Release the stockbroker
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Play report of the 25th through 28th days of Lana Vanne’s ascension to the occult campaign using Seekers Beyond The Shroud.
You may want to read the first, second, third, fourth, 5th & 6th, 7th to 14th, 15th to 17th 18th to 23rd, and 24th parts of the campaign.
Thursday, full moon - Day 25 at the Omphalos
The shop’s of the Omphalos are on sale again and Lana buys her usual stuff:
bandages and frankincenses; as she is exiting the pharmacy she perceives a
suspicious person trying to blend in, they aren’t doing it well enough,
everybody else is on high spirits due to the sale and is carrying a lot of
goods, whereas they have a gloomy face and they’re empty handed. Lana decides
to alert the guards and they take the suspicious person for questioning.
Event: lower prices! Encounter: suspicious figure
+50 favour with all orders
Antagonist: True Sons of Yaldabaoth
Lana’s antagonist list has added a new member, we are now hated by: the Covenant of the Glorious Dawn, the Cult of the Dying Sun, and this new cult.
Lana decides to try to raise her ritual knowledge skills and tries to
consecrate a chalice, she rents a ritual chamber, lights a frankincense
aaaaaaand… fails. Magic Liturgy check fail
Skill roll-up fail
Buuuuu I rolled a 4 for the roll-up when I needed to roll higher than 13.
Lana tries to calm herself meditating before wrapping up her day.
Meditation OK Recover 3 sanity
Friday, full moon - Day 26 at the Omphalos
There are fewer people than yesterday walking around, Lana wonders if another
order conflict has arisen, but it is just high prices.
Event: high prices
She sees another suspicious person walking around, this time they are carrying
a lot of bags ‘They’re so stupid’ Lana thinks. She reports again to the
guards. Encounter: suspicious figure +50 favour with all orders
Antagonist: True Sons of Yaldabaoth
We were already hated by those. Haters gonna hate.
Lana continues with her ritual training schedule, rents a ritual chamber, tries
a consecration ritual aaaaaaand… fails. Magic Liturgy fail
Saturday, third quarter - Day 27 at the Omphalos
As she enters the Omphalos she can feel everybody’s attention focused on her,
Cecil tells her that they are bad mouthing her since she took the glory of
someone else’s assassination in the last
mission,
‘Well, that rumour is actually true, isn’t it?’ Lana replies. CHA test
fail -50 favour with all orders Encounter: rumours
This isn’t that bad since we have already earned +100 favour with the spies that we uncovered the past two days.
She heads to the ritual chamber, she is feeling powerful today. Event:
tapping a ley line
Tries to consecrate a chalice aaaaand… fails. Magic Liturgy fail
Sunday, third quarter - Day 28 at the Omphalos
The Omphalos is fully packed today, they’re celebrating the day of the goddess,
Omphale. Event: Omphale festival
Missions grant double favour
As she is walking towards the hall of the orders she is greeting friends
and getting small bites of free food, then she collides with a man, they both
apologise, and Lana continues her way, later she realises that she has been
pick-pocketed. Encounter: pickpocket -3ø
There are representatives from the Causa Scientiae and The Siddha today. She doesn’t know the representative from the Causa Scientiae, Cecil and Keith must be on vacation, so she goes to the Siddha, there Paek Ja-Ok greets her.
She has a sensitive mission for her, they need her to rescue
Katriin Mets, an Estonian stockbroker (aka money launderer, Lana thinks)
that is usually employed by all the orders of the Omphalos to handle their
finances with ‘normal’ money, which they still need, but the Siddha want her
exclusivity since she is good. Very good. Katriin is being held in an abandoned
laundry building (Lana tries very hard to avoid laughing), the Siddha want her
to rescue Katriin and to convince her to join the order. Mission: rescue
Search 16
I used a random nationality, name and job generator. Then I used my Tome of Adventure Design to get a random town building.
This mission will only give us half favour if we cannot convince Katriin to join the Siddha, but since we have the Omphale festival event aka double favour, we are guaranteed the normal amount of favour if we manage to finish the mission, so not bad at all!
Generating the location: Abandoned laundry building
- A - Main entrance
- B - Hallway x 14
- C - Warehouse
- D - Office/room x7
- E - Recreation room
- F - Parking loot
Abandoned laundry building
At the abandoned laundry building
Main Entrance - Ground floor
As Lana enters the old laundry, she hits herself with an old crate that was
laying around, ‘It won’t come anything good out of this’ Lana thinks. -50%
healing Event: infected wounds
Parking lot - Ground floor
She goes first to the parking lot, but the door is locked; she tries to open it
with her lockpicking toolkit but she is unable. Lockpicking check fail
Event: locked door
Hallway 1 - Ground floor
She enters the first hallway, it is silent.
Hallway 2 - Ground floor
As she turns in the corner to take the second hallway, she sees a Street
Tough walking towards her. The tough seems to be carrying stolen goods and
fears that Lana would take them from her. NPC reaction hostile
Lana prepares for combat, she takes a couple of hits but she is able to
neutralise the woman. -30HP Lana takes a knife and a glock from the corpse,
she searches the body, she has a bag with human hair and as she realises what
is it, she throws it to the ground.
ugh.. why????
She tries to patch her wounds a little, but fails. First aid check fail
Office 3 - Ground floor
She enters in the first office, a Hunter is sharpening his knife, he smiles
and prepares for combat. NPC reaction hostile
The hunter is quicker and injures her in the first round, she pre-emptively
flees from him. -16HP
As she is exiting the room an old journal catches her eye, it looks like the
tales of someone but there is some hidden knowledge that Lana is able to
understand. INT (-2) test OK +5 Occult knowledge +5 Sanity
Discovery: old journal
She rests for a bit to tend her wounds. First aid check OK!!! +6HP
(half)
Hell yeah!
Hallway 2 / Hallway 4 - Ground floor
These hallways are empty and silent. Lana takes some more time to patch her
wounds but she is unable. First aid check fail
Hallway 5 - Ground floor
This hallway is also empty, Lana starts searching for Katriin at this point.
She rests for a couple of minutes and applies more bandages to her
wounds. First aid check OK! +10HP (half)
Hallway 3 - Ground floor
As Lana enters another hallway a Daeva comes out from hiding in the
shadows. She tries to sneak without being seen, but the Daeva catches her. She
fails her parry but in the next turn flees. Sneaking check fail Sneaking
roll-up fail.
She catches her breath and applies more bandages to her wounds, the bandages do
nothing. First aid fail
The woman is not in this hallway.
Office 2 - Ground floor
There is a man wearing gym clothes in this room slowly but steadily
flexing his biceps, he is hostile. NPC flavour: always wins initiative +5
defence Equipment: brass knuckles, glock, energy drink
Lana is pissed off by the man’s attitude, so she decides that she will fight him. She parries the gym guy’s attacks, manages to score critical hits which cause bleeding and paralysis to the man, he also is able to hurt Lana, but at the end she prevails.
She loots the brass knuckles, the glock and the energy drink, then she searches the body, the man had something valuable on him, an alchemical treatise!
The brass knuckles are veeery cool, d10+25 damage, Lana is going to use them right away, and of course, the alchemical treatise is good as well!
Event: who are you?
She looks around the office, it is very dark, they, whoever they are have
performed a very dark ritual here, Lana can feel it in her bones and gets very
scared. WIL test fail -7 sanity maximum
Discovery: fear manifest
She composes herself, the woman that she is looking for is not here;
then tries to patch her wounds, but there is no point.
First aid check fail
Hallway 3 - Ground floor
Nothing in this hallway as she exits the previous office.
Office 1 - Ground floor
There is a tall woman, an Oshira Agent, searching for something among all
the boxes scattered through this office, there is a lot of dust in the
environment, she must have been here for quite a while. She looks at Lana, then
says ‘I’ve found this, and I have already a lot of these, so you might find it
useful.’ she handles a Warding chalk to Lana. She thanks the tall woman for
her consideration. NPC friendly
Great! This is my second warding chalk!
There is another person in the room, Lana hadn’t realised until now due to the
thick dust floating around. NPC friendly NPC flavour: failed politician
I don’t roll everything on the NPC tables.
She is a woman with a confident pose, Lana thinks that surprisingly she knows
her from somewhere, but she is unable to place her. ‘Yes, I ran in the London
mayoral election 15 years ago’ the woman says. ‘So that was it!’ Lana
thinks. ‘Take this’ the former almost-politician says ‘and forget that
you’ve seen us here’, she hands 41ø to Lana. ‘Not enough for a bribe’ Lana
thinks, ‘Maybe this is why she couldn’t became mayor all those years
ago’. Event: who are you?
As she is walking around the room, she realises that there are some marks on
the floor. She moves a shelf and finds a hidden safe, but she is unable to open
it; then, suddenly a trap is triggered and a poison cloud is propelled to her
face, fortunately she is able to dodge it. Percetion check OK
Lockpicking check fail DEX test OK
Discovery: hidden stash
The two other women in the room are looking at her and then at the safe, very seriously, ‘All yours ladies’ Lana tells them, and quickly leaves the room.
Katriin is not at this room.
She tries to patch her wounds on her way out, but she is unable. First aid
check fail
Hallway 3 / Hallway 5 - Ground floor
These hallways are empty, Lana heads to the recreation room.
Recreation room - Ground floor
A Golem has been stuffed into this small recreation room, it attacks Lana on first sight and she focuses on evading the attacks and trying to escape, she manages to get away.
I’ve been encountering a lot of Golems in the latest missions, I clearly prefer them over Chimeras.
There is a pile of books in a corner near the entrance, Lana takes a closer
look and finds a Grimoire among classic literature books.
Perception check OK Discovery: pile of old books
She tries again to patch her wounds… First aid check fail
Katriin is not here either.
Hallway 5 - Ground floor
Nothing here.
Hallway 6 - Ground floor
There are clothes and camping supplies thrown all over in this hallway, Lana is
confused, clothes make sense in a laundry, but the camping supplies are surely
something unusual. She bumps into something, she wasn’t looking at where she
was going and gets injured. -5HP
INT test OK Perception check fail
She takes some time to apply bandages on her new wounds. First aid check
OK!! +7HP (half)
*lots of conffeti flying around*
Katriin is not here either.
Hallway 7 - First floor
Lana takes the stairs to the second floor.
Warning! Trigger: slight torture theme. Skip to next paragraph.
There is a man with crazy eyes, all that can be seen from his masked face, holding a bucket full of water, he is pouring it into the head of a woman. He is asking questions that the woman cannot answer or won’t. Lana fears for the woman’s life and jumps into combat.
Safe after this point.
Lana fights the man, a Hunter, to rescue the woman. The fight is long, but
Lana is holding on well and parries most of the attacks, the brass knuckles
that she got from the gym manager in the ground floor pack a strong punch and
the hunter curses at every punch that Lana lands. After a long fight the hunter
falls to the ground, dead. Event: interrogation
I thought that it would be thematic to check if this woman was Katriin (the target) so I decided to check the search goal now rather than at the end of the discoveries phase.
Lana releases the woman, she starts coughing, Lana asks her ‘You’re okay now,
what is your name?’, ‘Ka.. Katriin Mets’ she says with effort. ‘I’ve come
to get you away from this place, hold on to me’. Search OK
Yeah! super thematic
Lana patches her wounds. First aid check OK +11HP (half)
Karma likes Lana.
Hallway 6 / Hallway 5 / Hallway 3 / Hallway 1 / Main Entrance - Ground floor
Lana and Katriin exit the building safely and breath the fresh air of the
night. Katriin is still on shock, but Lana needs to speak with her. She tells
her about the Siddha order, and tries to persuade her saying that if she joins
them she would be more secure and that she would have bodyguards if she wants
to. Katriin accepts. Persuasion check OK +10 order points
Persuasion skill roll-up fail
Back in the Omphalos
Lana reports back to her sumbae, Ja-Ok, and she is very pleased with the results. She hands Katriin over and a doctor is quickly called.
Mission recap
- +300 favour (double) with the Siddha
- Got a magic relic: Warding chalk
- Got an Alchemical treatise and a Grimoire
- Mission reward: 500ø
- Loot (half price
Appraisal check fail): 1200ø
I really like how thematic it went, this was a very satisfying run!