Session 19

← Session 18 | Session 20 →

The party discovers the werewolf mafia, and Sam learns the extent of his mistake, among other things.

## Characters

* The Party
* Arlo Briar
* Emmett Malek
* Danila Kesler
* Nate
* 0-771534
* Fillan Bailey
* Jamie Nejem
* Tressa Gillespie
* Turret
* Naberius MacLaughagan
* Benjamin Richards

## Summary

#### **COAST Guard Asa**

##### **Wednesday, January 27th, 543:**

A few days after killing Freya and Stone, Asa shows up for his initiation meeting with Arlo. Arlo apologizes for Genevieve's absence, saying something came up for her. The initiation ceremony, inasmuch as there is one, is Arlo presenting Asa with a red bandanna, which Asa recognizes as worn by COAST operatives. Asa also has paperwork to do, putting him in the system, and he gets added to the email list. He has some time to look at the bulletin board, and notices that the block around Nyx's apartment is a red square. Inside the square is evidence of many previous postings at this location.

#### **Unexpected Connections**

Nyx is given a location to meet the Dusk Radio people at, as well as a time. When she arrives, she finds herself in a room with a microphone and a speaker, with the wire from the microphone trailing into the room across the hall. Nyx offers to get Dusk Radio in contact with the revolutionaries, and after a short conversation where she proves herself mostly trustworthy she is let into the room across the hall. Here she is introduced to Emmett and Danila, whom she recognizes as the people she met at the Gala. Emmett is vaguely recognizable, though Nyx doesn't immediately recall where she knows him from. Nyx is given Danny's phone number, and told that Emmett has a restricting schedule that will determine when they can meet with the revolutionaries. On her way home, Nyx looks through the Gala registry, and finds reference to a Danila Kesler who was at the Gala with an Emily Malek, daughter of one of Paragon Media's board of director members. She sends an email to Ollie, in an effort to get Emmett and Danila in contact with the revolutionaries.

Colby gets a call from Nate, who is at the bookstore. Nate tells Colby about the tabloids, which feature Colby, and asks after Colby's reported status as the messiah. Colby tries to brush it off, lying through his teeth about not having magic, which Nate accepts. Nate offers his apartment as a place for Colby to get away from things, and advises Colby drawing boundaries if he needs to.

#### **Noses in Other People's Business**

Sam, after seeing Nyx's reaction to the situation, decides to go searching for Zacharie in hopes of getting him un-ghouled. He doesn't really know where to look, but wanders around for a couple nights. Having not found anything, he convinces Nyx to give him a few locations where Zacharie used to hang out. Sam finds a few ghouls, and gets in some fights because of it, but none of them are Zacharie.

   Kuno is curious about the effects of the food shortage on King & Taikon's recent business. He checks the stock market, and finds there have been no obvious effects. No even more curious, Kuno visits Ollie to ask what he found in the K&T hack a few months ago. Ollie lets him in, saying they're keeping very chill on Lyric's behalf. After Kuno asks, Ollie says that he discovered K&T were committing fraud to hide the food shortage. He isn't sure exactly what is causing the shortage, but that something biological is going wrong with the harvests. This isn't the revolutionaries' main concern, however, since hopefully K&T have people working on the issue. Instead, they are trying to hold K&T responsible for lying to the public and leaving people to starve. Kuno also mentions the upyr blood drugs, and Ollie says they're aware of the side effects, with the drugs being used only as-needed.

Nyx hears back from Ollie, and says that he approves of getting the cause some publicity. However, Legacy is currently out, and they'll have to wait until he's back to make any real progress setting up a meeting.

#### **Getting up to Speed**

##### **Thursday, January 28th, 543:**

The party meets up at Nyx's apartment, this time in something that ends up a potluck. Since Kuno wasn't at the last gathering, Nyx makes Sam explain again that he has to kill a demon. Everyone catches up, with Asa mentioning COAST by name, and Kuno relaying what he learned about the food shortage. Colby, the party learns, is searchable on the Net, resulting in tabloid articles mentioning the Second Coming and the looming apocalypse. Eventually, the party decides that Sam and Asa should go check on the demon children before going after Devereaux, while Kuno looks into the math professor and the rest of the party (including Kuno) visits Fillan and co to see what they know about the drugs operation.

Asa and Sam leave to take the train to the warehouse district, while Colby calls Fillan. Fillan sounds busy, with a commotion in the background, but tells the party to go visit Jamie at the apartment.

#### **Your Dad's a Fun Guy**

The apartment Fillan directs them to is in a nice part of town, and very spacious. Jamie answers the door, and is surprised to see the trio, but after hearing Fillan sent them she lets them in. Nyx takes the lead, asking what they can do to help take down the drugs operation. There is a short aside where Kuno asks after Tressa, whom Jamie calls for. Tressa is doing well, and sticks around to hear what everyone has to say. It eventually comes out that the party, despite being close to the hit list, has no idea what they've gotten themselves into. Jamie is astonished, but she owes the party for rescuing Tressa.

With the party asking occasional questions, Jamie explains: she's the daughter of Cairo Nejem, leader of the Bratva, one of the largest organized crime syndicates in the City. Morena Adams is also part of this organization, and Kuno recognizes this name as one of the Adams sisters, an infamous mercenary group that also included Catalina Adams. Though it seems Cat has mostly retired from her high-profile life of crime, Morena was the one to conceive of the upyr blood drugs, which Jamie refers to as krov. Apparently, krov ended up in higher demand than anticipated, and Morena has been expanding her operation, including making a deal with someone at COAST. She is also trying to usurp Cario as leader of the Bratva, which means Jamie and Fillan are trying to work against her and her operation. The two sides are currently in something of a standoff, with each side unable to really hurt each other. Jamie says that the party providing blessed weaponry would help, which Colby says he can do. At Nyx's inquiry, Jamie explains that taking out Morena would bring the operation to a grinding halt, but Morena is a difficult person to find. The party thinks that asking Cat is a decent place to start, and Jamie also recommends the Bratva HQ.

Conversation is cut off by Fillan returning from his effort to take out one of Morena's processing facilities. He's been shot, and the party get summarily kicked out of the apartment so Tressa can work on patching Fillan up.

By this point, Kuno has managed to secure a new apartment and move in.

#### **Who Could Have Guessed that Inaction has Consequences**

Sam and Asa buy snack food to deliver to The Weblings, before embarking on the long commute. The two arrive in early evening, and wander for some time before they find a warehouse they recognize. Asa investigates, with Sam staying outside. Asa doesn't find any evidence of population, and is instead confronted with the lichenous growth spreading across the entire floor of the warehouse. The drifting particulate that had previously been confined to the sickroom fills the warehouse. Asa reports this back. Sam, in an effort to determine whether Turret's web is still there, tries to enter the warehouse--and is immediately caught in the spectral web.

When Sam is caught, Asa spots Turret in the warehouse, where he hadn't been before. Turret is fully in the twisted form the party has seen before, and doesn't respond when addressed. Asa distracts Turret long enough that Sam can pull free of the web, and a brief scuffle ensues. When it is obvious the two are outmatched, Sam and Asa bolt, with Sam taking substantial damage from the web on the way out. When the two notice that Turret chased them out of the building, they share a glance, and Sam turns to take out Turret. Sam is about to bring the knife down when his arm is grabbed, and Asa watches him vanish.

#### **No! Bad Sam! No Random Murders!**

Sam finds himself sitting at a desk across from an irate MacLaughagan, in an office he has never seen before but that is presumably the demon's. MacLaughagan demands to know what Sam thought he was doing, which Sam has no good answer to. Sam asks what happened with the demon children, and the demon emphasizes the fact that his hands are tied until Sam fulfills his caul. MacLaughagan gives Sam a thorough lecture on the fact that he shouldn't go around killing people in the street, and when Sam tries to protest says every time Sam does that he's playing directly into Hell's hands. The demon says he could have picked any other member of Saint Anthony's if he wanted someone who would give in to revenge, but was relying on Sam's morality and sense of duty to his parish to get things done. When Sam splutters about having no idea where to go from here, the demon tells him to ask the cult, disappointed that Sam didn't have the thought himself. MacLaughagan says he's going to put Sam right back where he found him, and then Sam will have a choice to make.

Sam reappears, standing over Turret--and throws his knife down, turning and sprinting. Asa and Sam manage to escape the warehouse district. On the train ride home, Asa asks what happened to Sam, and Sam responds with scorn for the general concept of demons before explaining. Asa offers that they could visit Hollis, or the hospital, but both ideas are abandoned in favor of going home and getting some rest. When Sam gets home, he finds Ben waiting up for him. Sam tries to apologize, and Ben just says they should both sleep.

##### **Friday, January 29th, 543:**

The full party meets up again, with each group explaining what they learned. They discuss plans to get Morena's location out of Cat for a while, eventually settling on bringing up the concept of Morena while buying ammunition for Colby to bless. Nyx suggests they wait a week or so before Sam visits the cult, and having had Sam slip plans by her before she makes him promise to wait and to at least let someone know. Colby agrees to accompany Sam, before it's pointed out that Sam was very suspicious the last time he visited Saint Anthony's. With this realized, the plan becomes Nyx infiltrating the cult.

## Quotes

**Ezra:** "Asa doesn’t want to be the victim of a hate crime today."

**Abby:** "Local disasters." | **Kai:** "Everyone is a local disaster." | **Kellen:** "Welcome to my disaster game full of disaster people."

**Ezra:** "Kuno’s a grandpa and wants to visit his grandkids."

**James:** "You’ve just gotta crack Colby like a glow stick until his Jesus sauce comes out." | **Kellen:** "Can we keep Colby’s Jesus sauce in his body *please?"*

**James:** "Isn’t Bratva a type of sausage?"

**Colby**(to Jamie)**:** "Your dad's cool."

**Parker:** "If Button’s dead I’m gonna throw hands."

**Abby:** "I am here to forget everything I’ve ever known."

← Session 18 | Session 20 →