The scientist’s abduction
The following events take place in Pax Artificium on Luna.
Rudolf Bernstein, the scientist who was abducted, worked for StratCo. Once he notified them of his breakthrough, they arranged for his abduction to keep him from ever revealing the results of his research to anyone. But they can’t kill him, or else Divination will work on the knowledge (from the Caretaker). So he’s locked in a padded cell somewhere, warded against Divination.
They hired someone to do the job – Jasmine de Vide – someone that couldn’t be traced back to them. Actually, Magitech Adana hired Jasmine to abduct the scientist. But it was StratCo who positioned her to be hired in the first place, and who somehow planted the idea in Magitech’s proverbial head to do so.
So, Jasmine is actually working for StratCo. Unfortunately for her, StratCo planned to kill her once they secured the scientist. She was unhappy with this situation, and fled. Magitech also wants her punished for betraying them, so she done fucked up by taking this job, and for agreeing to be a double agent.
She will ask the party for assistance at some point, and possibly be a valuable source of information. At first, however, she will aggressively avoid contact with them, and possibly even try to cause them harm, thinking they were sent by either StratCo or Magitech to kill her.
In actuality, StratCo really does want her dead (her job is finished), but Magitech, once they learned the nature of her betrayal, is only pretending to want her dead, and is actually putting just enough pressure on her to push her in the desired direction. Maybe they want to involve some of the PCs somehow, for a certain reason. Or maybe Jasmine involves them to help rescue Bernstein and find Moss.
Jasmine is immune to Divination, which is why she became a spy. (Why?)
Adana and Evan believe that Moss has gone crazy (which he has, a little). He’s been using dangerous levels of Forterol to enhance himself, and concentrating on his latest project with no regard for his own safety or health – a project that Adana and Evan believe threatens them somehow. They decide there is no other choice but to eliminate him, and are using Jasmine to convince the party to find Moss.
StratCo is ripe to fall into the Syndicate’s grasp. The Syndicate is interested in the necrophage technologies.
StratCo scientists (some necrophages) dissected Zee and were able to glean some important techniques from his brain (there will be evil Zee clones or something even more disturbing later in the campaign).
Magitech still resists the Syndicate’s attempts to control it, although there are spies.
Ian Thorpe
Bernstein is one of Thorpe’s clients. Thorpe is on his way to his weekly meeting with Bernstein. Unbeknownst to Thorpe, Bernstein’s breakthrough was aided by Thorpe’s drug; Bernstein convinced Thorpe to give him an extra dosage each week, and only visit every other week.
Ariona
A geneticist and mystic, so she will care about the breakthrough. Dr. Bernstein was a colleague of hers, and he contacts her shortly before he is abducted, asking to meet with her immediately.
The ghost
When McLean had Garibaldi killed, he tried to give Vittorio’s soul over to the Caretaker. Somehow, Vittorio avoided being taken, and instead ran.
He hears the sound of a plasma weapon firing, and feels a searing pain in his back. He knows he is dying. He feels his soul leave his body, and begin to float. Then he feels himself being grabbed by a tentacle, and pulled towards a gaping maw. He feels that he cannot allow this to happen, or he’ll never see justice done, to correct the wrong done to him, and prevent catastrophe.
The concentration of the Divine Manifestations draws Vittorio’s soul near, where he reforms as a ghost (next to Brice and Nikolas). He couldn’t form next to Jasmine and Nikolas, because together they didn’t represent both Grammar and Calculus (both necessary for the complete ghost breakfast you see here!).
Brice
Opposite to Jasmine de Vide – she might bring him in due to the "opposites attract" or destiny theory of bullshit.
Jasmine and Brice also feel Noun’s scream, but less powerfully than Nikolas does.
Brice is in his dorm room, probably online as usual. Whatever he is doing, he begins sensing more and more things standing out weirdly, indicating medical themes (injection, syringe, doctor, nurse, virus, innoculation, etc.). Then he begins to hurt himself – bonking his head, cutting himself, etc. After falling down and hurting his leg, he has to go to the clinic. He can call for a car to take him there (it’s less than two miles from his residence).
The car weirdly stops behind his clinic (the usual one he goes to for his monthly checkups, although today is not yet time for his checkup this month), instead of in front like usual. Before he can walk around to the front, a woman bursts out one of the "medical personnel only" doors, closely followed by two large, cybernetic guards brandishing plasma pistols. "Stop!" they shout, then fire at her indiscriminately.
She puts up an entropic shield to deflect the bullets, and Brice senses this. He has never been able to sense anyone else’s magical abilities before, but he very clearly sees the outline of the shield crackling around her. If he manifests any powers, she will also stare at him incredulously (obviously sensing him as well and being just as surprised).
The other PCs will be monitoring this confrontation (they arrived just prior to Jasmine’s hasty retreat), and will probably interfere. After the ugliness, we should hopefully be left with the PCs and Jasmine without any pesky guards trying to kill them. If Jasmine manages to run away, Brice can track her by running her facial recognition, hacking into the system and obtaining her ID number, and tracking her via the GPS.
Don’t forget that shortly after Brice and Nikolas meet (maybe even still during combat, or shortly thereafter), the ghost forms next to them.
Meechum
Meechum is easy to get involved; the scientist basically discovered how to accomplish what Devon was trying to accomplish. His work paved the way for Dr. Bernstein’s. Berstein calls him to tell him the good news, hoping it might help Devon to regain his wholeness. This call, unlike the one to Ariona, is made after Bernstein called StratCo. So Meechum is actually watching while the Bernstein’s abduction begins, and thus knows something is amiss.
If Meechum bites, great. If not, the others will probably find out that Bernstein called someone just before disappearing. They can analyze the logs and discover that it was Devon Merrideth. Either way, he is connected to the events and able to be drawn in.
Nikolas
He is on Percepi, and feels the Destroyer echoes in his mind as Percepi is taken. He also hears [Noun’s]((char-private-lucas) scream, since they are linked as Divine counterparts. He is taken into the Void, which seems familiar to him. Nikolas feels the power to enter or leave the Void as desired; eventually, he leaves, traveling from noplace to someplace – to the most resonant location, next to one of the two Divine Calculus counterparts (the other of which is currently divided) – next to the Divine Operator, Jasmine de Vide.
This happens while Jasmine is abducting Bernstein. She shoots Nikolas to disable him, and runs off. When he comes to, Nikolas is surrounded by others (Ian, Ariona and Meechum).
Once Brice shows up, Vittorio is formed there, at the intersection of the two (Brice & Nikolas). He can feel himself grow stronger whenever he is near a Divine Manifestation, and feel himself starting to unravel when far from them.
Party united
Once they are united, they can track Jasmine’s location.
Though Nikolas can sense her general direction as long as she is within his sphere of influence (only a meager 10 feet right now), but that’s probably not too useful yet. However, he may be able to sense her from farther away under special circumstances (plot devicium).
Bernstein was cut during the abduction, and left some blood. Thorpe can analyze the nanites present and see what Bernstein saw. Nikolas also saw her face. Too bad Brice isn’t there to track her neural implant to discover her location.
So how are they going to track Jasmine to the clinic? Some readings from the Pax Artificium sensor network (the equivalent of high-resolution satellite images) are made available to the public online – they could use those, if any of them besides Brice have any decent Computer Use.
Anyway, they encounter Jasmine running out of the facility, being chased by three scary-looking cyborg guards (very dangerous).
Jasmine gets away through a stroke of luck, but the party observes her escape and can follow her. If they do, she tries to kill them at first, but they can talk her down. Actually, this confrontation is more complex (see the Brice section above).
If they tell her what they know, they convince her to explain what’s going on. She tells them about the job gone sour, and that she overheard one of her employers mention room 101. Bernstein might be inside in that room, she thinks. Jasmine wants to rescue him, and suggests they could help her right now to do so, before it’s too late.
They stealth their way into the building, and to room 101. It is on the first basement level. Inside, they find not Bernstein, but Zee, strapped to a table. His head is bald, with dozens of scars and three sets of stitches. He looks hollow and emaciated. He seems unconscious but thrashes about and moans as though having a nightmare. Hopefully, they wake him and rescue him.
Their presence could be discovered at this point, or else they don’t know where else to look. However, Bernstein’s phone records (from the video phone in his lab computer) showed calls to Ariona, then StratCo, then third ID number with no name, then to Meechum. The third number Ian recognizes as that of William Moss (he does not list his name in the online database, since he is trying to stay away from the public and from enemies).
Ian knows Moss’s current location (he is treating him with his mystic treatments as of now), so he could lead them to Moss. If this option is discussed, then Jasmine pushes for it, because if Moss and StratCo were both funding Bernstein’s research, then Moss probably would almost certainly be willing to help discover what happened to Bernstein and his extraordinary results.
Ian leads them into Luna’s Great Forest, where he awkwardly reaches for two knots on a tree that looks much like any other. A portal appears in the tree, which leads to Moss’s private sanctum.
Though Moss seems keen to help them, his creepy mannerisms indicate that he may have gone a bit bonkers – he is no longer the man he was 200 years ago. Everlily Nyx doesn’t seem to be around. Also, one of Evan and Adana’s daughters, Astarte (who together with her sister Anat are named for Seth’s wives in Egyptian mythology) invisibly followed them through the portal. A poisoned dart appears in Moss’s neck and he slumps to the ground.