Recover the Egyptian amulet

Play report of the second session of Lana Vanne’s ascension to the occult campaign using Seekers Beyond The Shroud.

Read the first entry of the series here.

Tuesday, new moon - Day 2 at the Omphalos

Today is a very busy day at the Omphalos, there are people walking in a hectic pace and representatives from all the Orders that Lana knows of are talking in groups. Daily event: representatives Meeting

Lana is in a cafe talking to Cecil Lyons, the representative from the Causa Cientiae order that gave her yesterday’s mission. Keith Head, a friend of Cecil’s and also from the order, has joined and starts commenting what Lana should and what she shouldn’t have done in yesterday’s mission. He pisses Lana off, but she doesn’t comment anything. Random encounter: taking offence

Lana heads to the Order’s Hall, the representatives from the Mesu-Betesh are also in the hall, and since Lana has been told that they rarely appear at the Omphalos (something related to that they dislike being organised), she approaches a man with smokey eyes and asks whether the order has any mission available.

The man wants her to recover an ancient Egyptian amulet from an artefact shipment that has just arrived to the British Museum. Lana accepts the mission and she is given a keycard of an employee working in the restoration department that she must use to enter to the museum. Mission: recover Search target: 16

Generating the location

The mission takes place in a Museum (the British Museum), and has the following locations:

• A - Entry hall
• B - Lobby
• C - Administrative Office
• D - Exhibit hall x 10
• E - Hallway x 8
• F - Security office
• G - Archive

Coincidentally, I had previously rolled a Museum site with the same characteristics (it is where my previous character died), so I will re-purpose the map:

The British Museum, Egyptian area

The mission

Lana accesses the museum using the employee’s keycard and heads to the visitor’s entrance to begin her search.

Entry hall - Ground floor

There are no enemies on sight. She sees some ancient script that she is unable to understand. Linguistics check

She heads to the adjacent administrative office.

Administrative office #1 - Ground floor

A Guard on watch angrily shouts at Lana, she prepares for combat. Lana is faster and makes the first shot, dealing a considerable amount of damage, the guard is stunned for one round. She fails her next shot. The guard recovers his movement. Lana deals more damage, but she is also heavily injured, the guard asks for help using his walkie-talkie, but no one comes. Lana shots a couple more rounds, the guard shots back and finally dies.

She loots the corpse equipping the Light Kevlar armour, and safely stores the Beretta 92, a baton and a pair of gold earrings in her rucksack.

Suddenly a memory from a past life assaults her, she falls on her knees and stays paralysed for a couple of minutes, then she is able to keep her composure and stands up. WILL check

It is very thematic to have rolled this event in this exact location, this is where my previous character died!

She finds some notes about spiritual entities, but she fails to make any sense of them. Occult knowledge check

Lana tries to patch up her woulds using Bandages, but the wounds are too deep, she remembers that she has another option, and uses the Salamander’s Gift that she got yesterday to fully heal her injuries.

I totally forgot about the Salamander’s Gift.

Fully healed, she walks to the lobby.

Lobby - Ground floor

Another Guard is doing her round, she looks towards Lana angrily, and Lana shows her the keycard that she got from the Mesu-Betesh adept, “I work here” Lana says. “The museum is closed for civilian employees at this hour” the guard replies, then draws her weapon. Enemy NPC reaction: unfriendly Persuasion check

Lana scores a couple of critical hits and stuns the guard, she doesn’t call for help and dies after a couple of deadly exchanges. Lana takes her weapons, armour and finds a ring on her pocket.

The door to the Security office is closed, and Lana can’t open it. She takes a breath and uses some Bandages to heal her wounds from the last combat. First aid check

Hallway #1 - Ground floor

A very amicable Guard greets Lana and gives her an Alchemical Treaty, it seems that he has mistaken her for someone else. Enemy NPC reaction: friendly

YES!! YES!!

Hallway #5 - Floor -1

Lana goes down the stairs to the hallway that leads to the Archive, and she meets another Guard. He sees the Alchemical Treaty in her hands and since that hallway leads to the Archive, it seems plausible. This guard is also very friendly and gives Lana another Alchemical Treaty. Enemy NPC reaction: friendly

OMG. I swear to the DnD god that I got another 10 in the NPC reactions table and a 4 in the valuables.

Lana uses another Bandage to heal her wounds.

Archive - Floor -1

The archive is full of holds with parchments and old books. There are some objects that no one is going to miss in this mess, so Lana takes them, they could be possibly sold by 100ø at the Omphalos. Appraisal check

Back at Hallway #1 - Ground floor

Going back to the first floor, Lana stumbles upon another Guard, but he is not the friendly guard that she met before. Moreover as he tries to attack her, Lana manages to escape, but the attack lands. Skill: retreat

Administrative Office #2 - Ground floor

Lana opens the door to the administrative office that is to her left and another Guard greets her. This guard is also friendly and asks her to buy him something from the vending machines near the entrance and gives her 44ø. “Bring me a Coke, diet, please.” Enemy NPC reaction: friendly

Exhibit hall #5 - Ground floor

Lana enters to the first exhibit hall, there are lots of pots in different preservation statuses, she keeps walking between the stands when a barrier blocks her way and causes her some stomach ache and nausea. Lana collects herself and ignores the way she’s feeling. WILL check

Exhibit hall #4 - Ground floor

These exhibit stands are all about papyrus parchments, and looking at them there is a muscular lad very obviously smelling like pot, and with a lot of Egyptian religious paraphernalia. He turns to Lana and tells her that he is Horus’ messenger. Lana quickly replies that she is Isis’ incarnation, so she commands the messenger of his son to get lost. Impressed, the muscular lad gets out of her way. Enemy NPC reaction: unfriendly Persuasion check

Horus is Isis’ child, I learned this from a book that I bought at the British Museum¹.

Lana starts searching for the mysterious amulet at this point.

Exhibit hall #3 - Ground floor

This area is bigger enough to hold a couple of statues and obelisks. There is another Guard doing her rounds. She is also very friendly and gives Lana a Grimoire. Enemy NPC reaction: friendly

Today is my day

Between the statues there are piles of books, but Lana doesn’t see anything of value, the amulet doesn’t seem to be in this hall either. Perception check

Exhibit hall #2 - Ground floor

This exhibit hall has also a Guard which attacks Lana without thinking it twice. Lana manages to sneak in a sarcophagus and the guard loses her. Sneak check

This exposition has a lot of ancient books and papyrus, between them, on a counter Lana finds a Grimoire. Perception check

This is my very first successful perception check!

Moreover, in a nearby display cabinet, an amulet that matches the description of the objective is displayed; Lana takes it and heads back to the museum’s entrance.

She manages to get out without any further encounters!

Mission recap

Lana was extremely lucky today, and for some reason the Guards were very friendly.

• Two dead guards: +10 chaos points and -10 favour
• +140 favour with the Mesu-Betesh order
• 500ø
• Got Alchemical Treaty x2, Grimoire x2
• Random objects to sell for 100ø
• 44ø from the guard that wanted a Diet Coke
• One light kevlar armour to sell, two Berettas and two batons from the dead guards
• A pair a gold earrings and a ring, could I sell those somewhere?

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