December 2013

Each mage found themselves directed or led to s sanctuary in Chicago’s China Town, dedicated to teaching new mages. Each member of the group has been introduced to “Blue Bear” and accepted as members of the Chantry. Currently, he appears looking like Yogi Bear.

The party the first adventure they settled into the Chantry and the City. This introduced them to each other, including the dramatic entrance by Trent. Megan set up the Clinic and begun operations for the poor. Ed has found the books appalling and worked to get the money and other operations cleaned up. Trent provided an update to the old computer which works better than new. Tracy's and Trents have been dragged into support.

January 2014

Trent got an “in the event of my death/disappearance” package from “The Swede” another Adept with whom he has been in contact. He has already asked Trent to look up some information in the past. The Swede was tracking “Vasari” who appears to have been working for the Technocracy Syndicate. Vasari is manipulating financial markets very subtly. The Swede fell off the radar 2 weeks prior to the message arrival.

The Package appears to have been set up to come to her Mailboxes Etc. (or whatever he use) if The Swede did not send a weekly code. Inside: o Details of Vasari’s movements online. o Young Adepts who are manipulating markets or even ATMs that Vasari appears to be targeting. There is a list of lost Adepts in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, LA, San Diego and Seattle, and their support staff, 15 in all. Tom (Tracy's Character's Robot) has postulated that with 15 VA in the manipulation group, his thought is someone was/is a rat. The Swede was worried Vasari was going to strike someone again, and was going to try to intercede. He left the details of the strike. A post to his log makes it sound like he stopped a HIT Mark, but then there is nothing after that. An investigation on The Swede's apartment points to him going to save a VA in NYC. The VA he went to save in New York is also now missing. Trent went to The Fanum, the Werewolf Sept to visit Joy.

Ed worked to bribe the Fire inspector and get a clean bill of health with no hassles. He also noticed a talisman as part of an art display going into the Museum.

• It is an Ancient Egyptian Knife
• It was lost during the time of Napoleon.
• You recognize it from drawings your mentor had in his books in your study
• It is supposed to be able to cut through delusions, but reports showed that prolonged contact drove people to depression and suicide. Indeed, this is on display now because the last owner of the collection killed herself.

The team secured the knife with highlights of the adventure including breaking into a museum at night and find it was being held open for vampires to view art, with a hasty retreat after Trent tripped, and some vulgar magic on Ed's part. Tracy and Ed also met with ancient mummy, Sekhemkhet, who resides in the city who helped them keep the dagger safe.

Megan is very much appreciated in the Charity Community and isgetting fancy invites in the Sleeper Community.

• She has been asked to do an interview for the Sun-Times.
• She has been invited to the Chicagoland Chamber Dinner, to sit at the Open Hearts, Helping Hands (OH3 is the slang). The invite is by its director, Ginger Robbins. Feb 22, 14.
• She has been working to find other doctors to help meet the demand (a day here, a day there of donated time), added an extra staff nurse with the budget help of Ed.
• This has led to Wing Kong gang members being hired to put pressure because when does Clinic play local dealers with their snake oil. Pressure was put on the advanced practice nurse works in the clinic the team went to her home escort her home and in an attack killing three gang members in a car and moved her to a safer location.

Adrien notes that in the latest issue of Paradigma, there is information about monster sightings in Lake Michigan. At work, she also is asked to research an area of the city that she is told the clients want to condemn so a new pharmaceutical building can be put in.

The team travels to New York City via rail, in search of the lost VA. Megan boards at the last minute after saying she was not going. LAKESHORE LIMITED, VIEWLINER Chicago Union Station to NYC Penn Station 9:30pm to 6:23 PM the next Day

Trent uses minor mind magic to get any items needed onto the train. This does not include Tom, of course. Then he stays up the night socializing, arriving the next morning as if he did not miss any sleep. Edward spends the night writing, and emerges a little dazed but calm, as if he is seeing the world in a new light.

The two missing NYC VA’s are Ice Soup and Laughing Man. Both are part of the group The Swede had put together to track Vasari. Laughing Man was the VA he went to save before he disappeared. Ice Soup was the first to vanish.

• Ice Soup: Ice Soup is a young, new VA, who has lots of promise as a tracker. He awakened shortly before Trent. What you know about him is standard whiz-kid stuff, as he was a natural and already quite good with computers. He was staying in an apartment in bad section on The Bronx. His last known whereabouts was going to a meeting in Central Park for Chess with Laughing Man. He did not make it. Investigation of the Apartment led to a trapped apartment, with Edward stuck in the floor for a while, and a flight from Men in Black.

• Laughing Man: Laughing man was more experienced, having come into the VA in the early 2000’s. He is a behind the scenes sort of guy. He has a house in Queens. He holed up after the above Chess incident, and his last known whereabouts was his home, but if The Swede saved him, based on The Swede’s last log entry, they went in under city of NYC. There was a clear trail from the home left by the Swede to the undercity.

Before the team heads under the city, Edward belatedly informs the local Hermetic Chantry of his presence. Trent reveals the head VA in NYC is not a fan, and is not on his list of “go to” for help:

Tesserarachnid

Tesserarachnid aka TA4, uses an avatar of a spider with a 4th power sign. He is the oldest active VA still in NYC (i.e. has not retreated to a horizon realm like Crystal Palace and did not die on 9-11-01). He is charismatic and well respected by old and new VA alike.

The team opts to follow the path alone. Into the underground they go, following leave to be the Escape Route one of the virtual adepts. The group follows symbols left by the Swede. As they progress, they clearly see they had to pass through a Bone Gnawer Spet's territory underground. After a quick discussion between Trent and a Werewolf the get an escort to meet an obvious Son of Ether. Upon seeing them, the man says, “Welcome to Oz”.

Welcomed to Oz, the group is welcomed by Walter Wizard, head of The Truth of Many Paths (MULTI SEMITAS UNUM VERITATIS -MSUV). Walter congratulates them on getting this far but says he cannot let them go unless they pass a test and then are approved by the Qualis Device. The person they have been seeking has already passed through the chambers. They also meet another SOE, Jonathon Ross, who in his journeys was led into the tunnels beneath the city.

The group goes down into the tunnels and rapidly lose track of each other. Split into small groups, they experience strange happenings, and discussion with odd beings. No one really remembers totally the experience. The garden of Eden and great Pyramids of old loom large in memory, but the details are fuzzy. All return in some way enlightened, with their paradigm altered, and less limits to their craft of True Magik.

Trent opts to continue to chase him along with the help of MSUV. The rest of the group take their new friend, Jonathon, who drives to Chicago with Megan.

The Cabal returns to Chicago, the train group arriving before JR and Megan. JR is quickly settled, and Adrianetakes him to the Adventures Club. There he is taken in as a provisional member. (Basically, buy a node and become a member in good standing, or do something in game to pull that off).

The group investigates several headlines in their absence and immediate return. Edgar was able to trace the minor earthquake to a spot about 20 miles NW from the City, linked to an alignment with Jupiter. He was well able to understand the forces and could see the effect as a tremor of things to come.

After three weeks, Joy “Runs into Dawn” accompanies Chris “Dreamwalker” Vann to the Chantry to ask for help. Dreamwalker is not happy about coming to Mages for help but is following the orders of the venerable sept leader, Kelly “Weaver-Friend” Patterson. They outline that Michelle Carcassone has been kidnapped.

Michelle Carcassone is a precocious 11 year old girl from Evansville, Il. She is living with her maternal grandparents. Her parents were killed in a car accident when she was an infant and she never knew them. The Accident was in fact a hit, as her father was part of the Chicago mob. Michelle is part of a watched family (through her father) of Garou descendants and mob connections. Glass Walker intervention kept Michelle from also being murdered, as she has the markings of becoming a Garou herself.

Michelle was born under a waxing crescent moon with a particularly strong accent of the planet Jupiter. She is bright, clever and curious. She is also far angrier then the average nerd. She knowns her father was part of the mob but is unaware (as are her grandparents) of her relation to beasts of the night. The Garou had a jaggling watching over her, but that was destroyed when she was kidnapped. Michelle attends the John Middleton Middle School.

Michelle was kidnapped yesterday (Saturday), from her room. It looks like a runaway, but the Sept knows the jaggling watching her was killed. Her Grandparents, Sasha and Andre Wilderman are beside themselves. A kinfolk older woman, Alicia Mason, with gifts for calming and healing is tending to them at a safe house. Two other Kinfolk, Neil Hinzman, and Carey Ray currently occupy their home.

The team spends Sunday researching the kidnapping. In searching the house, they find the evidence the jaggling was killed in the day and she was taken at night. Camera footage from the school processed by Adriane and JR shows a strange man following Michelle. Leaving the home, Megan avoids a gangta tail. The Cabal is able to identify the local gang, the Gangster Disciples as local heavies in the area. Neil and Carey are able to get them the overall update on them (wit their links to more classic organized crime The Chicago Outfit). The team finds out they are meeting at a local car repair shop and after drone surveillance by JR, they enter with a plan for Megan to sing them to sleep. Things do not go as planned.

Joy is able to easily pick the lock and they enter. Megan starts singing and weaving her spell. She is unable woo the 7 people to sleep however, and they charge towards the room. Thinking quickly, Adriane, thinking quickly, pushes a desk in front of the doorway. Two of the toughs make it over the desk, but the rest pile up behind the third. The battle begins with Edgar firing, but winging the man in front. Vaughn hits the winged man with the pommel of his knife. JR lassoes and binds the other, but the unbound man fires his heavy revolver, with silver bullets, directly into the just transformed Joy, who screams in pain and rage as the silver enters into her body. Startled by the events, Megan badly stumbles in her song, and the spell is broken, and paradox poured into her body. Unable to react and reeling, Megan can only watch helplessly as Edgar blows a hole through the armed man. Vaughn shrugs and starts towards the men across the desk, but Joy, with a howl, leaps across the desk and strikes at three of the thugs and quickly incapacitates two, leaving the others cowering in terror. Vaughn talks to Joy and takes her away to sooth her. Megan rushes to stabilize they badly injured men, laying on hands and praying, as she is too stunned to speak. She wants to take them too the clinic but Edgar tells her no.

JR and Vaughn talk to the awake thugs and gather that they were hired by the odd looking man through their boss “King Kobra” who sounds like a hedge mage. They do not know where the girl was taken, but that they had jacked a car to use. JR is able to quickly determine from the newspapers that the car was found abandoned around 20 miles from the city in a suburb. Edgar pulls one of their phones and dials 911 and leaves the line open. The cabal leaves, but Megan wants to stay in the park to watch the ambulance arrive. Edgar and Adriane lead, with some force, the stunned Megan back to their car, telling her she need to concentrate on helping Joy when they get back to the clinic.

-End Part 1

The group staggered back the protection of the Chantry in the clinic. Megan worked through the night to restore Joy to good health. As the Sun a rose JR brought in armor he had been working on for the team. Everyone was exhausted and knowing that a long day and night was ahead of them, Megan administered life Magic to revise sagging energy.

Adrian researched located by Edgar uncovered a house for sale in the area that was not turning over as it should have. She set up an appointment with a real estate agent for the afternoon to investigate. Edgar and Vaughn surveyed the local park and could detect the node nearby but Underground under the neighborhood. Adrian, Megan and Vaughn felt the assault of mind-magic trying to drive them out when the toured the home. They left not seeing the basement, which the agent refused to show them saying she had an appointment. Megan felt a great evil in one of the rooms.

Telling the werewolves what they knew, the werewolves took charge. They would assault through the Umbra, while the Mages would come in the real world with 6 the organized crime family kinfolk. Joy would be with the mages.

At sunset, the attack began. The team went to the back, and after dispelling wards, immediately went towards the basement. They triggered a ward on the stairs, and they turned them to Silver. Joy was happy to be in Human form.

Entering the basement saw four evil Mages. A pitched battle ensued where the party had the drop on the evil cult. Between an angry werewolf, and a fast exchange of gunfire, our Heroes had the better of the group.

The Kinfolk, knowing better than to deal with reality warping, went searching the house for the Lost Girl. One of the Nephandi used his fetish to summon a murder of crows against JR. The last of dark wizards to move spread out a blurry image and transported all four cultists away.

The Kinfolk whisked the girl away from the house as soon as they had her. Her family would now be even better guarded. Alone in the basement, the heroes took stock. The Lost Girl was tied up downstairs in the bathtub. The group spent the night purging the house of evil influences just scoring the foul ritual Circle in the floor of the basement.

Two of the Nephandi were Barabari, 1 order of Hermes, and one Celestial chorus their leader. Edgar and Megan's reported this up their chains command. The nodes which was used by the evil mages was moving towards the city. Edgar started to track it to see where it might go.

XP: *4 base *Eric, +1 for helping with system *Tracy +1 for Servo on stairs idea