Remember that down time the party got at the end of last session? A lot of people did a lot of secret stuff during that time. Some people did things that were only kind of secret.
Deblin Gaddelsmocks, a crazy reporter, contacts Ariona Cassyon shortly into the week with a great deal of questions about the disappearance of her boss. Ariona attempts to help her, and reluctantly agrees to be named in the story. She also agrees to “talk to someone who may be able to get ahold of Jasmine,” who is ultimately uninterested in talking to any reporters.
The next day, Saturday, Gaddelsmocks’ article is published widely. It explains that Magitech has been implicated in the abduction of a prominent scientist, one Rudolph Bernstein, and is complete with her crackpot theory that Magitech and StratCo are now being run together. The theory goes that since Evan Cassenti and Adana Cassenti were William Moss’ hand-picked successors to run Magitech when he stepped down in 2125, and the two later went through a messy divorce which was followed by Evan’s resignation from Magitech and subsequent hiring and eventual promotion to head of StratCo, that they must actually still be running things together.
However, the Magitech/StratCo/Bernstein article is overshadowed almost completely by a much more major breaking news story. Anyone paying any attention at all to the news sees that Mercury has just taken off, apparently rocketing straight for the sun. At this point, the U.N. admits that two months ago Mercury was consumed by a substance known as “the Grey Goo,” a type of nanite that reproduces itself ad infinitum. This Goo was accidentally created by Adam McLean, a scientist working for Mercabah Technologies, who was killed along with everyone else on Mercury when the Grey Goo took over. But everything is okay now, ‘cause all the nanites will be burned up and won’t be able to get anyone else, ever!
On Sunday, Magitech releases a press statement denying any involvement in the abduction of Rudolph Bernstein. Jasmine deVide once worked for them, as a contractor, but that contract had already been terminated prior to this incident.
On Monday, StratCo issues a press release that reeks much more of bullshit. It reads: “Bernstein is currently in our custody. We were protecting him from corporate spies. . . . The `abduction’ was a publicity stunt. . . . It is unfortunate that Magitech has received the focus in this, as they are completely unrelated to this event. . . . Bernstein is still refining what he’s found, but we intend to have products on the shelf within 6 months to allow non-Mystics to reengineer themselves with that capability.”
On Tuesday, an article breaks that Deblin Gaddelsmocks was implicated in evidence-planting in regards to the StratCo/Magitech news story. She was fired from her job, and the managing editor responsible for checking out her information also resigned from his position.
Back to more personal news, Ariona and Nikolai do some interplanetary visiting, after talking the ghost into following Bryce around for a while. Bryce also tries to ditch the ghost to go on a date with Jasmine, but is somewhat less successful. He hops on the “plane” and follows Bryce to France. (The date, however, seems to go pretty well.)
Meechum and Ian Thorpe keep to themselves over that first week, sequestering themselves from the public eye. Meechum does lots of research and computer calculations on Bernstein’s findings, and Thorpe does lots of mysterious, secret things.
So, now it’s Tuesday, specifically the 13th of June, 2299. William Moss contacts Ariona and Thorpe, requesting that they gather everyone up “who was involved in the incident” and return with them to his tree. So Ariona, Thorpe, Nikolai, Meechum, Bryce, and the ghost return to the forest, and head to the special tree. When they go inside, they see an unconscious man on the floor, a creepy droid, a metal hand, and Moss arguing with someone on an archaic video-phone, but no Zee.
The old man on the phone tells Moss that he doesn’t want any part of what’s going on, that Moss has a nasty feud going on, and that Moss shouldn’t ask the old man’s wife for help, either, because she’ll just play both sides. At this point, the ghost stares at the unconscious man, yells, “You bastard!” and gathers his energies to attack.
Ariona yells, “What are you doing?!” Nikolai shouts, “Hey! What’d he ever do to you?” The creepy droid states, “Anonymous aggressor: please stop.” Meechum cowers; Bryce cowers; Thorpe does nothing. Moss says, “Uhh – Gerald, I – uh – have to go; my company has arrived.” He then turns to the ghost and says, “What are you doing?! Can’t we all behave like rational animals?!” and waves his hands.
The ghost grates out, “He killed me. He shot me in the back.” Moss appears inquisitive, but the ghost remembers little else. Moss delicately suggests that he wait, then, until the man wakes up, and ask then why he killed him. Moss tells the ghost that he cannot allow him to kill the man within Moss’s sanctum; the ghost agrees that he can respect that, and everyone releases a bit of (or a lot of) tension.
Moss haltingly explains that Bryant (the man on the floor) was supposed to find this metal hand, and then tries to figure out who the droid is. The droid replies, “I am DEE. I was hired by Mr. Bryant to transport him to the object you hold.” The droid further explains that his contract has not been fulfilled, as he has not been paid. He requests that the ghost refrain from killing Bryant until he has been paid, and the ghost offers to pay the droid instead if necessary. The droid agrees that that would be acceptable.
Moss explains that he is looking for people to aid him in breaking into Magitech, with whom he’s had something of a falling-out, in retrieving something of vital importance to the universe. There is a body there, believed to be one of the first humans, and Moss wants it. His old friends won’t help. So, since the party seems to be trustworthy sorts, Moss would like to enlist their help. He is working on a project for the Caretaker.
The body is that of Cain, who was the first to be touched by Emmanuel. He is tainted with the seed of undeath, and therefore, though he is not alive, he cannot be destroyed. Also, all of the “tainted creatures” of the earth are desceded from Cain: the vampires, ghouls, poltergeists and zombies. Moss believes that if Cain can be “cleansed,” he can be used to save the world.
Moss claims that the Caretaker says that a great threat is coming our way, and that one by one all of our worlds will be destroyed. The Caretaker is building a great machine, and he wishes for Cain to be the center of it.
The metal hand comes into things when Moss came across Bryant unconscious in the woods, with the hand. Zee had been accompanying him, and disappeared at that point in a shower of sparks. Moss has no idea where he went, and he hasn’t tried to contact anyone since. The hand is actually Cain’s hand, encased in some sort of metal, but it’s unstable, according to DEE.
Moss gives the party a brass skeleton key, which he explains will mask the bearer from mystic detection, if they invest it with some small energy of their own. Ariona asks to look at it, then smiles oddly and tosses it back to Moss. Moss ducks, and the ghost stops the key in midair. It is then floated over to Thorpe. This sparks a discussion of mystic energy (which is needed for the key) and psychic energy. Ariona points out that psychics are not normally detected by mystic scanners, however, but Moss returns that Magitech’s sensors will be much more sophisticated than “normal.” The ghost is apparently a psychic, as is Nikolai, but Meechum says, “What’s a psychic?” Ariona then points out that this proves her point, that most people don’t know about psychics.
The ghost and Ariona explain that psychics draw their energy from inside themselves, though the effects are similar to mystic magic. Psychic powers need training, however. The ghost then ponders how he got training. Ariona suggests that maybe it was family connections, and the ghost has a flash of memory that this was the case.
A bunch more tentative ideas for the break-in are thrown around, and Nikolai mentions that he should probably talk to his dad, as he broke into Magitech once. Moss says, “And WHO is your dad?” Nikolai replies, “Oh, a guy.”
Moss reveals that Cain is probably being held on B7, which is not on any blueprint or security camera, because those could be compromised. Officially, the bottom floor is B5. Moss has no idea how to get down there anymore, and comments bitterly that for all he knows, you have to be an elf to get access to B6 and B7. This sparks a long conversation about elves, and WTF? Ariona says she can get some elven DNA to attempt to fool any DNA scanners looking for elven blood, and Moss states that the key would disable any purely mystic attempts to scan for elves.
Bryce decides to work some technical wizardry on the computer system for Magitech, and manages to actually get into the system. He sets up a new employee identity in the supposedly-impenetrable computer system and sets the groundwork for inviting “guests” later in the week.
Nikolai and Ariona both have errands to run; Nikolai mentions that he needs to go home and Ariona has to take care of that elven DNA thing. This will take them each a couple of days; they plan to meet up again on the 15th, Thursday, to do this thing. Ariona says to Nikolai that they’ll need to compare notes beforehand, and Nikolai agrees.
It is now Thursday. Ariona and Nikolai get back together to talk about what they want to do, and then meet up with everyone else on DEE’s ship. Nikolai points out that, well, Moss is crazy. Also, they really might not want to let this guy out, if he’s the root of all evil. Ariona points out that they really ought to talk to someone else, either the Caretaker himself or the elves, to determine more of the rest of the story. Just taking Moss on faith seems like a poor idea.
The plan as decided upon is as follows: since the ghost doesn’t trust the Royals, and Nikolai and Ariona don’t trust Moss, they have agreed upon Gaia’s Order as their conduit to the Caretaker. They will travel in DEE’s ship to Earth, where they will attempt to find someone connected with the Order, probably in the forest near Xanadu. Then they will attempt to convince the Order to let them talk to the Caretaker. This will, hopefully, help them to determine whether or not Moss is actually relating the Caretaker’s desires to the party. Once they find this out, they can decide what to do from there.