to be a fancy appartment (that, to her dismay, is nicer than the one that Delphi recently moved into). There she is greeted by Apollo, Phythia's husband (who had her rescue the woman from Aztechnology, and who crafted her weapon focus) and lead upstairs ("this place has an upstairs...") to meet with Persephone - who proves to be another young, sweet and somewhat impressionable dryad woman. While Delphi remains suspisious of Pythia's motives and methods, she is releaved to discover that there is no evidence of magical brainwashing at play and that Persephone is evidently experienced and well-practiced at the art of cleansing. However it comes about that the method Persephone means to use is highly dangerous to the practitioner, so the seer resolves to do what she can in order to lessen the risk involved (to others, at least); as the ritual is to take place the next day, she puts her sleep regulator to work and sets to the task.
First, she contacts Hanako Shinoda and bargains for any information that the woman can provide about the cleansing tecniques to be employed, as well as a list of names of people who can assist with the task on short notice. Then she contacts the Draco Foundation and arranges for the dispensation of appropriate funds to pay these contractors (citing the terms of Dunklezhan's Will, which promises rewards for the cleansing of toxic sites). Finally she takes it upon herself to address the source of the contamination before the commencement of the ritual, hoping that it will make it easier (and less hazardous) to cleanse afterwards.
Venturing to the caves indicated by Pythia with Informer as astral backup, Delphi sets her aura into flux and wraps herself in a radiation-shielded cloak to protect herself as best as possible. Inside, her Geiger counter ticks up and up as the two get closer to the source of the corruption, where a pair of toxic spirits are almost rapturiously bathing in the glow of a sickly, crystal of astral energies. Engaging them in combat, the pair work together as the spirit pops one opponent and the seer the other - in order to work around the ley line's background count, Delphi makes use of the cleansing tecniques she read about earlier and manages to keep the worst of the toxic taint away from her aura while quickly dispatching the place's guardians. As the toxic mana is inherently unstable, it takes little more than a poke to unravel the astral construct that is the crystal of mana and harmlessly disperse it into the aether.
With the background count already starting to drop, Delphi makes her way away from the toxic dump site and to an ASPS decontamination facility to have herself and her gear scrubbed of contaminates; the process takes most of the night, discharging her back onto the mean streets of Chicago in the early hours of the morning. With the scheduled ritual time in a few hours, she contemplates getting a bit of rest, but the nagging worry of the threat Possideon and his cultists present keeps her from getting any sleep; seeing only one way to deal with the problem, she goes to the aquarium to confront them directly.
The Drakening
Arriving in person with Informer watching her back on the astral, Delphi puts on her best confident face and heads into the aquarium - she is recgonized from her earlier astral intrusion, and the posted guards let her pass without a fuss. She privately worries about how she's going to make an exit if this all goes according to her so-called plan, but decides to worry about that after the confrentation. Playing on Possideon's previously-observed arrogant hubris, she boldly strolls into his hideout and challanges him to single combat: if she wins, he and his people pack up and leave without causing any trouble, while if he wins she won't be an issue anymore one way or the other. Asking if he is a man of his word, she makes him swear on behalf of his followers to uphold the terms - as he is confident he will win in a physical altercation, he agrees to them.
Producing her sword cane and strapping her briefcase shild to her arm, Delphi squares up and prepares to go toe-to-toe with the trident-wielding mystic adept. She immediately realizes this was a terrible mistake as she proceeds to narrowly avoid being skewered like a fish several times while barly managing to make an impact with her own strikes. Put on her back foot by the relenetless assult, she starts to panic a bit and worries that perhaps she may have bitten off more than she can chew this time...
...when suddenly, out of nowhere, a gout of flame erupts from her mouth and armored scales grow over her flesh to protect her. Her trenchcoat is shreaded by the expanding wings that sprout from her back, and her clawed hand can barely grasp the grip of the sword, but the shock of it all takes both her and her opponent by surprise. Unfortunately for Possideon this prevents him from getting out of the way of the aformentioned gout of flame, which he instead takes head-on; the new drake's breath weapon proves to be too much for the mysad, who falls to the ground in defeat.
Shocked and emotionally overwhelmed, Delphi just lets out a confused "what the fuck?" before quickly realizing what has happened. Siezing the moment to scare the olympian's followers into submission, she picks up the fallen trident, holds it over her head, and lets out her best roar at the cultists, who proceed to panic and scatter in all directions. Once they're gone Delphi proceeds to freak out just a little bit, while Informer locates an old van for her to climb into, pass out, and make a quick exit.
The Ritual
Awakening a few hours later (thanks sleep regulator), Delphi attempts to process what just happened while rushing to aid with the cleansing ceremony. With the assistance of herself and several others, both ASPS personal and freelancers, Persephone is able to successfully purge the toxic taint from the ley line - thankfully there is no untimely interruption from the toxic cultists, and the ceremony goes off without a hitch. Afterwords, Pythia gives Delphi some parting words implying she has seen something new in her aura...
Aftermath
Returning to Seattle, Delphi gives her report to the Draco Foundation; in a meeting with Quicksilver, she privately tells him what happened at the aquarium and asks for his advice on the matter. He provides her with some encouraging words, as well as a pamphlet containing a few tips for new drakes, and invites her to train her new abilities with some of his people. She discloses that she was contacted by Hestaby and asked to provide information to her on what she's asked to do by the Foundation, and asks what she should do about the situation, saying she will turn it down if they wish and accept the consequences; he advises her to give her what she wants, saying the Foundation will "handle it". Returning to her office, she finds the Hestaby waiting for her and, making sure to keep her thoughts clear enough not to set off detection spells, agrees to her proposal; once she leaves, the seer feels the weight of things hit her and comprehends what "making a deal with a dragon" means.
Rewards
(3x Reward modifier for time)
30k Nuyen (15 RVP) 20 karma (20 RVP) May purchase Closer at Chargen Prices May purchase Adrenaline Surge at Chargen Prices May take a National SIN (UCAS) if desired and if so, buy Trust Fund III at Chargen price 32 CDP (15 RVP) May Purchase GMC Universe w/ Mods up to avail 24 at Gear Reward Prices Draco Foundation Faction Join (18 RVP) +10 Draco Foundation Rep Can buy Armor modifications at gear reward rates +1 Street Cred IG9 Ordeal Rate
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Holy shit... I don't even know what to say right now. This is a lot to take in - now I know how Mara felt when it happened to her. I'm not even sure I can trust the Foundation to have my best interests in mind with this whole Hestaby situation either, but they at least seem to be more on the level than anyone else I've allied myself with. At least they can provide a bit of guidance on this whole scales thing. I have to wonder if they knew ahead of time... I admit I have some hope regarding the rumors of their patron's last clutch, given that the timelines seem to match up, and the scale colours too. Or maybe I'm one of hers... that would not be fantastic given her current position in draconic society as an exile. I can't really expect either to be very forthcoming with information on the matter, but I won't let myself be treated like a pawn in their games.