Inquiries on the Sevenfold Staff
| Inquiries on the Sevenfold Staff | ||||||||||
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| Factions Involved | ||||||||||
| ShadowHaven | Draco Foundation | Atlantaen Foundation | ||||||||
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Samael Chance Alkali | Adowa "Moria" Webster | Alexandria | ||||||||
Summary
Background
As part of prior set of runs, the Shadowhaven became aware of the Draco Foundation's quest to find the Shards of the Sevenfold staff. Samael, Chance, and Alkali decide to do some digging and find out just what the Foundation is up to....
The Meet
- The team meets at Sam's place in order to discuss their "Reverse Cyrano" plan on Moira Webster
The Plan
- Reverse Cyrano Adowa "Moria" Webster as a weak link in Draco in order to get more information
The Run
- Samael calls Alias to acquire a new Fake SIN for the long con.
- Alkali calls Gamma Grey to acquire a fake aura to help mask Sam's "romance".
- Chance does a variety of matrix searches and finds the following info:
- Draco Foundation (focusing on artifacts):
The Draco Foundation is known to have custody of several powerful artifacts - some were left to them by Dunkelzhan’s Will, some produced by the DIMR as research proof of concepts, some given to them over the years by wealthy patrons or shadowrunners who felt they were worthy custodians for powerful magic, and some acquired during the Artifact Rush of the early 2070s in order to study them or keep them out of the hands of rival organizations such as the Illuminates of the New Dawn, the Order of the Temple, the Aleph Society and the Atlantean Foundation. Known items in the custody of the Foundation or their agents include:
- The First Key of Power
- The Sexton of Worlds
- The Dragonheart
The Foundation is also known to be actively seeking several artifacts, including:
- Excalibur
- Mel’thelem Loci
- The Shards of the Sevenfold Staff
- On Moira Webster:
Adowa Webster is a 36 year old registered magician employed by the Dunkelzhan Institute of Magical Research. Comes from a humble background, having won the DIMR’s Magical Innovation Competition at 18 and used the resulting scholarship to pay for her subsequent education. She is a graduate of MIT&T, holding a Th.D in Thaumaturgical Studies. Known use the alias “Moria” on the Matrix, popular in arcano-archaeology circles and RPG forums. Travels frequently, but seems to work out of the Seattle offices.
- On the “Sevenfold Staff”:
An artifact of unknown providence, split into seven pieces. Made of an unknown silvery material which does not tarnish or rust. Properties, origin and location of the pieces are subject to speculation with little in the way of concrete intel, to the point that active disinformation efforts to flood the arcano-archaeology scene with ‘noise’ can be inferred. Further information seems to be actively obfuscated or deleted from the Matrix.
- The Long Con:
- Matrix Net hits: Intel 4
- Scouting The Target: Intel 11
- Psyche Eval: Intel 16
- Acquires a book and knowsoft on Arcano-Archeology
The Con
- Meeting Moira:
- Sam sets up in the local Soybucks with book in hand and Alkali having masked his aura to not reveal the CHA prep or his extensive cyberware.
- Under the guise of "Giles Corey, MIT&T researcher", Sam chats her up and the two compare notes on theories of Excalibur, ending the conversation with an offer of him buying her dinner
- Back at Samael's apartment, Peck realizes that the team has been made by the presence of a mark on Sam's commlink and the presence of a matrix persona. Chance realizes this is likely an AI on behalf of Draco Counter-Intel and they've been made already.
- Alkali boosts Peck's deck with an Analyze Device and Peck goes to work, learning more about the persona hiding in a drone inside Sam's apartment.
- Peck realizes the AI is not Draco, but is likely an interested third party.
The three fold scouting for seven fold secrets
- Sam: Has a date.
- Once again astral doppleganger'd by Alkali, the date with Webster goes well and Sam gets a data tap on Moira's terminal for Peck to dig into her deck.
- Debrief notes from prior Staff runs, stolen data on the Atlantean Foundation, theories on where other shards are located, reference of a file on the Draco mainframe for staff research
- Confirms its part of a larger whole, metallurgical studies inconclusive. Research sent to Lake Louise, confirming the staff's current location.
- Prior Runners: Bodysnatcher, technomancer, Antimage, field recon / scouts, physically capable thaumaturge.
- The Team theorizes possibly Chameleon, Hunter, Ahriman
- Alkali: Metaplanar trip to the Legally Distinct Endless Library with Blossom
- The Dweller on the Threshold calls Alki out for being reluctant to trust his friends.
- Alkali travels the Astral Realms via silk covered Centipede trains
- Alkali recovers a diary of the civilization which created the Sevenfold Staff (oh no....)
- Has a vision of a noble Dragon warrior treading a dangerous road rife with corruption.
- Alkali believes the staff is some kind of binding spell or agent, something used to seal a thing away
- Staff was potentially from Atlantis or something called the Theran civilization (siiiiiiiigh)
- Peck: Running the old NeoNet Grid
- Peck gets in touch with some contacts and gets himself a Cyber 5 and tweaks it
- The team heads to Redmond to babysit Peck while he decks.
- Peck uses some old GOD codes to sneak onto the old NeoNet grid and get the data needed.
- Peck realizes it will be safer / better noise to do the hack from orbit, and so takes a few days to head up on a sub orbital.
- He is able to get into the various nodes of the abandoned NeoNet grid from a routing center on the moon. He is able to find a trace down to Seattle, an old NeoNet station
- He is able to get three marks on the host, and knows it is registered to "Mouseion Research Consortium", an unregistered CAS corporation.
- Notably, they have used Shadowhaven resources before and have Johnson credentials on the host under the name "Alexandria"
- Peck makes a point of introducing himself to talk with her. She is working on behalf of the Atlantean Foundation to try and find the staff as well.
- Peck works a deal with Alexandria to do some information sharing in exchange for help getting some deep space telemetry
- Locations for Shard Parts
- Northern Africa, East US coast, Asian Desert, Antarctic
Aftermath
- Sam and Alkali arrange a meeting with Webster and come clean, trading the information that the Atlantean Foundation has put an AI onto her as a bargaining chip.
- There is a discussion that they are interested in assisting the Draco Foundation going forwards since they need the staff for an Archeology project, that Sam believes is similar to the planar rift that was in Australia.
- As an apology, Sam agrees to have Moira over for dinner (Lobster, according to her) to make up for lying to her.
- Both Sam and Alki ended up with "History is Not as Certain" as a result of this run
Rewards
- 4000 nuyen (2 RVP)
- 6 karma (6 RVP)
- 22 CDP (10 RVP)
For Alkali and Samael:
- +2 Draco Foundation reputation
- Optional Contact: Adowa "Moria" Webster (C4/L2 DIMR Scientist) for 5 RVP or 10 CDP
- Optional Quality: History Is Not As Certain As We Thought + rank 1 in The Fourth World
For Chance Pecker:
- +2 Atlantean Foundation reputation
- Optional Contact: Alexandria (C8/L2 Artificial Intelligence) for 9 RVP or 18 CDP
- Qualifies as a Mundane Ascension
Narrative Consequences:
- The Draco Foundation becomes aware of the Atlantean Foundation's espionage, while the AF receives the DF's intel on the locations of the remaining fragments.
Game Quotes
Player After Action Reports (AARs)
Samael - There is a point, I think, in running, when one realizes they have reached waters that are deeper than themselves. Tonight I have realized that not only was I in the wrong pool, I am now treading water so deep that what I thought might have been the bottom is wholly, wholly, false. This goes far deeper than a run, than some company and another. And I do not know where the bottom lay.